The Cav32 was the new company’s first model. At its peak in the 1970s, Cavalier Yachts became the largest manufacturing boatbuilder in Oceania.
Design and Racing Heritage
The design brief was deliberately dual-purpose: the Cav32 needed enough racing potential for inshore and offshore campaigns while still providing family-size cruising accommodations.
The boat lived up to that ambition. It competed successfully as an ocean racer under a half-tonne rating. Shortly after its launch, the rig was shortened to meet the half-tonne rule, with both mast and boom cut down.
Through the mid-1970s, the Cav32 recorded several victories in the class. A group of Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron skippers also campaigned the boats alongside the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron in Auckland and Sydney. Across three decades of one-design racing, the class never recorded a single protest.
Construction and Offshore Record
The hull is built from hand-laid fibreglass with end-grain balsa coring, making it a forerunner of cored fibreglass construction for its time. From the outside in, the layup begins with gel coat strengthened by 1oz mat, followed by 10oz cloth and two layers of 2oz mat. The balsa core is 19mm thick in the bilge and 13mm above the waterline, backed by a 2oz mat and a 24oz woven rove impact layer.
All deck fittings are wood-backed and glassed over. The hull-deck joint is epoxy bonded, fastened every six inches with Monel pop rivets and stainless bolts, then glassed to form a gusset as thick as the hull itself. Peter Smith’s early boats received particular attention to osmosis prevention.
Andrew Fagan’s account of Tingara’s 1975 delivery voyage gives a vivid measure of the structure. With Smith himself as skipper, the boat encountered sustained 100 mph winds and 120-knot gusts off Castlepoint. Running under bare poles, she was repeatedly breached and rolled, yet kept her rig in place and reached Wellington damp but intact.
Rig, Handling and Performance
The Cav32 earned a reputation for being fast, responsive, remarkably close-winded and quick to accelerate. Its fin keel provides splendid maneuverability, though it offers less directional stability than a long keel.
A 50-percent ballast ratio, heavy-displacement hull and modest wetted surface allow the boat to carry full canvas long after others must reef. When a gale arrives, she surges ahead rather than lying over and struggling to come up. She is swift off the wind, isn’t prone to broaching and performs well on every point of sail. Even in ghosting conditions, she carries her way.
The steering is finger-light, and the boat is well balanced and straightforward to handle. Its capsize screening value of 1.87 would qualify it for ocean racing on that measure alone. The ballast ratio is also higher than that of 90 percent of comparable designs, giving the boat very high resistance to heeling.
High rig tension is needed to preserve the Cav32’s close-winded performance. Some owners have over-tensioned their rigs, however, causing wear.
Accommodations
Period testers were struck by the spacious interior. It sleeps up to eight and provides 6 foot 1 of headroom. With a 9 foot 9 beam and 24 foot waterline, the Cav32 has a roomy, family-oriented cruising layout rather than the stripped interior of a pure racing boat.
That balance—a race-bred hull with a practical cruising cabin—is exactly what the original design brief sought to achieve.
Known Issues and Inspection Points
Because high rig tension is necessary for close-winded sailing—and some owners have used too much—wire terminals, rigging screws, chainplates and the mast should all be inspected carefully. The chainplate knees are well engineered but carry high loads and also deserve close examination.
Check the hull-to-bulkhead joints for movement, particularly around the main bulkhead. The rudder stock should be inspected for wear in the shaft keyway, as well as for play at the tiller. In seawater, certain bronze rudder stocks can lose zinc; a pinkish powder on the metal indicates the problem.
Boats subsequently built under licence have been reported to suffer from osmosis, unlike the early Smith-built hulls.
Verdict
The Cavalier 32 is regarded as one of New Zealand’s most successful production cruisers—and, by some, its best. It is a comfortable, dependable blue seacraft that many crews have taken across the South Pacific and a few have sailed around the world.
Its appeal lies in the combination of genuine half-tonner racing pedigree, a roomy and sturdy cruising interior, and a hull that has proved itself in extreme conditions.
Pros
- Proven offshore structure, with a hand-laid balsa-cored hull and robust hull-deck joint
- Race-winning performance under the half-tonne rule, with a light, balanced helm
- Roomy interior sleeping up to eight, with 6 foot 1 of headroom
- Exceptional resistance to heeling from a 50-percent ballast ratio
Cons
- Fin keel trades some directional stability for maneuverability
- Later boats built under licence have been reported to suffer from osmosis
- Rigs over-tensioned by owners chasing close-winded performance require careful inspection
