"Northwest Passage", Wauquiez Gladiateur 33 Sailboat

Northwest Passage is a 1984 Wauquiez Gladiateur 33 sailboat, hull #278.

Her specifications are approximately:

11,000 lb. displacement, 4,800 lb. fin keel (external lead ballast), full-skeg rudder
32' 10" overall length, 27' 3" water-line, 11' beam
6' draft per original specs., but about 6' 4" for actual Northwest Passage draft
50' total air draft (vertical clearance)
490 sq. ft. sail area with standard jib, 580 sq. ft. with genoa
7.0 knot, 8.1 mph hull speed
Tankage: 20 gal. diesel, 40 gal. water
Volvo MD-7B diesel, 17 hp, auxilary power

The Wauquiez Gladiateur 33 is a French-built cruising boat built by the small yard of Henri Wauquiez when he was building high-quality, performance-oriented cruising boats, before Wauquiez was acquired by Beneteau. I bought and am outfitting Northwest Passage for my post-retirement cruising plans. Wauquiez boats are uncommon in North America, and were previously unfamiliar to me. I will be assessing Northwest Passage's offshore handling on my cruising in Northwest waters beginning in 2010, and after that I will decide if I want to outfit her further for crusing to Mexico and perhaps beyond.

Northwest Passage has a sail inventory of full-batten mainsail with two deep reefs, No. 1 135 genoa, No. 2 working jib, No. 3 Hasse Sails small jib on pendant for heavier air, and a large asymmetric spinnaker with snuffer for light air.

Northwest Passage was converted by a previous owner from her original tiller steering to Edson wheel steering. Improvements I have added include shorepower service, battery charger, offshore lifelines with port and starboard lifeline gates and gate stanchion braces (originally NWP was set up only for stern boarding as done Med Mooring style), stern perch seats, retractable lazy jacks, self-tailing main halyard winch to aid in reefing, additional cabin-top winch for boom topping lift re-routed from mast to cockpit, DSC VHF radio connected to new GPS chartplotter and with cockpit speaker-mike, backup old VHF on a separate antenna, low-power draw LED lighting for all navigation and all interior lighting, interior red night LED lighting, and many other improvements and repairs.

Among Northwest Passage's amenites are the stern perch seats that I designed and built. They provide a good view when motoring or sailing in light air, and expand the seating capacity for taking people day-sailing.

For further information on the Wauqueiz Gladiateur 33 see:

Original Marketing Brochures (Click on "Doc. Technique".)
Photographs of another Gladiateur
Diagram of the Gladiateur design