Dufour 36 Classic

 

We were sailing in water surrounded by steep and tall hills, which masked the onset of the NW front. And we weren't vigilant enough because we had chosen to believe the forecast, which was for a SW front later in the day.

The new breeze hit, then instantly began moving up and down the scale from 10 to 30 knots and back again. Down one stretch of the bay it was complicating the issue by oscillating through 60 degrees. In the gusts the Classic got the lee gunwale down but declined the invitation to broach and always answered her helm. We should have furled the genoa and waited out the front, but there was no time. One crewman was below, one was on the helm and one (me) taking pictures.

The skipper tried to go with a 60-degree lift and pushed the nose up to accommodate it but the lift stopped a bit short. Now we had the headsail aback, the classic situation for a broach-tack, but the Classic 36 continued to answer the helm and as the helm was put down the bow came back through the eye of the wind easily.

This is what I mean about the best of test sails. In 10 minutes we had learned all we needed to know about the Classic 36's smooth-water performance. To learn about a yacht's offshore performance requires more time than we can give these outings. While hanging on with my teeth I scribbled down a few boatspeed readings.

read on below advertisement



The Classic was doing 6.5 knots in 23 knots of wind, on the wind. Then 6.7 knots in 30 knots at 35 degrees, 6.4 knots in 14 knots at 40 degrees and a peak of 7.8 knots with 27 knots of wind at 120 degrees. I am not suggesting these are definitive figures - wind speed was varying so much that momentum was influencing boatspeed through the lulls, denying a true reading. But they are good figures for a moderate cruiser/racer hull with a waterline length of 9.18m displacing around six tonnes and dragging a fixed-blade prop.

There's a lot of room down below. The master cabin is in the bow and guest cabin aft on the port side. The navigation table and dinette are to port, the galley and bathroom to starboard. This galley is, to use my own terminology, of "linear" layout, with stove, fridge and benchtop set more or less in a line down the hull side. The cook can brace against the substantial dinette seat back, but there is nowhere to brace against the boat's pitching motion, which may or may not be a problem.

The captain's cabin in the bow has an upholstered seat which, as I have mentioned before, makes it easy to put on your socks, an important detail when you're living aboard. The cupboard is divided to provide both shelves and a hanging space. There's a recess for books and shelving right around the cabin, both sides and on the bulkhead. The guest double aft cabin has a small hanging locker and extensive shelving. The bathroom has the shower head on a retractable flexible cable. Just ahead of the bathroom is a large hanging locker.

next page »



« go back