A 'tinnie' Strictly For The Playboy

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday June 17, 1988

By PETER FORBES

Three weeks ago, we reported a new offering in aluminium runabouts. Today, we look at another "tinnie", this time a much larger vessel, a 52ft(15.8-metre) aluminium-hulled Circa luxury sports cruiser, built in New Zealand.

This vessel is not for everyone, particularly as it is priced at $1.3 million. Indeed, I was told that a spectator cruiser viewing a Circa demonstration recently was carrying "100 of the richest men in Sydney" - all with champagne in hand, of course, and with two later assuring an attractive young woman attendant: "We're young and we're rich."

They've got it, and the Circa might help them flaunt it.

From the Wharangai boatyard of Alan Farrand - another of that New Zealand breed that excels, its boatbuilders - and designed by Alan Warwick, this bullet-shaped speedster is claimed to have a cruising speed of 30 knots and a maximum speed of 36 knots.

Unfortunately, on the day of the demonstration none of the speed gauges was functioning, so I could not verify the speeds attained, but the Circa certainly had pace and rose very smartly on to the plane.

The ride was smooth on the small wave chop to be found on Sydney Harbour on a quiet day, and this BMW of the waves was most impressive in its turning ability at speed. In a tight U-turn about 70 metres across, it lost very little speed and power.

It's not the sort of boat that Alan Farrand has been used to building. He has been foremost a builder of commercial aluminium boats, but originally went into this "playboy" design to keep the cash flow going during a lull.

His experience in aluminium shows through, and he shows himself to be a good boat-finisher as well.

The Circa is not a conventional screw-driven vessel. It is powered by twin GM Detroit V-8 650hp turbo-charged intercooled diesels driving twin Hamilton 361 jets. As a result, it leaves very little of the wash that screw-driven vessels can leave to worry others.

The vessel can sit at its cruising speed all day, and was about to perform just that in a series of hops up to its new home on Hamilton Island, where it will perform for Circa Marine as a charter day-tripper and as an enticement to potential buyers of its sister ships as they are built.

The Circa naturally burns up a lot of fuel, so you'd need to be able to reach into your millions to support its drinking habits. At cruising speed, this 17.5 tonnes of power and comfort burns 3.8 litres (about a gallon) of diesel for each 0.62 nautical miles travelled. That quickly adds up on any sort of run.

The interior of the vessel is simply but well laid-out, with a master sleeping cabin forward, a full toilet, shower and basin compartment next to the master cabin and two other double-berth cabins aft of a spacious lounge and galley. With a full 240-volt power system, the vessel runs a large electric stove and a number of refrigerators and ice-boxes.

It has a navigation and communications area as part of the main lounge.

The boat and its main saloon are mainly white, with off-white soft leather lounges and pale grey carpet. This could add up to produce a lot of glare, but the wrap-around darkened windows of the main saloon and the suntops available for shading the rear deck and command bridge should take care of this.

A director of Circa Marine is Gary Johnson, who is also managing director of Jennings Health Care Ltd, a private hospitals and retirement village operator. Johnson said Circa Marine was not associated with the Jennings company.

The marine company had been formed to charter and market the Circa, along with other boats such as Scarab and Riviera powercraft and Northshore 46 and 48 yachts.