In a fast-moving world, it’s good to slow down occasionally. Boats are getting lighter, keels deeper, and rigs taller, all in the pursuit of speed. All have a place, but when Martin Tennant was looking for a boat, none of these features were paramount: ‘I wanted a strong boat, one that will look after me.’

We are on board Sea Walker, his Tradewind 33, which he’s owned since 2022. What should be ‘summer’ is grey and overcast, but down below is a nice place to be. If ‘cosy’ and ‘snug’ didn’t have connotations of being tiny and cramped, they would perfectly describe where we are.

Although 33ft, the Tradewind 33 feels larger thanks to her split-level living area. The galley and chart table are two small steps higher than the saloon. Standing in the galley, the windows are at eyeline and there’s 1.83m (6ft) headroom. With no coachroof above the saloon, the two overhead hatches provide all the light.

It’s easy to imagine how homely Sea Walker could feel with her Taylors diesel heater fired up, the oil lamp flickering, and a tipple of choice in hand. It’s not that time yet, we’re still moored at RAF Yacht Club in Hamble and the sailing is still to come.

Golden Globe inspired

What led Martin to the Tradewind 33? ‘I started looking at the approved designs for the Golden Globe race,’ he explained. ‘If those yachts can take a trip around the world, singlehanded, they’d be tough enough for anything I wanted to do.’

The list of designs allowed in the race only includes long-keel yachts with keel-hung rudders and most have an encapsulated keel, where the keel is moulded as part of the hull and the ballast added inside the boat, rather than in a keel bolted on the outside.

On the list, the Rustler 36 stood out. But finding one within his budget proved too difficult. Also there, was the Tradewind 35 – a development from the 33 – so when Martin saw this Tradewind 33, he went to have a look. The quality and condition of Tradewinds can vary. In the 70s many designs were available in kit form or just as a hull and deck; Sea Walker is one such yacht.

Some owner-builds can be best described as ‘interesting’ and not up to the standard of a yard-finished yacht, but Sea Walker is as good as you’d hope to find.

The original owner was a joiner and his skill and workmanship are evident throughout. After buying the yacht as a hull and deck, he spent the next 20 years fitting it out. Sea Walker was eventually launched in 1998. But sadly, after the yacht’s launch, the owner had a stroke and never managed to sail her. She stood unused for around 15 years until her second owner discovered her. A fan of Tradewinds, he brought her back up to working order, replacing the Bukh engine with a Beta 38hp, and adding a bow thruster.

Since becoming Sea Walker’s third owner, water ingress in the rudder led Martin to have it removed, split and the soggy foam replaced. He has re-rigged her standing and running rigging, added a new mainsail, solar panels, wind generator and AIS transceiver.

‘She’s my forever boat,’ he beams. ‘I’d like to sail around Britain, then the Med, then, let’s just say we’ll see how we get on before we decide whether to go further.’ During summer Martin closes his bed and breakfast (aimed at business travellers) to go sailing with his wife, two children and their dog.

Martin fits his sailing in between his work at his Farnborough B&B: ‘I can serve breakfast, then come down on my own for a sail or do some maintenance. It also means my wife can enjoy the sailing at the weekend, rather than sitting on a broken boat.’

The Tradewind 33 was designed by John Rock in the mid-70s. A knowledgeable sailor with transoceanic experience, his search for his ideal offshore cruiser had proved fruitless. After quizzing 20 or so sailor friends about what they would want, he designed his own. The result was the Tradewind 33, a tough, go-anywhere long-keel cruiser with a flush foredeck, deep and safe cockpit, solid toerail and spoon bow.

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With her counter stern and a gently curving sheer line, she is pleasing to the eye. If she had a transom-hung rudder she could be mistaken for a larger Vertue design of Laurent Giles. While her topsides look low, the hull is surprisingly deep providing 2.1m (6ft 11in) of headroom at the aft end of the saloon, although this drops to 1.78m (5ft 10in) forward.

The Tradewind 33 was superseded by the 35, which aimed to eradicate her excessive weather helm. The underbody shape and waterline length were left, but her ends extended – increasing her heeled waterline length, the headsail tack moved forwards, the rudderpost angle altered and the rudder area increased with more area low down.

It’s possible to buy new a Tradewind 35 from Tradewind Yachts BV in the Netherlands where they are still built to order, but for those looking for a new Tradewind they’d recommend finding a used 35 and having it restored.

‘You’ll spend a fraction of a new boat and they are as good as new. We’ve never found any osmosis problems in the older TW35, and it is also more environment friendly than producing a new fibreglass hull,’ explained Austin Lion of Tradewind Yachts BV.

Hidden treasures

Down below, the forward vee-berth occupies the entire forward cabin once the in-fill is in place. Without it you’re left with berths of uneven widths (0.75m / 2ft 5in to port and 0.53m / 1ft 9in to starboard) though as a double there is plenty of space in the 1.87m (6ft 2in) long and 1.83m / 6ft wide berth. The heads is a separate compartment on the port side between the forecabin and the saloon and there’s a large locker space to starboard.

The seating in the saloon creates the other half of the four berths on board. Centrally located and low in the boat these seats make ideal sea berths – both are over 1.87m (6ft) long. There is stowage beneath, outboard and above too. On the matter of stowage, the original owner worked hard to create stowage everywhere.

There are plenty of lockers, drawers, cubby holes, and neat ‘hidden’ spaces; behind the top two galley drawers you’ll find second drawers, the bin lockers around the chart table can be removed revealing more stowage beneath. With both water and fuel tanks beneath the sole, she could consume all sorts of cruising clobber without any trouble at all.

There is a small L-shaped galley to port; a bum strap can be clipped across to allow safe cooking. Sea Walker has a two-burner stove, grill and oven forward against a half-height bulkhead. The sink is almost tucked under the cockpit and there’s a fridge outboard. Whilst the galley is small, it’s ideal for use at sea or in rough weather and perfectly positioned to get teas, coffees and meals to the cockpit spill-free.

To starboard is the chart table. The seat is wide but shallow and the legroom tight; this can be improved by removing the seat back, but not by much. The table is a very good size, at over a metre (3ft 3in) wide; you can review a folded Admiralty chart and have room for the pilot book alongside. It lacks fiddles, but the stowage in the table is deep.

Between the galley and nav station is the companionway, where three steps from the cockpit take you to the top of the engine box, then it’s another couple of steps to the sole. Accessing the engine compartment isn’t the easiest as it requires the removal of the companionway steps, the top and the front of the engine box, but your efforts are rewarded with excellent all-around accessibility. Two primary fuel filters are located to the rear and there is a switch-over valve between them.

Hunkered helm

The cockpit is deep and safe, so deep in fact that the teak grating on the sole has been raised around 12cm (4in) to make it more comfortable. It’s not spacious and the tiller has to sweep from side to side. On the plus side, the helm can hunker down in the shelter of the sprayhood. The 40cm (16in) high coamings give good protection.

The few lines that are led aft go to clutches forward on the coaming, while the sheet winches sit on top. The dodgers and the position of the guardrail don’t allow a full swing of the winch handle, but at the pace she tacks, it wasn’t an issue. Sea Walker has stowage beneath the seats on each side as well as a cavernous lazarette. I’d have preferred to have seen the gas bottle in a separate locker draining outboard, rather than in a compartment of the port locker draining into the cockpit (where the drains exit beneath the waterline).

The sidedecks are broad with solid toerails and capping rail. The teak deck feels solid and provides plenty of grip. On Sea Walker only the vang and the sheets of the headsail are led back to the cockpit, halyards and reefing lines are at the mast. With the shrouds outboard and no granny rails, there’s a lack of place to brace while reefing or adjusting halyards.

Moving further forward, the flush foredeck has space in abundance for inflating dinghies or relaxing at anchor. Sea Walker has an electric windlass with the chain going through a hawse pipe to the locker below – accessible from the forward cabin. Without an anchor locker, the bower sits on one of two substantial bow rollers.

Timeless appeal

To discover why people still want a 50-year-old design you have to sail one. In an ideal world, we should have put Sea Walker through her paces on a long day’s passage, but time constraints limited us to Southampton water. With 8-20 knots from the north, we were able to get more than a day’s worth of tacks and gybes in.

It’s reassuring sailing long-keeled yachts, the way they undertake manoeuvres at their pace, not yours, and go through waves or wash with the least bother imaginable – a nod of the bow, a smattering of spray, and on they go. As the breeze occasionally increased, the helm would load up and she would just keep tracking along.

On the wind she was making around 35º at a leisurely 4 knots in 10-12 knots apparent, this increased to 4.5 knots as the apparent wind increased to 14-18 knots. On the wind there was weather helm, it wasn’t excessive, but enough to idly contemplate if the rudder was having any effect on her course. Putting the helm full over would encourage her to tack at a pace that allowed both genoa and staysail to be tacked across. That said, her bottom wasn’t the cleanest, despite being scrubbed a few months earlier.

Like many 33’s Sea Walker has been modified to reduce the weather helm. Original 33s had an almost semi-circular trailing edge to the rudder, Sea Walker has a straight trailing edge that meets the line of the keel foot to give her more rudder area low down, much like the 35. Also, by adding a bowsprit and converting her to a cutter rig, the centre of effort of the headsails has moved forward. Even with a generous helping of weather helm, many consider this vice an acceptable compromise for her desirable traits and impeccable behaviour at sea.

Her cutter rig has a high-clewed hanked-on staysail, taken to tracks abeam of the mast, the genoa is taken to tracks near the toerail, once the staysail is up, it’s all very manageable. Coming off the wind, her speed remained just below 5 knots until it was aft of the beam and the apparent wind dropped and all we could muster were speeds above 4 knots in 7-10 knots apparent.

Like all moderate displacement yachts, she needs a bit of breeze before she can be coaxed into life, but when it comes little will faze her. ‘She’s a fantastic boat and does everything I need her to do well, except go astern,’ says Martin.

Her Achilles heel

Sea Walker has a feathering propeller which, along with the Beta 38 provides plenty of power ahead and astern. Like all long-keel yachts, her turning circle isn’t tight, although you can spin her on the spot, with bursts of power and the helm well over. Manoeuvring astern, however, is best avoided. It’s not that she’s unpredictable – on the contrary.

When you go astern, her back end will canter off to port until it’s into the wind, then the windage of the hull overhauls the prop walk and she’ll happily weathercock, stern into the wind. Should you want to deviate from the source of the wind, it’s more a ferry glide than a turn, and it will only ever be to port. Sea Walker does benefit from a bow thruster, which Martin finds really useful, but he’ll often wind her around in marinas to make his life easier.

Tradewind 33 specifications

DESIGNER: John Rock
BUILT: 1975-1982
PRICE: £40,000-65,000
LOA: 33ft / 10.05m
LWL: 25ft 10in / 7.87m
BEAM: 10ft 6in / 3.2m
DRAUGHT: 5ft 6in / 1.69m
DISPL: 19,443 lb / 8,820kg
SAIL AREA: 544 sq ft / 50.5m2

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