Publications and Reviews

On Sunday 21 June, long time sailing friends John Ball (JB), skipper, and Doug Kemp were delivering John’s Cavalier 36 Camellia to Fiji, a trip John and the boat had done many times before.

Doug: The day started with SE 40kts and big seas. JB found water in the bow compartment. Shit. Full-on bailing with hand bilge pump in trying conditions: 100% effort. We found the water had been spurting in under pressure through a tiny wire hole from the anchor well.

Seas were now huge. We were broad-reaching towards Suva, down and across the waves: awe inspiring. Wind 50 to 60 knots; it was blowing the tops off the water. We dropped the double-reefed main then the tiny outer spitfire jib. We had just a little bit of roller furler out but when I was grinding the furler line in I hadn’t realised the line had come off the pulley and wedged in the cheek block, so the sail is baggy about two-thirds of the way up. It had been flogging the rig but now it has disintegrated. The rig’s well supported. The inner forestay and runners, winched on tight, all meet at the same point on the mast so the rig was triangulated really firmly.

We went into the night with only a storm jib on the inner forestay. We were getting green water over the boat with some filling the cockpit: big, breaking seas that we can hear and feel but only see when we’re surfing in foam. The storm shutters are in place and the hatches are clipped down.

At 0930pm it was pitch black, JB was off watch. I am on a short harness clipped to a low point in the cockpit. I could feel I was going down a huge wave which made us heel to about 45 degrees and I could hear the breaking seas. The huge weight of water came down on top of me.

The boat kept going in slow motion. I was standing on the side of the cockpit coaming which was supposed to be vertical. The lights from the cockpit instruments glowed under the water. Then the boat kept going over. There was no panic, just: ‘Here we go. This is going to be interesting.’

Underwater it was surprisingly warm. And silent.

John: I am just getting up to relieve Doug. Camellia is sliding sideways then quite gently rolls over to port onto her side, then onto her cabin top. There’s a huge noise inside as the contents of the fridge, books and floorboards all dance around the cabin. I have time to slowly move onto the cabin sides then onto the ceiling. Small pause, then all the crashing and creaking sounds as she rights herself, swings to about 60 degrees to starboard then whiplashes back to upright.

I call out for Doug and he says he is fine. We have a few buckets of water through roof vents and clothes, plates, books, food and bedding are sloshing in the bilge. I check the water to make sure it isn’t increasing, then go up deck.

Went for the torch, but all horizontal surfaces were cleared clean, and even the places where things drop into, such as glasses and torches, were all empty.

Doug: Then she snapped back. I was in mid-air, being pulled backwards. I landed on my back on the cockpit seat but the boat kept going and I nearly went over the side the other way, then fell back into the cockpit as she came upright.

I was clipped on and my right hand was holding a coil of rope around the starboard primary winch. I never let go. I got to my feet and pushed the mangled dodger out clear of the hatch to see if John was alright. He was fine and only worried about me. Just as well we had the washboards in and the hatch closed.

I grabbed the helm and got us on course straight downwind. JB clipped on and came up on deck. He asked me to head downwind while he did a damage assessment. The storm jib was snaking in the wind, ripped off its hanks and only held by the halyard and jib sheets. One stanchion was snapped and the lee cloth was flapping loose. The solar panel was gone but we still had a mast.

I looked back at the eerie sight of one of the horseshoe liferings, its danlight illuminating the water around it, slowly moving away. The other one was dragging behind the boat but its lanyard has wrapped around the radar arch.

We got the shattered storm jib down and had a bit of tidy up. The wind was still screaming at 50 to 60 knots and we were flying down huge waves in surf. After taking stock, we got the storm trysail up on deck and hoisted it, which gave us boat speed and control and got us back on course. It was now 11pm. We had a long, cold night on deck, giving each other short spells on the helm, and I was grateful for my Gill wet weather gear. We had no engine and therefore no autopilot as waves flooded the exhaust the day before.

The wind eased at dawn so we dropped the trysail and went to double-reefed main then a single reef then full main by midday. Rounding up into the wind to get the main up each time was pretty interesting in those swells.

We sailed the rest of the day in sunshine, 25 knots and swells that were still huge but not breaking. Early afternoon we spotted Kandavu and a couple of hours later pulled into the shelter of a bay to try and get the headsail sorted out. JB went up the mast but he couldn’t get the sail off so we unfurled it and sailed with the top half flapping in the breeze and the bottom half working. We radio’d ahead to book a berth in Vuda Point Marina near Lautoka, as JB thought it would be easier to get repairs done there than in Suva. We sailed on through the night looking at the stars and listening to the amazing voices that sleep deprivation brings. This really blew me away as they were so real. We reached Navula Passage at 6am and tacked through the reef against the tide with our broken jib.

At 10am we got a tow into the marina. A bunch of yachties were standing around as word had got spread that we’d been rolled. They organised a few beers for us, once we got the formalities out of the way.

The Cavalier 36 was designed as a pure blooded offshore racer. Its swept-deck profile is clean, simple, sleek and uncluttered, showing influence of an ultimate racing machine. The performance of the 36 is well known, especially downwind but with also excellent reaching and on-the-wind characteristics. The yacht is designed as an uncomplicated machine to be easily sailed and handled without the necessity of expensive and complicated gear.

This Doug Peterson design swept the field in the 1974 One Ton Cup taking 1st, 3rd and 5th placings in a competitive and world class entry of 30 boats. Although the yacht is world renowned as a racing machine it is also within the reach of a cruising man with no comfort sacrificed for performance. Construction is GRP with balsa sandwich core which is very strong in its makeup to withstand the rigours of ocean racing or cruising. Even the keel is held in place with seven high tensile monel keel bolts. The stainless steel chainplates are integrally moulded into the hull and deck.

The window surrounds, water tanks, pushpit, pulpit and chainplates are all fabricated from marine grade stainless steel. Skin fittings, gate valves, Wilkie 2 speed winches, cleats, bollard and fairlead are all bronze.

The Cavalier 36 has a sloop rig and comes complete with a full set of Hood competition sails.

Ten point nine metres overall in length the 36 has a waterline length of 9.1 metres and a maximum beam of 3.5 metres, making it a very spacoius 36 footer, without inhibiting the hulls excellent performance. Perhaps the most popular of all the Cavalier range the 36 is well equipped as a cruising yacht and a racer. There are seven berths, including a navagators quarter berth. The twin forward berths provide sleeping for two crew and there is storage shelves above as well as below the covered squabs.

A head and basin are on the port side in a separate compartment, with a hanging locker to Starboard. Two pilot berths and two settees berths take up the main saloon, with a removable fold away dining table. A chart table to starboard is well placed for passing necessary directional instructions to the skipper up top-side in the cockpit. Opposite is the well equipped galley. Throughout the aft area of the main saloon there is full headroom. All interior woodwork is either teak or mahogany and finish is excellent. For an auxiliary the Cavalier 36 comes fitted with a 20hp marine diesel engine with flexible mountings, folding two-blade propeller and remote controls.

The 36 is one of the nicest looking keel yachts on the harbour and the popularity of sales is partially evident to that.