Black Watch 36

It's not often that I have the daylights scared out of me, but they were positively running for cover when we crossed the Gold Coast Seaway. There was a run-out tide, 25kt of northeasterly wind and a tightly packed two-metre swell.

It was no place for a boat, I thought, not even for a purpose-built 36-footer. But as if to prove otherwise, the skipper said "hang on" and edged the bow into the tempest.

At that moment, I felt like a sparrow riding out a hurricane in a palm tree.

This was tame compared to what came next. The skipper hooked the wheel of the new Black Watch 36 to starboard and put the beam on to an incoming wall of white water. While the tide held the foam back, I reasoned it was only a matter of time before impact.

Only seconds remained before Black Watch honcho, Graham McCloy, yelled: "Power up". And with that, the twin Yanmar 420hp straight sixes displayed what might have been life-saving acceleration. Before I had time to strap my passport to my chest, we'd carved a path through the bar and were steaming south along the sobering Gold Coast skyline.

AS IF BY DESIGN
While this was my introduction to boat testing Black Watch-style, the new 36 began life many moons ago as a sketch on the pad of a promising naval architect. Trevor Manwarring, the new designer for Black Watch, penned the purpose-built 36 while completing his PHD at the Australian Maritime College in Launceston.

In keeping with convention, he opted for a deep-vee hull with 18.5° of deadrise - sharper than the company's new 40-footer and closer to its smooth-running 26 - and then added wide planing strakes for lift, prominent chines for stability and rounded the bilge to give the hull something to sit up on.

Flare was included in the top sides to tame the spray, but not so much flare that it would impede accommodation.

As the boat was intended to fill the gap between the company's more dayboat-oriented 34 and its top-of-the-range 40, the 36 needed the space for spending at least tournaments at a time aboard.

"Our boats cater more to fishing, so we're bigger in the cockpit and finer in the bow than our competitors," explains Manwarring, pointing to the attributes of all good offshore gamefishers. Compared with the popular Black Watch 34, you'll also find the 36 has much bigger accommodation.

TACKLING OVERSEAS MARKETS
An obvious rival to the evergreen Caribbean 35, Black Watch also designed its new 36 with American markets in mind. Spurred on by the warm reception given to its 40-footer at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show last year, Black Watch has taken a more worldly view of its potential.

Since Black Watch expanded its dealer network Australia-wide and in New Zealand some 18 months ago, turnover has increased five-fold, staff numbers have risen from five to 85, and the orders are coming in from far and wide.

At the time of writing, Black Watch was heavily involved in negotiations with a US company and was working towards opening a bigger factory on the Tweed. But whatever happens overseas, the company owes its success to the local gamefishing fraternity.

The first 36 was laid-up in January last year using Baltec balsa-coring and glass-encapsulated stringers and bearers, with glassed-in ply bulkheads. As a form of endorsement, this boat was ordered by Black Watch's marine architect's father. Coincidentally, Allan Manwarring is a member of Broken Bay Game Fishing Club.

Meanwhile, Trevor Parkes, of Mooloolaba GFC, was on the prowl for a serious 30-something gamefisher in survey with all the bells and whistles. The 36 fitted the bill and First Class, the second hull out of the factory, is what I rode on off the Gold Coast. First Class is indicative of how future Black Watch 36s will be built.

Catering for the gamefishing market, the boat comes ready to fish with everything built-in right down to the tackle centre and base for a heavy-tackle gamechair.

There are options for finishes, layouts and engines, though every Black Watch 36 is built to a proven formula for catching fish. As if to prove as much, the owner of First Class 'blooded' his new boat on its maiden trip to the billfish-rich 18-Mile Reef off the Sunshine Coast this season.

"It's an excellent boat, there's no doubt about that. There weren't too many fish about but we still managed to tag a black marlin about 35-40kg, which is bigger than the usual run up here," Parkes said. "Then we steamed home at a leisurely 30kt-plus..."

"As far as handling is concerned, it is the best performing boat in its class that I've driven. It has a big-boat feel, accommodation for eight people, and the Yanmar diesels are a big plus in terms of weight savings and fuel consumption," he added.

SLEEPING QUARTERS
While fishing is its primary purpose, boats like the Black Watch 36 need to fulfil a number of roles. They must be well-endowed with accommodation, have a galley to cater for days and nights aboard, space for a genset, and room inside to, well, liveaboard.

So it is with First Class, a twin-cabin boat that can cruise to coastal ports as comfortably as day-fish offshore. Like all new Black Watch boats, this 36 also presented as a cleaner, more professional package thanks to a fully-moulded liner.

The owner's cabin in the bow had an offset double berth on the starboard-side with enough room for couples as well as a girth-challenged owner.

There was enough space to sit up in bed and read BlueWater and room to change out of your PJs with the door closed.

Nice touches include a chrome reading light, cabin light, Perko door handles and overhead hatch. Storage was another highlight with padded shelves, two drawers beneath the bed, and a big hanging locker to port.

Though the fit-out wasn't complete on First Class, I got glimpses of how it might be. The headliner is padded white vinyl, with teak trim on the doors and cupboards and beds, rounded moulding on all interior edges, big companionways with padded lining, camel-coloured carpet and smart navy-blue upholstery.

Crew will find the second cabin on the starboard-side of the companionway cosy if not practical. Though the top bunk loses room to a shelf, the lower bunk is long and wide enough for an adult to sleep comfortably. Details include a hanging locker, two reading lights, and storage holds beneath the lower bunk.

The twin-cabin version of the 36 comes with one very spacious head on the port side. It has a fully-moulded liner, full headroom inside, a separate shower, stylish chrome and gold taps, blue metal-coloured Granicote benchtop, mirror, storage under the sink and in a vanity. Though there is an overhead hatch, an extractor fan would be nice.

The alternate layout features a single forepeak cabin with island berth and a separate shower and toilet compartment. Though not as accommodating of crew needs, the single-cabin 36 would suit city gamefishers looking for a comfortable boat to fish the weekend pointscore events.

STATELY SALOON
While the accommodation is set three steps below the deckline, the saloon, galley and drinks area are on one level. At sea, this single-level living area has proven itself to be more pragmatic than boats with galleys set down in the hull.

Having said that, the Black Watch 36 has a particularly small galley, with just enough room. The upside is that you will gain plenty of support to prepare meals while underway.

Also, the testboat didn't have a return on the starboard side because the settee had been ordered as an extra-long bed. Together with the convertible dinette to port, this Black Watch can sleep eight people if needs be.

On the port side, the drinks and lunch centre included a fridge, wine-rack space, L-shaped Granicote benchtops and recesses in the bulkhead for a colour television and VCR and a separate sound system - all standard equipment, though still to be fitted on the testboat.

The galley on the starboard side comes with a two-burner electric stove, microwave, sink and a useful amount of storage in drawers and cupboards.

The white headliner creates a sense of space, a central hatch and twin-opening saloon doors ensure plenty of fresh air streams inside, while the teak-and-holly galley floor offered a touch of class. In that floor was an underfloor storage area for the desalinator, airconditioning unit, eutectic and hot water system.

HOT-SHOT SALOON
Importantly, the furniture in the saloon doesn't impede traffic flow from the cockpit to the galley, fridge or head. This will help ensure the boat works well at sea, as will the rounded edges to all the mouldings, the deep backrests on the lounges, and the aft opening saloon windows.

Nice touches include the yellowfin-tuna inlay on the dinette table, the central airconditioning outlet, blue and gold pelmets where timber blinds might hang, accessible fridge compressor below the settee cushion, water tank on the centreline and access to the motors below the saloon floor.

Bob Leavy (an engineer with Black Watch) describes the 36 as a "pretty box", even without his work. By this he means without the engineering details such as the excellent day-to-day access to the oil, water, and forward machinery space with accessories. It's also reassuring to know that every Black Watch is built the same.

"If you had a water leak you could ring the factory and they'd probably refer you to me. I could tell where the leak was coming from by knowing exactly what is behind each and every centimetre of a Black Watch boat," he explains.

COCKPIT CAPERS
The cockpit of the 36 is what best reflects the company's enthusiasm and knowledge for all things gamefishing. With amenities to assuage deckies from Rabaul to Tauranga and comforts for anglers fishing stand-up or heavy-tackle, you'd be hard pressed to find a better place to fish at sea.

The teak-laid deck features an impressive bait-preparation station to port with cutting board, sink, three tackle drawers, holds for hardware and a big storage area. And when not riddled with mullet guts or scaly mackerel juice, the rigging centre doubles as a useful seat from which to monitor the lures.

To starboard, under a new and improved flybridge ladder, is the bait fridge with eutectic plate. It can hold a few (compact) Cairns-sized baits if not a pile of mullet or the fillets from a mess of reef fish. The fridge top also doubles as another seat from which to watch the lures bubbling astern.

Cockpit lockers harbour bilge pump shut-offs and plumbing gear and hardware such as the steel bucket (survey requirement) and tailropes. Other features include a hot/cold freshwater deck shower, underfloor lazarette storage, padded and teak coamings, stainless scuppers and hawse pipes, a spread of five Tailored Marine rodholders and a nifty marlin-door catch. Gaff and tagpole storage is built-in.

First Class also has an underfloor brine tank that can double as a second livebait tank if the thermostat is turned off. The main livebait tank was a roto-moulded plastic number formed around the pedestal of the gamechair which was, in this case, a heavy-duty Reelax model.

Grabrails make access around the cabin sides to the foredeck safe in a seaway. Deckgear is stylish and through-bolted, with powder-coated alloy grabrails, a raked stainless bowrail, deep anchor locker, anodised alloy flybridge frame and rocket launcher from Pacific Towers, and black outriggers poles on heavy-duty Reelax bases.

IT'S SEA TIME
With a more conventional flybridge ladder to starboard, the 36 welcomes you up top. Twin pedestal seats and lounges can seat up to five people. There is an icebox below one of the lounges for holding drinks, while a clear view extends out through the clears when seated or standing.

The 36 bridge is also skipper-friendly. The dash includes pop-away cabinets bristling with electronics, a stylish anodised alloy wheel, single Morse controls, neat switch panels and ergonomically-designed mouldings that include footrests.

As I discovered, the framework for the bimini doubles as a grabrail.

Heading out through the Seaway, I found myself swinging from the rafters as we tackled seas that must have had the coastguard shaking their heads. But as testimony to the 36's seaworthiness, the bow kept its head up and parted the waves for the rest of the hull to follow.

Clear of the bar, we ran at around 24kt for a fast rough-water cruise without too much thumping. Back inshore, the twin Yanmar 420s drove the 36 with eight people onboard to 32kt. Previously, they'd extracted 34kt from the hull.

Due to the perky nature of the Yanmar motors, the hull could cruise at around 28kt and 3000rpm.

Though standard with the 350hp Yanmars, Black Watch is now considering fitting 36s with 420hp Yanmars with two-speed ZF gearboxes. According to ZF, this will make acceleration even better while further improving fuel consumption.

As it is, Trevor Parkes says his new 36 with twin Yanmar 420s consumes around 100-110lt a day less than his previous boat. The 'drinks bill' is around 65lt/hr at cruise speeds of 27kt, which augurs well for those days when you can't wait to put to sea.