Corvette 32/320
The Corvette 320 trawler yacht – and its largely identical predecessor, the 32 – have displayed impressive longevity despite the best efforts of several economic downturns. Nick Burnham takes the helm of a well-looked-after 2004 example
A tidy 2004 example is taken out on the water
If you were building a conventional trawler yacht with its raised saloon area in the centre and the aft sections full of lower-level aft cabin, where would you put the engines? Clearly the obvious place is below the saloon floor; but despite quite conservative styling, it was plainly evident upon the Corvette 32/320’s launch in 1974 that this was a far from conventional craft.
Remarkably, the early boats, built by Corvette Marine in Lymington, sported sterndrives, putting the Volvo Penta D32 106hp diesel engines effectively in the aft cabin. In fact there was a shaft-drive version as well, utilising MercedesBenz OM352 diesels of similar power output, but even then the rearward engine position remained: vee drives sending the power forward and then down and aft.
The engine location was far from the only radical facet of the Corvette. For a 9.7m (32ft) boat, the beam was enormous at 3.96m (13ft) – exactly the same as a similar-era Princess 41 – creating deeply bulwarked 2ft-wide side decks that encircle the entire boat. It also had two en suite cabins – rare at this size point. In fact, the entire accommodation was surprisingly generous given the amount of deck space given over to those side decks. As well as those en suite cabins either end, there was a large saloon with an L-shaped dinette that converted to a double berth to port and a galley opposite to starboard. The lower helm was forward on this level to port also, the entire interior accessed by a single sliding door to starboard.
But to really understand how radical this boat is you must don your diving mask (or perhaps more conveniently lift the boat ashore) for a look beneath the waterline. Designed by Terry Compton of Compton McGill, from the chines inward toward the centreline, the hull is nearly flat for about a third of the distance. Then it gets even odder, with a bowl-shaped section comprising the centre third – think of the bottom half of a canoe stuck to the centre of an almost flat-bottomed boat and you won’t be far adrift of how this looks. Topped (or, more accurately, bottomed) by a keel that stretches two-thirds of the length, it’s a unique profile – but one that works surprisingly well. The result is a sea-kindly semi-displacement hull form that actually planes! Considerable flare to the bow looks great and contributes to a dry ride.
Those sterndrives didn’t last, but the hull profile endured, as did the upright superstructure. After building about 30 boats, Corvette Marine succumbed to the late-’70s recession and went into liquidation in 1977. That might have been the end of Corvette Marine, but it was only the first chapter of the Corvette 32.
Seven years later, in 1984, the