Steven,
We LOVE ours! Disclaimer; don't get too excited (yet) we're not lifelong sailors.
You said that you had not seen any owner reviews, but I assume that you have seen
this one from Cruising World... I would say that we agree with just about everything that was written. Our 2014 has a traditional main. We've owned it for just about enough time now to begin customizing it for ourselves.
The first boat that we owned was a 1990 First 285. We loved the way that it sailed for us in the south Puget Sound. We took it on a three week cruise to the San Juans, and while we thought it was roomy enough, we also thought we'd like something a little larger. We did think, after a couple of encounters with opposing currents and wind, container ship wakes, etc., that we'd like something a little bit more stable. Our 34 is palatial when compared to the 285. It is very stable. It sails incredibly well, and is easy to sail for two intermediate sailors. Our longest cruise on our 34 has been the same 3 weeks, and we would have been perfectly happy to just keep going. We have a cruise planned for next summer which has a start date, but no particular end date.
The one shortcoming that we noticed, was that at double the displacement of the 285, it was not easy for us to get the boat moving under sail in light wind. We addressed that issue by adding a code zero the season before last. Our boat came with a spinnaker, but we find the code zero to be more convenient and more versatile.
The boat cruises easily under power. Four knots is almost effortless, we typically motor at about 5.5 knots at about 2600 - 2800 RPMs (from memory...). In our area, we can plan for a favorable current and maximize SOG to our next destination. Our fuel capacity is 34 gal., and at our typical consumption rate, that gives us a range of about 48 hours or about 260 NM.
Our propane locker has room for two 5 lb. tanks, that lasts us just short of forever... We have two fresh water tanks (one 34 gal., one at least 24 gal., may also be 34 gal.).
When we were looking, we skipped the Oceanis 31. It just seemed like a stretched version of what we already had. We looked at a First 36.7 (intimidated us, from our starting point of the 285), and a First 33.7 (which we really liked, but they were pretty rare on the west coast).
In the end, we love our decision with the Oceanis 34. It has never been intimidating for us to sail, and it has easily handled everything that we have asked it to.
