When a 1999-built 36-footer is priced at €149,000, many potential buyers could be forgiven for barely giving it a second glance, for at first it seems like a lot of money for a 17-year-old boat which, for all her well-filled hull, is still only 36ft long.
But let’s put the question of asking price to one side for the moment, and consider what the Swedish-built Malo 36 has to offer to anyone expecting to be sailing from an Irish port for the foreseeable future.
Like it or not, the prime consideration is the weather, and having made a few passages recently in some of which we seemed to be motoring in light airs with a lot of rain, we found ourselves considering boats which lend themselves to having a practical tent to turn the cockpit into what is in effect a wheelhouse.
Even if you draw the line at being enclosed at sea when a lookout is required which needs more visibility than the large clear panels in the cockpit tenting comfortably provide, the advantage of being able to tent over the cockpit completely at anchor or in a marina berth is a real bonus, and here the Malo 36 is tops. She’s halfway to having a deckhouse already with a rigid windscreen, while the eternal problem of what to do with the mainsheet is solved by having it work from a surprisingly unobtrusive gantry across mid-cockpit.
Malo 36 drawing showing standard and alternate layouts
It’s a design feature which, at a stroke, makes the boat seem much larger than a 36-footer, as it maximizes cockpit space while at the same time giving a greater sense of security to those in the cockpit itself. And that cockpit is down aft to provide an accessible companionway into the accommodation, which is of course something you take for granted until you happen to find yourself sailing on a boat with a centre cockpit with a big drop to get below, or else with an aft cockpit but with the main companionway hatch a sort of coal-hole up towards amidships, an arrangement so awful we won’t speak further about it.
So the Malo 36 is a sensible boat for those who are realistic about the Irish climate, but don’t want to go the whole hog of having a deckhouse. She’s of a recognised and highly regarded marque, and she keeps her value well. But in this case, is that value €149,000?
The boat really does come with many desirable features for ease of handling, including in-mast furling, and a 7hp bow-thruster combined with the substantial 47hp Yanmar diesel main engine. She is lovingly maintained. But nevertheless the important equipment such as the engine is getting near the age when you might begin to think a replacement is a prudent move.
In other words, this is one fine ship, she would be absolutely ideal for cruising in Ireland or further afield in confidence and comfort, but in this instance the impartial advice of a professional surveyor is every bit as necessary as liking the boat in the first place.
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