Hi
@Jonathan Hall
There are a couple of previous threads that addressed this question here:
On hull design - the hull is the same throughout the whole 336 range (Mk1 and Mk2). Some differences in weight have been observed between the Mk1 and Mk2 which is hypothesised to be related to the difference in fit out internally - discussed in this thread:
The cabin top has some small differences between Mk1 and Mk2 - namely the Mk2 has a slightly different window arrangement, with opening port lights in the heads and above the galley. The other major difference is the carpentry inside - the Mk1 has more storage built into the saloon, whereas the Mk2 had a more sparse fit out which feels a bit more open, but doesn't provide quite so much useful storage in the saloon or aft cabin.
The
S336 is a Mk2 336, but the S336 badging was used towards to the end of production years to describe a slightly upgraded line of 336s. It generally meant slightly higher spec winches, higher spec boom, possibly higher spec main sheet track.
However as far as I can tell it is not an absolute difference, and my Mk2 336 is
not badged as an S336 but
does have all of the upgraded hardware that is associated with an S336 (i.e. winches, boom, rod kicker). Therefore it is suspected that the S336 badging was mainly a marketing approach to accompany the S31 and S38 models. There is nothing documented in the Moody archives that really talks about the S336 so we don't know for sure!
Fundamentally, original buyers could specify the specs of the boats when they were ordered, so you really do just have to look at each boat to understand its own individual merits I think.
Hope that's helpful!