The Union Ship Company built her in Taiwan from 1974 to 1979, a short run. Before the first 34 was built, Hans Christian enlarged the design to a 36-footer without paying Perry royalties, by Perry’s account, and the Union 36 was later built from the moulds of that 36.
Her ballast is iron in a long keel, and her waterline is long for her length, which is what a heavy hull’s speed comes from.
She is racing the Golden Globe for the first time, as Gunnar Christensen’s Pompoen, a hull of 1978. The Hans Christian 34 is not among the designs the Notice of Race names, which include the Union 36 (J.1.2); she races as a design approved beyond that list.
One boat, one race, 62 days in: what the race has measured is thin, and this page fills as she sails.
Her one start: racing, 11th on day 62.
One started: racing now.
In 8 kt of wind and more, where she and the other designs have twenty legs or more each, her largest gain is on a broad reach in 8–12 kt, +5%, and her largest loss, on a close reach in 12–16 kt, −16%.
| Wind | upwind 0–60° | close reach 60–90° | reaching 90–130° | broad reach 130–160° | running 160–180° | Legs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | ||||||
| 80 | ||||||
| – | 89 | |||||
| – | 46 | |||||
| – | – | 40 | ||||
| – | – | – | – | 8 |
What the record and the figures support, point by point, and what they weigh against her.
Waterline 8.89 m on 10.36 m overall, 4th of 17 of the designs that have raced; hull speed 7.2 kt, 4th of 17.
Displacement 8,800 kg, 7th of 17; displacement to length 349, 11th of 17. “A deep boat with a big bilge”, in Practical Sailor’s words.
Main, Yankee and staysail, a rig Practical Sailor calls “exemplary when it comes time to shorten sail or heave to”; in its view she need not reef until well into 20 kt of wind.
Iron is lighter than lead for its bulk, so the same share of ballast sits higher in the keel. Her ballast is 37% of her displacement, 16th of 17.
34 built from 1974 to 1979. Hans Christian’s own plans and data were lost when the company moved from California to Annapolis, Practical Sailor found.
Sail area to displacement 15.0, 11th of 17. “All this weight … tends to make it a poor light-air sailer”, says Practical Sailor, and it needs a good 15 kt of wind to come near its hull speed.
Like for like against the other designs in the same wind and angle: −7%.
This is the design’s first start. Her boat is 11th on day 62.
- Practical Sailor, “Hans Christian 34/36” (Perry for Edwards, Union Ship Co., 1974 to 1979, the number built, the iron ballast, the rig, the enlarged 36 and the Union 36, the lost plans)
- The race’s skipper page for Gunnar Christensen, goldengloberace.com
- Soundings, “How to Prepare for the Golden Globe Race”, Mary South, 17 Jul 2026 (Pompoen built in 1978)
- Notice of Race 2026: J.1.2 (the approved designs)
- The figures: the race's skipper page (Gunnar Christensen), the years and number built with it (10.36 m, 8.89 m, 3.35 m, 1.78 m, 8,800 kg, 3,266 kg, 62.80 m²; 1974 to 1979, 34 built); Practical Sailor's review prints the same specification, the draft 5.83 ft (1.78 m).
What the figures mean. Waterline: the longer, the faster a heavy hull can go. Hull speed: 1.34 × √waterline in feet, the old rule of thumb. Displacement to length: above 300 is heavy; every design here is but the OE 32. Sail area to displacement: under 16 is under-canvassed by modern lights. The middle line is the median of the designs that have the figure: seventeen, or fewer where a source does not give it. Lengths are printed to the centimetre and areas to a tenth of a square metre, whatever the source’s own precision, and the ratios are worked from the figures as printed here.
How she is measured. Every 4-hour leg with a model wind on which the boat was moving (0.2 kt and more): this race’s since the start, and each boat’s whole race in 2018 and 2022, to her finish or her retirement (what a boat sailed after she retired is not counted). A leg’s wind is the model wind at its two ends, averaged as vectors, so its speed is that of the mean wind (a few legs of 2018 and 2022 carry the wind at one end only). The past races have no ocean current, so all three are measured alike: speed over the ground, and the wind’s angle off the course made good. Like for like sets each leg against the other designs’ legs of the same race in the same 3 kt of wind and 15° of angle; the heat map and the polar set her median in each wind and angle, over all her legs there, against the other designs’ medians in the races she sailed, each race weighted by her legs in it. Every figure is a median, and each measures the boat as she was sailed: the sailor, her sails and the state of her hull are in it, a hull under barnacles too. More on the Method page.