Excalibur 36 archive details - Yachtsnet Ltd. online UK yacht brokers

Excalibur 36				Brief details
Builder	Built by Southern Ocean Shipyard Ltd., on Tyler moudings			The Excalibur 36 is a powerful and fast all-weather cruiser by a well respected designer. If you are looking at Nicholson 35s or Contessa 32s as fast traditional cruisers, look also at this design. By now most will have been re-engined.
LOA	36' 0"	Sail area	670 sq ft main and genoa
LWL	26' 3"	Rig	Sloop
Beam	10' 0"	Cabins	Forecabin and saloon
Draught	5' 11"	Berths	5
Displacement	14,448 lbs	Engine	various
Ballast	5,241 lbs	BHP	25-40
Keel type	Long fin keel (encapsulated lead ballast) with spade rudder

E. G. van de Stadt designed the Excalibur in 1962, the design looking very like an enlarged version of his already very successful Pionier designs for GRP production, which were early examples of cruising boats with separate spade rudders, at a time when most cruising yachts still had long keels with keel-hung rudders.

All the Excalibur hulls were moulded by Tylers, with encapsulated lead ballast, and a GRP headlining moulding. Hulls were finished mainly by Southern Ocean Shipyard in Poole, who built about 50 of these yachts, but some were also finished in Holland by various yards. It is reported a that a very few later exapmples had a modified underwater profile with a fin and skeg rudder.

Despite being designed primarily as a cruiser, Excaliburs won the RORC Class II Championships in 1963, 1964 and 1965, but as racing designs evolved with more beam and smaller keels they ceased to be competitive, except in heavy weather.

They are now a good example of a classic cruiser-racer. Bigger and faster than a Contessa 32, and not dissimilar to a Nicholson 35, they are a very capable and strongly built yacht for bluewater or coastal cruising.

	The forecabin has a vee-berth 6'3" long 'on the vee', convertible to a double with an infill. The Excalibur has a GRP moulded headlining throughout, which is easy to keep clean, unlike vinyl linings.

	Heads compartment to port, with doors separating it from saloon and forecabin
	Photographs Yachtsnet



Above: the saloon port berth backrest can be raised, nominally to make an extra berth, but more practically to open up a much larger berth. The saloon settees are both 6' 3" length, and saloon headroom varies between 6' 2" to 6' 4". Aft of the chart table is a short quarter berth, the forward part of which serves as the chart table seat.