Boat Tests et al
The following articles about the Manitou 32 appeared in the Boating Press during the mid 1970s. Thanks to Modern Boating for their kind permission to re-produce the article Do~it~Yourself Dreamship from their April 1978 edition.
The other articles are understood to have been sourced from publications which are no longer in circulation and it has not been possible to acquire permission to re-produce those articles. In the event that the original copyright owners of the articles have any problem with their re-prodcution on this site please contact the webmaster to arrange immediate removal.
The following article is reproduced from an original appearing in Australian Sea Spray 20 May 1977.
BUY A KIT AND BUILD A MANITOU
Peter Dabbs goes sailing in a Manitou 32 and likes what he finds ...
If you have aspirations to sail a 32ft yacht either in harbours or cruise offshore and are being frustrated by the tax man, then we have the answer for you - the Manitou 32.
She is a trim double ended yacht designed to be rigged either as a sloop or ketch and can be bought in a very basic form to fit out as you wish. Normally this boat is supplied as hull and deck with two bulkheads and floor fitted. Hatch covers and rudder come with it but are not fitted. The plans show a number of alternative layouts if you wish to use them. Templates of the internal sections are made available for no cost so that you can go mad and fit her out below as you wish.
As can be imagined, this type of boat is very hard to write a test on but John Biddlecombe, who owns Manitou Yachts, arranged for us to go out for a sail in a boat that had been purchased and finished off by her owner. This boat was sloop rigged and fitted with mast and spars from Sheerline. And a very nice job they had done too. Rig was conventional with forestay, backstay uppers and two sets of lowers. The hull is double ended and has the standard aft cabin.
“The centre cockpit with the raised after cabin makes for a safe dry haven when the wind and waves get up.”
The deck is well cambered and has one of the better type of non-slip treatments. This camber is great when the boat is heeling and gives a good feeling of security. This is further enhanced when in the cockpit with its high and well moulded coamings which have open lockers built in. The cockpit is roomy and well proportioned so that you have no trouble bracing your feet against the leeward side when sailing.
The tiller is pivoted to swing vertically but, with no stop, it is inclined to drop lower than would be called convenient. This could be easily rectified. Unfortunately, the rudder stock on the test boat was very stiff and made control assessment difficult. I was inclined to oversteer and then have to correct. This was due to the effort needed to overcome the initial stiffness.
Sheet winches were mounted aft and angled nicely to handle the sheets. The deck and seat mouldings are of balsa sandwich construction and are good and solid. The after deck is not cambered as the foredeck and is perfectly flat. If it were not for the sandwich construction, I would be inclined to doubt the strength of such a large flat area. However, with the balsa, it felt very firm. Visibility from the cockpit was excellent with the cabin top at a convenient height.
This is achieved at some expense to line. When viewed from side on the after deck becomes a real poop deck, standing about twelve inches above the sheer line.
“A canoe stern and raised after cabin top makes the Manitou a distinctive hull shape. Note the ‘lazing’ area on the after deck.”
This boat had the owners’ personal ideas on layout and does not necessarily represent the average boat. The woodwork has been carried out by a tradesman and was good. Right forward, the forecastle was fully taken up with sails, anchor and ground tackle. T here was still lots of space to spare and this struck me as being a pleasant change from the number of boats that try to get all this and “V” berths crammed in there too.
Aft of the bulkhead to port was a dinette with table clamped to the mast that carried down through the deck. The dinette was just that. It was too narrow to sleep on the seat and if you can spare the space to keep clear for no other purpose than eating then it is great. I always seem to have more people aboard than I can sleep so that I would make the dinette into a convertible bunk.
Opposite the dinette to starboard, there is a single berth of good proportions that would be most comfortable, being near to the centre of the boat’s length. Aft of this was a galley with two burner stove and plenty of bench space whilst opposite was a chart table with toilet under and curtained off for privacy. A port quarter berth completed the sleeping arrangements in the main cabin with a tremendous storage area instead of a starboard quarter berth.
A 20hp Bukh fitted snugly under the cockpit floor and was accessible from the starboard side. The open area on that side gave much more access than you would normally expect to find on a boat of this size. With a good camber to the deck, headroom of six feet ran the full length of the cabin.
Access to the after cabin was via a hatch at the back of the cockpit. This cabin was lined with a shag carpet and gave an air of luxury. It contained a full double berth set to one side and left plenty of room to dress.
We took the Manitou out for a sail from Mosman Bay on Sydney Harbour on a lovely Autumn day with the sun belting down, a good breeze of about 15 knots. We carried a No. 1 Genoa and the wind was just about the limit for the big sail. Another knot or two and it would have paid to change down. Remembering that the Manitou was designed as a cruising boat, she sailed well and had a fair turn of speed. She was initially tender but firmed up well as one would expect of her slack bilges. The helm appeared to be well balanced but it was hard to be sure with the stiff bearing. At least, if there was any weather helm, it was not sufficient to overcome the stiffness and the tiller stayed pretty close to amidships. We put her on all points and the handling was the same, very manageable, she gybed easily and quite gently considering the breeze. John Biddlecombe was with us and had no trouble landing me on a buoy in the middle of the harbour to take some photographs.
The Manitou was designed by naval architect, Bill Elliot, as a boat for himself and built as a one-off. It created so much interest that John made a mould from the original hull and went into production. There have been quite a number made now and most of them to a similar layout to the one we sailed. The cost of the test boat as I have described was an all up total of $21,000 and for a boat of this size with good cruising capabilities, that is a cheap boat.
The following article appeared in 
April 1978. The Manitou Owners would like to
express their appreciation to Modern Boating for their granting of permission to
re-produce this article.
DO-IT-YOURSELF DREAMSHIP
Manitou 32 has reached immense popularity in a short time by offering good value in a traditionally-shaped hull aimed directly at the home-finisher.
You can’t miss the Manitou 32. This double-ended poop-decked 32ft fibreglass cruising yacht is one of the most distinctive looking boats on Australian waters. If you haven’t seen one yet you’ll see one soon, because it’s the fastest selling cruising yacht over 30ft in the country and one of the genuine success stories of the local boating industry.
When Sydney designer Bill Elliot designed himself a one-off, canoe-sterned cruising boat in 1962 he could hardly have anticipated the popularity it would claim fifteen years later. Another Sydney yachtsman, John Biddlecombe, obtained the design rights a few years ago and his company, Manitou Fibreglass, began serious production of the Manitou 32 in July 1976. Since then he has built 35 boats for owners around Australia and as far afield as New Guinea and the Gilbert Islands, and there are several more owner-built boats on the water to boost the total into the 40s.
Biddlecombe’s concept was to market a strong heavyish displacement cruising yacht that provided easy offshore handling and comfortable accommodation. Above all it had to remain an economic prospect for would-be cruising boat owners who didn’t have the money to spend on performance oriented boats of the same size, or expensively finished stock boats.
Originally he intended to hire out the Manitou moulds but it soon became obvious that the demand was for boats built to the basic shell stage which the owner could then fit out as they desired and as time and finance permitted. So the boat is sold as a hull and deck bonded together, with two bulkheads and the floor bearers in place, plus the three hatches and the steel rudder (which are not fixed). And there is the surprise – the cost is a mere $8,700. That represents substantial cost-cutting in today’s market.
The material costs in fitting out the boat to a completed sailaway stage then raise the owner’s total expenditure to a minimum of about $15,000. With more elaborate finishing and extra equipment (especially instruments) the $20,000 mark would pop up fairly quickly but that is still exceptional value for a strong and comfortable 32-footer capable of long offshore family cruising.
The other factor, of course, is the owner’s time spent on the boat. It’s difficult to estimate this, of course, as there’s no such thing as the average owner. It could well be a part-time job over six months or even a year. Certainly the hard work has been done before the owner starts fitting out the boat. And Manitou offer the owner, without charge, the use of patterns and templates for the interior joinery. They will also arrange the engine installation if required.
Costs can also be very effectively lowered by ordering the rigging system (spars, halyards and halyard winches on the masts) and working sail wardrobe that are standard on the Manitou. All are supplied by the Elvstrom loft in Sydney. Manitou Fibreglass also recommend a standard hardware deck package and a Bukh 20hp diesel as auxiliary power.
The appearance of the Manitou does lend itself to debate. I like the front half, and the flowing, graceful lines standout distinctly on waterways full of pregnant-looking box-assed sailboats. On the other hand the stern sections look a bit strange and at first glance the raised aft poop-deck is quite disconcerting. But that clean, open deck space back there and the deep and functional centre cockpit are both excellent features in a small coastal cruising yacht like this, so John Biddlecombe’s redesigned layout is well justified.
The original Bill Elliot design featured a longer coach-house with an aft cockpit and a sloop rig. John redesigned it with the centre cockpit and aft cabin, and an optional dog-house has recently been added to fit over the cabin and cockpit to keep water out in heavy conditions. He also experimented with a ketch rig carrying the same sail area as the original masthead sloop. He now sells ketch-rigged boats in about a 60-40 majority over the sloop rigs. Both versions have the same deck layout and the main mast-step is in the same place.
To ketch or not to ketch? John Biddlecombe has raced both versions boat-for-boat around Sydney and has concluded that the sloop is faster to windward in lighter airs with the ketch having the edge on the reaches. In fresher conditions the ketch is faster and has better directional stability in a seaway (which is a more important criterion anyway).
While the boat is better balanced – in both sailing performance and appearance – with the ketch rig, the mizzen does rob that aft poop deck of much of its open space.
The Manitou we looked at was a bottle green ketch-rigged version that owner Derek Gates is still in the process of fitting out inside, with the odd item of deck equipment also yet to come.
Last month was a bad one for testing boats and true to form there was just a light south-easterly blowing over a sloppy southerly wave pattern as we cleared Sydney Middle Harbour and took the Manitou out through the Heads. The fairly thick growth of weed on the hull didn’t help much either in those conditions.
I had the feeling that she could have used the power of the sloop rig’s bigger genoa in fickle air like that. The lack of drive in the number 2 genoa that was used meant she was a little sluggish to accelerate and to tack. In any sort of seaway she would need some fairly authoritative helmwork to make her tack. Her pointing angle was also quite low. It was a pity we weren’t able to try her with a number 1 genoa in those conditions.
But for a relatively heavy boat she is surprisingly soft and responsive on the wheel. Both the handling and the motion of the boat have a pleasant and solid feel, and she is obviously very stable. From all indications, a Manitou of either rig would be a delightful yacht for unhurried coastal cruising.
The breeze did freshen for a while on our test day and in a couple of spells of 10 to 12 knot breeze the boat felt quite fast, especially in the flatter water of the harbour. But when we put her directly into the sloppier sea outside the Heads she did start to rear a little. With her weight and the long overhangs at each end of the hull the Manitou’s fore and aft pitching motion would probably be quite heavy in a bigger sea.
With her fine aft sections and the big, deep stainless steel rudder mounted on the end of the full length keel, she would handle well in a following sea. Few if any of the Manitous have been rigged for spinnakers, apparently, and that seems something of a pity. They could be just as much a simple adjunct to light weather cruising as a complicated extra for racing.
As the breeze faded out to seven or eight knots we ran the boat dead square and that proved a slow point of sailing; reaching her up a little made a lot of difference.
The main mast is stepped below and the mizzen on deck. A few of the boats, however, have both masts stepped on deck to provide more room below, with a compression post beneath the main mast.
I liked the fact that the wheel is easily dismountable if the steering fails and the emergency tiller has to be fitted.
Of the basic working gear only the two genoa winches and the traveller/sheeting block systems for the main and mizzen were not mounted on the spars (which were made by Sheerline) so the decks are almost totally clean. On this boat the sheeting winches are mounted on the aft edge of the forward coach-house, whereas in most of the Manitous they’re located on the forward edge of the aft poop deck. I would definitely prefer the former idea, which enables the person trimming the genoa to see the sail while using the winch and to keep out of the helmsman’s way. This boat, however, didn’t have turning blocks fitted yet and the end of the genoa sheet tracks, and they’re essential. The deck layout is excellent, and the only drawback is the interior room lost by the centre cockpit. That area therefore houses the engine (the 20hp Bukh, by the way, drives her very easily) plus fuel tanks and storage space. The floor space of the main cabin area is restricted by the early-rising forefoot that the design’s short waterline produces, and the aft cabin does not have full headroom, but there is still a lot of room below decks.
There is sleeping accommodation for six altogether, including two single berths in the aft cabin and a quarter berth to the side of the cockpit. In the main cabin there’s room for one or two berths, settee and dinette table, galley area, toilet, and storage up forward. (The fore hatch at the bow, by the way, is a bit too far forward for safety considerations.) And there is ample space throughout the interior of the boat for storage lockers. And because the yachts are fitted out by the owners there is a lot of scope for changing the interior layout around to suit the individual.
The centre cockpit is deep and roomy though not especially wide. There is room for six and for the helmsman there’s just enough room behind the wheel for comfortable steering, though he has to take care he doesn’t get caught in the traveller behind him. As the boat heels those who are sitting on the windward cockpit seat either need legs long enough to reach the leeward seat or something to hold on to.
Perhaps a small hatch in the aft cabin would be a good idea, in case you ever had to get out in a hurry and for some reason the entrance to the cockpit was blocked or the storm boards were in. It would also help ventilation. In any case ventilation fittings are essential, as the board would have to go in if there was spray flying about. In some boats, the two cabins have even been joined by a walkway.
The construction of the hull is all hand-laid fibreglass and quite a heavy lay-up it is too; 13oz on the topsides and 17oz below (about half an inch thick), which is 24oz woven roving on the inside. At the centreline and the turn of the bilge the glass is 36oz because all the layers are lapped along it to give a double thickness. The deck, cockpit and cabins are hand-laid with end-grain balsa sandwich, with thickness ranging up to over an inch at the mainmast.
The price of the basic shell of the Manitou, as stated, is currently $8,700, with bulkheads, hatches and rudder. The 5,000lbs of ballast costs $1,400 in lead and $450 in Iron (which was used in our test boat).
The standard rigging system for the sloop is available as completed custom rigged for $2,106 or in kit form for $1,573. The custom ketch rig complete is $2,950 and $2,252 in kit form.
Still on the standard price list, working sails for the sloop (number one and number two genoas, storm jib and main) costs $1,265. For the ketch (with a mizzen added) it’s $1,695. Deck hardware – including winches, tracks, cleats, lifelines and chainplates – is another $1,600.
And the installation and tuning of a 20hp Bukh diesel – with batteries, fuel tank, exhaust system, propeller, electric start and remote controls – is $3,750. Those prices are current as of January this year.
The following article appeared in Australian Boating magazine August 1978.
COMMENT
By Mr John Biddlecombe, manufacturer of the Manitou 32, one of Australia’s most popular cruising yachts most commonly sold in kit form. Mr Biddlecombe was interviewed by the Editor, Peter Webster.
AB: Why is the Manitou so successful?
Biddlecombe: It is a traditional boat that won’t become unfashionable with changing trends. I wanted a design that would have a long life (the design is 15 years old), and completely removed from racing. When a guy buys it, he doesn’t feel he has some sort of image to live up to. If he sails slowly, no-one is going to take any notice, because a cruising boat is not expected to sail fast, although the Manitou 32 is surprisingly fast for its type.
AB: As the Manitou is mainly sold as a DIY completion project, are you very concerned about what these private citizens end up building?
Biddlecombe: They can’t mess it up structurally. They can make a horrible inside…
AB: But what about the placement of internal furniture, particularly as it affects trim and so on?
Biddlecombe: Of course I do worry about that, and I go to great extremes to make sure that they do it sensibly. I don’t try to advise them about the internal layout much, as every boat owner has his own ideas, but I assist them to rig it properly, to ballast it properly, to make sure it floats right on its mark.
AB: If the owner is in Darwin, how can you check that?
Biddlecombe: Well, part of the deal when they buy a boat, is that all the advice that they will need up to tuning and fitting the boat, is included in the package. We ask the owners to keep in touch throughout the fitting out process, and most of them do, because everybody wants to do it right!
AB: Have you ever had any backlash from a bad one?
Biddlecombe: I don’t think there has ever been a really bad one. There has been a number that have been fitted out pretty roughly, but in their own way they still reflect the owner’s attitude towards his yacht. It is their boat, to do what they like with it! In fact, there are three Manitous cruising world-wide right now, including the worst fitted one I have ever seen. Yet it was developed by the boat owner with the most world cruising experience. He has been cruising all his life. All he was worried about was developing a very strong hull. Inside was an absolute shambles! But he has sold more boats than anyone else, as his boat is so… functional where it counts.
AB: What future do you see for fully fitted yachts in this country?
Biddlecombe: That will depend on the economic climate. If things get tight (or stay tight), people will want to do it themselves so the home-finisher market will boom.
AB: If you had your time over again, would you still build a 32-footer?
Biddlecombe: Yes, the 32 is a magic size! 32 is the maximum size a man can handle easily on his own. What is the point of having a cruising boat that needs a crew to make is work successfully.
AB: Is this the reason why the ketch rig has proven popular?
Biddlecombe: Yes, the ketch rig is so much easier than the sloop rig – it is unbelievable! A lot of new chums say, moving up from the trailer-sailers, avoid the ketch rig because they think it is more complicated with another sail to manage. After a demonstration though, where we just set the mizzen, and invite them down below, leaving the yacht to steer itself, they don’t need much convincing.
The sloop has slightly better performance in very light airs, but once you get over 15 knots, the ketch rig is faster and much easier to handle, because the centre of pressure on the sails is lower, and it can carry the power better.
AB: What are the growth areas in the future?
Biddlecombe: Well, if I knew that, I would be into it! All I need is a crystal ball!
AB: How do you answer critics who say that manufacturers like yourself, selling unfinished yachts or just shells in many cases, are ruining the industry’s chances of building a more stable future?
Biddlecombe: I think it is nonsense. We are dealing with people who couldn’t afford a boat any other way. If they could not get it that way they would simply go out of the market. It is absurd to suggest that if a person couldn’t buy a yacht and fit it themselves for $15,000 then he would pay $25,000 for the same yacht, fully fitted! It just doesn’t work like that. Besides, many of the buyers are either tradesmen themselves, or they really enjoy the personal challenge that comes from fitting out the yacht to their own individual specifications.