Crowther Buccaneer 37

Hi I’m going to view (and hopefully purchase) a 1997 Crowther Buccaneer 37 (36) this weekend. However, I am finding it very difficult to find any information online about this particular model and could use some advice as to what to watch out for. Are there any common issues I should be extra wary of? Are there any Buccaneer 33 or 28 owners out there who considered building a 36 and are much wiser than me? Has anybody sailed a 36 and what did you think? I’m very confident in crowther designs in general, but I’m just having a hard time finding any details about this one specifically.

Thanks for the help!

 

Welcome to the Forum Wattser.

Did you see this advert for a 37 for sale in Australia?
Crowther Buccanner 37 Trimaran https://m.nautilusyachtmanagement.com/listing/crowther-buccanner-37-trimaran/
Lots of large photos of her are posted.

I did a search in the archives on this Forum (go to the 'Search' box in the top right corner) and I could not find much on the 37, but there is a lot on the smaller Buccaneers.

 

A long short answer. The Buccaneer 36. I have watched one being built and sailed one over 2000 open coastal miles on a delivery run. First the boat.

The tri is 36 x 26 foot with a weight of 8000 lbs and 45 foot E8150 mast (about 210 x 160 mm) carrying 900 square foot of sail. The design has a kickup centreboard and underslung spade rudder. The hulls are foam glass and if built back in the older days may have used Airex foam, 18 oz woven rovings, some CSM on ribs and polyester resin. The advantage of this boat was the cross arms were a single unit the full width of the boat. The crossarm structure was built independently and the attachment to bulkheads. The forward cross arms on a Bucc 36 has 12 mm ply forward web, 19 mm ply aft web, a top timber flange of 8 layers of 140 mm x 8 mm clear oregan, a bottom flange of 7 layers of 140 mm x 8 mm clear oregan. The rear beam is 9 mm ply forward web, 12 mm ply aft web, a top timber flange of 8 layers of 110 mm x 6 mm clear oregan, a bottom flange of 7 layers of 110 mm x 6 mm clear oregan. There are D shaped fwd wing frames on both beams. If well built these boats were very strong.

Second accommodation. The 36 has 2 wing berths, a dinette seat, galley in the main hull, the toilet forward in a separate space and a “double” forward and another double aft under the cockpit if there was no inboard diesel. Reality 3 guys could just live with each other for 2 weeks. This is an excellent tri for a couple with eg a kid.

Sailing capability. I have done a lot of miles in many multihulls. This tri sailed very well, It went upwind and downwind well, handled well. Peak speeds were 15 to 16 knots and capable of 8 to 10 knot averages. It is not an outright speed machine and we did not drive it hard but as a high performance cruiser it performed well. Light airs, it was very good especially upwind. Minimal pitching etc. One very annoying downside though, when steering upwind in light airs and sloppy seas the tri would flop from float to float. The float bottom was angled brilliantly to squeeze a splash of water into the face of the person steering in the cockpit. After being hit in the face a 100 plus times by a cup of water people started steering some very strange directions to stop the splashing.

If the boat is well maintained you will get a good tri second hand. Attached is a jpeg of a Bucc 36 and a layout plan of a Buccaneer 40 which has a very similar interior.

 

Wow thank you both so much. That is all very helpful.

 

Wattser is it the Bucaneer in San Diego? She looks nice!

 

Yep, I’m stepping aboard this Sunday. Wish me luck!

 

Different style Tri, but that Cross 36 that’s also for sale in SD is one of the nicer examples I’ve seen.

Good luck with the acquisition of the Crowther.

Hopefully the weather cooperates, although I understand they are expecting another week of storms with things already being pretty bad in a lot of areas.

YouTube has a few videos of 36’s. One is a fellow past Farrier Tramp owner who moved up to the Buc a few years ago now who said he was really enjoying the boat last time I asked. see first video link below.

And I would certainly give a lot of weight to the feedback and opinions OldMulti kindly shared.

 

Hi OldMulti

I hope you’re keeping well. I was wondering if you had a Buccaneer or Spindrift build manual in pdf that you could kindly consider to post on here. I’m currently scaling up my SR37 foam core plans by 1.15 like some French builders have done. I’ve also got a Catana 40s main bulkhead & cabin drawing which is very similar to the 226 . I don’t yet have the offsets for the asymmetrical hulls but I do have one drawing of a hull with several lines on it which I’m trying to work out. If I do build I may try to change the cabin top to a more modern streamlined single curve like on the TS5 55 cat the beam works for 2.30m standing height built in Airex 20mm not ply.

I have a good understanding of the hull & bulkhead modern layup to add huge strength & the main bulkheads would have basalt over 600 and glass & epoxy joints like Schionning do. I’m not ruling out Ed Horstman or Kurt Hughes designs as some good ones but I’m not seeking a huge leap in improvement.

many thanks for your help

Andrew

 

Andrew. Sorry I do not have any "build instructions" for a Buccaneer 36 or Spindrift series cats. The bigger the design the less likely Lock Crowther was to give full build instructions. He assumed you had skills to handle a build. Its good you are gathering information from various sources for the build but you are reaching a point that you need an experienced builder or designer to look over all the plan components and understand the modifications you want to do so an integrated solution can be done. Details can make or break a design and the build. EG Nigel Irens did an OMRA 60 foot tri with very stiff dense foam at the mainhull cross arm intersection. The fairings etc broke. What was required was a lighter more flexible foam. This was a very well engineered design. Please speak to a person who can review what you want with full details in front of you both.

 

Hi OldMulti

You’re a great help well I am steadily building up my knowledge I did contact my local university marine college the Professor or some of his Grads were interested in reviewing my plans but they are now broken up for Summer.

I have spotted something with my constant looking at Cats ! Christophe Barrew at ORC has an TS42 fast Cat which I have realised is an uncanny close design to Crowther minimalistic racing 226a design. It must be a coincidence . ORC has a different cabin roof that’s about it ; the saloon & below deck similar his TS 50 is same just scaled. Tiller but without that overhanging death seat , winches & old style hatches on deck all same. I checked all the dims & specs the numbers are same or work out the same when scaled from 226.

On the ORC the composite materials used ,infusion, bonding & extensive use of carbon are F1 level & the TS5 costs $800,000 . Strange that don’t you think.

So I’m thinking I have a brain I have similar plans in foam core I can scale 1.1 to build a 226 but with a simpler less wind age ORC style cabin roof keeping most of everything else the same but using much better H80 foam , 1150 s glass & internal 756, & west epoxy & better bonding techniques.

I’m going to make all my notes & sketches over summer then hope to have a meeting with Newcastle University in September. I don’t know any boat builders then closest to me are 100 miles away. & I think naval architects will not be interested in someone else’s design.

I’ve been reading my plans What I can’t work out yet is if this cat is strip planking foam or whole panel biscuit jointed , I suspect 20mm foam panels were just bent into position & nailed then epoxy bonded to stringers & bulkheads & other foam panels. I can do much better stronger bonding & glassing using Schionning methods. I need to find a useful modern composite boat building book for reference. I’m still clearing my small tipped overgrown quarry build site so plenty of time .

many thanks for your advice

Andrew