Somewhere in 2005 I was contacted by a customer about the idea of designing a motorsailor suitable for some extended passagemaking. She had to be stable and a decent boat both under power and sail. Unfortunately, he was caught in Hurricane Katrina and his boating plans changed abruptly, but I thought you might like to take a look at what I came up with to address his needs.  I don’t need to remind anyone that most trips in a sailboat that are longer in duration than a brief afternoon wandering about on the water involve some sort of an engine, and that engine most likely spends more time in action than the sails on the boat.  Thus it has puzzled me for many years why don’t we see more boats on the water that resemble this Camarone 34 with her pilothouse, enclosed steering, decent and low center of effort sailplan appropriately split up into small enough panels to actually get used, not just sleep under sail covers. When using her for cruising, the inboard steering allows warm, quiet, and comfortable cruising under power and if you are so lucky to have favorable breezes in the afternoon, you can transition to the cockpit and run her very nicely either sailing or motorsailing.

Notice the interior on her – a great arrangement if you ask me. Entering the pilothouse from the spacious cockpit, there is an ‘L’ shaped dinette area with helm forward, allowing the skipper to either stand at the helm for high-attention time or put her in autopilot and lounge back on the settee with legs out in front and reclining up against the rear bulkhead of the house. A nice counter height chart table is to starboard with lots of space for the charts and tide tables necessary for keeping a boat navigating safely. There is a wet gear locker at the aft end of the chart table so wet rain gear can be hung to dry, draining into the cockpit anything that wants to drip off them.Go down a few steps forward into the foc’sle of the boat and we find a nice and very spacious head compartment to starboard under that chart table. There is a nice standing headroom shower at the aft end which is a very nice feature in keeping the cruise comfortable.  The galley is to port from the centerline and has a deep sink, a nice below counter fridge, or dry stowage locker, and a full range.

For our Northwest cruising with our capability of boating well into the Winter season, I would opt for a diesel range with oven built-in and a full hot burner top, allowing us to always keep a coffee or teapot ready to use.  Up forward in the bows of the boat is a very interesting arrangement with a port and starboard berth seating area and table in the middle.  With the table folded down, the area turns into a swell full double berth with enough swinging room to keep any cruising couple in good shape.  When in passage, you could leave the table in the up position and have a nice separate port and starboard berth.  One really cool idea with this design is that once you are down below, you are looking clear up into the bows of the boat. When so many other boats keep the main cabin cut up with separate cabins, this one feels bright, airy, and large.  The flush deck also adds to the look and feel of this forward cabin with 4” x 4” beams being the only thing breaking up a tongue and groove, yellow cedar fore and aft planking. This gives a warm and textured feeling to the spacious cabin.  We put plenty of draft and plenty of keel under her to allow good sailing and a very balanced helm with any of the sail/power combinations that might be possible with her.

This Camarone (Spanish for Shrimp) design follows close to my heart as the most perfect boat I can imagine. Suitable for cruising either north to Alaska or south to Mexico, she is a boat that has spent many fine hours in my dreams. – Sam Devlin

The Camerone 34 is available as study plans.