Cruise control

By ROBIN BAILEY

Boat design is all about compromise. Lots of different equations contribute to the challenges that need to be overcome no matter whether the finished craft is to be powered or wind-driven. With yachts, particularly smallish family yachts that can be both cruised and sailed, the problems compound. A degree of comfort and stability is a must, but the yacht also needs to perform well.

One designer who has built a solid reputation for successfully tackling this problem is Alan Wright. And the yacht that perhaps best qualifies as an excellent cruiser/racer is the Marauder, designed by Wright in 1976. Since then, around 200 have been built, many from plans bought from the designer, some professionally built in wood, with the majority being production yachts in GRP.

The yacht came after a series of Wright cruising/racing yachts like Variant, Nova, Tasman 20, Tracker, Lotus and Pacer. New clients wanted fractional rigs, lighter displacement and more room inside. The designer's answer was the Marauder 8.4. It has a seven-eighths fractional rig, wide stern, excellent interior space and a huge cockpit.

The seven-eighths rig has a substantial spar, while the mast can be tuned with the backstay for upwind work in stronger winds, it is not a lightweight bendy rig.

With a beam of 3.08m the boat is pretty stiff, while the relatively light displacement gives it a buoyant sailing motion. Performance in heavy weather is excellent, with the yacht able to carry its full mainsail into the upper wind limits before having to reef down.

Layout varies with the boat because so many were finished off at home, but most have the standard New Zealand cruiser/racer layout with heads forward and twin quarter berths. The Marauder became a victim of the 1987 double-whammy of the sharemarket crash and the Muldoon tax that caused almost all production yacht building to cease in New Zealand.

The yacht was designed with offshore capability, provided it was built to the design specs and complied with Category 1, which it does with only minor modifications. Bob Wise completed the single-handed Transtasman race twice in Wisecrack, in 1990 and 1998. Kerrin Muir and Ruth Whall completed a three-year circumnavigation in Kid Charlmain with no problems.

The class has survived thanks to an active owners' association, a regular magazine Marauder Mainsheet, and an active policy of recruiting new owners. Every time a Marauder changes hands through a broker the association provides a package of material about the class and the club to encourage the new owner to join the "family". It is a pretty informal note written by association secretary Ivan Berry.

He explains that many of the members race actively with their own clubs and others prefer mainly summer family cruising. Biggest event on the class sailing calendar is the annual Marauder World Nationals, held last weekend out of Pine Harbour.

Says Berry: "We had 17 boats competing in two divisions to give those owners who usually cruised the opportunity to try racing. Because Race 1 on Saturday started in 20 knots of wind and the breeze was up to 25 knots for the second race there was lots of exciting sailing.

"By the time race four was sailed on Saturday the waves were two metres and getting bigger and the wind was over 30 knots. Two boats blew out spinnakers, one bent a spinnaker pole and two boats lost crew [momentarily] overboard. To watch Marauders surfing downwind in these conditions with spinnaker or poled-out jib was fascinating stuff and we had some very close racing."

In Division 1, Scenario was top boat, winning the Barry Olliffe Trophy, with Touch of Glass second and Bays Flyer third. Division 2: Eyelure 1, Blue Sapphire 2 and Confederate 3.

* Sailors interested in the Marauder can call Ivan Berry on (09) 817 5031 or association president John Langford on (09) 480 7662.