The Corvette Motoryacht originally was a British-built "trawler-styled" motorboat with a nominal hull length of 32 feet (9.75m, SSR rating) and a beam of 13 feet (3.96m). The styling was traditional rather than contemporary, with a raised aft deck, wide walkaround side-decks, flybridge and fore & aft twin cabins, both with their own shower and toilet. Particular attributes were the spacious internal accommodation facilitated by the relatively wide beam and the full use of the two-level external deck space, providing comfortable social seating for eleven. The very wide one-level side decks also facilitated safe movement and working around the boat. Unusually for a trawler yacht, by virtue of its semi-planing hull design, speeds in excess of 20 knots were achievable, depending on the engines used. Twin engines were almost universally used, but there were some rare variants specially custom-built with a single engine in the 1980s. The Corvette was noted for its good sea-keeping qualities, by virtue of its somewhat unorthodox hull form. Production started in 1974 with the Corvette 32 and through a number of company changes and developments became the Corvette 320 and finally the 340, a development of the 320 based on the same hull but with a revised aft deck/cabin, when production moved to Taiwan in 2009 and continues currently. The Corvette is a hand-built boat of some exclusivity, only having been manufactured in relatively very small numbers for a boat of this type over its four decade history.
History Overview
Introduction
Corvette production spanned five different companies over the 40+ years, from 1974 to date. Manufacturing in the early days was not without its commercial problems, involving episodes of company liquidation, changing of ownership, changing of company premises and employee buy-outs. Corvette production was in the UK from 1974 to 2008 but then moved to Taiwan, where the current yard is based. The following summaries chart the progress and changes in these companies.
First Era: Corvette Marine, Lymington: 1974–1977 – Corvette 32
Corvette production started in 1974 in Lymington by Corvette Marine with the introduction of a 32 ft British-built, "trawler"-styled family cruiser designed by naval architect, Terry Compton of Compton-McGill. This, however, was a trawler yacht with a difference. The Corvette 32 had a most unusual hull shape (round bilge sections flanked by shallow vee flats out to the chine). This semi-planing design gave the Corvette significantly better performance than normally achieved by the more traditional displacement hull used on this type of craft.
The engines favoured by the original builders were twin 106 hp Volvo Penta D32s, linked to sterndrives, and 105 hp Mercedes-Benz OM352s, with V-drives, top speed being about 16 knots in each case. This configuration generally required more use of the trim tabs to travel at the optimum angle. In the boats built in the 1970s, the aft cabin was quite limited, much of the space at the stern being taken up by the sterndrive or V-drive engines that were then installed, although there was still space on the port side for a double berth (the foot of which stretched under the after part of the saloon seating) and a small toilet/shower compartment. Access to the engines was via a door in the cabin.
The Corvette 32 exhibited at the 1974 Southampton Boat Show was priced at £25,500 ex VAT (equivalent in 2014 to about £269,000) with a pair of 106 hp Volvo Penta D32A diesel sterndrives. About 30 were made before the company went into liquidation in 1977.
Second Era: Corvette Cruisers, Nottingham: 1984–1991 – Corvette 32 and "Classique" branding
In 1984 the moulds were bought by a new company, Corvette Cruisers of Nottingham, who redesigned the interior and built another 70 up to 1991. During that time significant changes were made to its design to improve handling and overall performance. The sterndrives or V-drives (which were only used on the first 10 boats) were changed to a traditional shaft system, with the engines being moved mid-ships for better weight distribution and enhanced sea-keeping characteristics. Thus in boats built since the 1980s the aft cabin was an altogether more spacious affair. Corvette Cruisers also managed to increase the width of the front berths so they were big enough, at a squeeze, to sleep two people on each.