The first Legacy, launched in 1991, was a 40-footer, based on a 39-foot semi-custom Downeast cruiser built by Canadian master builder Mark Bruckman to a design by Mark Ellis. Paul Petronello, president of sailboat builder Freedom Yachts, visited Bruckman’s yard with Roe O’Brien, Freedom’s marketing and sales vice-president, purchased the tooling, and Freedom’s new powerboat division, Legacy Yachts, was underway.
The first Legacy 34, also a Mark Ellis design, was built in 1994 at the Freedom yard in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Petronello recalled that they only built five of the 34-footers as sedans, three with single diesel engines before twin-diesel boats came into demand.
The company offered three diesel engine options from Yanmar, Cummins and Volvo-Penta. “Roughly 60 percent were ordered as twins,” Petronello said. One owner with twin Yanmars found his boat’s top speed to be 22 knots. Top speed with a single diesel was approximately 16 knots. All of the Legacy 34 Express models carried 250 gallons of fuel and 94 gallons of water.
The express models could be ordered either with a canvas top or a fiberglass hardtop, while a sedan version offered an aft cabin bulkhead with a door leading to the cockpit.
Ellis gave the 34 Express all the hallmarks of a seakindly vessel, starting with a nicely flared bow, a gently curved yet sharp stem, a modest keel with a 3’6” draft at the stern to protect the running gear, and clean semi-planing lines just abaft of amidships. He gave the hull 17 degrees of deadrise at the transom, plus one of his trademarks: wide chine flats aft, to help minimize excessive roll underway.
Topsides, the 34 got wide side decks so you could walk forward or aft without contorting your body. Ellis also gave the sheer a beautiful spring, which ensured good runoff from the foredeck and the top of the low-profile cabin trunk.
From the bridgedeck, centerline companionway stairs led down to a salon with a settee, either port or starboard, opposite a compact galley. A single head compartment with separate shower stall was placed just aft of the forward cabin and berth. Mahogany bulkheads and white formica countertop surfaces, and a teak-and-holly sole, were typical.
Two steps down from the bridgedeck, the cockpit got high bulwarks on three sides for safety, a built-in bench seat facing aft and plenty of room for fishing gear, a cooler, and a couple of folding chairs.
The 34 was built with a fully cored hull and deck, hand-laid until the company began resin infusion building in 2000. “By the time we closed the company,” Petronello said, “we had produced about 100 hulls.”
January 2025
