CHAPTER 20 Spray 33, 36, 38 & 40

M/C STEEL. FIBERGLASS WOOD/ EPOXY Spray 33 in round bilge

fiberglass, multi chine steel or
multi chine plywood.

LOD ............... 32’-11” 10.03 M

LWL ................... 26’-7” 8.13 M
BEAM ................ 12”-0” 3.66 M
DRAFT ................. 4’-0” 1.22 M
DISPL ...... 22,000 LB 9,980 Kg
BALST ....... 7,500 LB 3,400 Kg
AUX PWR ................ 20-33 HP

There are over 1,000 examples al-

ready on the water and cruising
throughout the world.
This design is a smaller version of
the original Spray and shares many
of the same features. Either can be
built in Steel, Aluminum or Copper-
nickel. These designs are available in
double chine or round bilge hull form.
A large variety of deck layouts includ-
ing center cockpit, aft cockpit and
pilot house versions are available for
these boats.
 SPRAY 33 - Alternate layout.

The Spray 33 is one of the few Spray designs that we prepared without any firm order from a
particular client. Many of the designs offered by our company are the result of custom design
orders that we feel will have a wide enough appeal to be offered as stock plans. The Spray
33, though, was a design we felt would be well accepted; and plans and patterns were pre-
pared without a firm order being to hand. As with any business activity, you win some and
lose some. Fortunately the Spray 33 has turned out to be a big winner.

Spray 33 dimensions:
LOD..............................................................32FT 11in [10.03m]
LWL..............................................................26ft 7in [8.13m]
Beam............................................................12ft 0in [3.6m]
Draft..............................................................4ft 0in [1.2m]
Headroom......................................................6ft 4in+ [1.9m]
Displacement................................................22000 lb [9972 kg]
Ballast...........................................................Varies
Spars............................................................Timber or aluminum
Auxiliary........................................................30 to 50hp
Sail area........................................................Varies
Sail plans......................................................Cutter, ketch or schooner
Construction materials.................................Steel, fiberglass or wood/epoxy
I have just received my plans for the Spray 33. I am overwhelmed by the number of draw-
ings and the detail including deck fittings right down to the plans for the Roberts Dinghy.
This is not my first boat building experience. I have built what my wife refers to as “toy”
boats, a 14' wood /epoxy daysailer and a 20' cedar strip canoe.

This will be my first “serious” boat building experience and I am looking forward to getting
started. Having looked them over I can see where the cost lies. The plans from other
designers do not compare. I would not hesitate to recommend Bruce Roberts for boat
building plans to anyone who might ask. Sincerely, Rick Deschenes”If you spend all your
time trying to get even, you will never get ahead.”

Royal Spray
One of the most unusual Spray 33s we designed was one for the King of Thailand. We were
approached by the Boy Scouts’ Association of Thailand, who wanted to build a boat as a gift
for the King to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the dynasty. As my own grandfather had
been a mining engineer who spent most of his life in the Far East and often dined with the
present king’s father, this project was of particular interest to me. We were sent a consider-
able amount of material written in Thai script, including three drawings, one of which repre-
sented the crest of the King, another the crest of the Queen, and the third was the crest for the
nation. This last crest took the form of a sacred bird.

We faithfully copied all of the script to be included on the plans, which obviously were in-
tended to be presented to the King along with the boat. Our associate designer Graham
Williams also copied the crest of the King, Queen and the country on to the sail plan.
We had a lot of communication with the people who were handling the work. We received
photographs showing the hull being built and then no more was heard from the principals
concerned. We understand that th boat has now been completed

Cora
Palle Christoffersen built his steel Spray 33 Cora in Sweden, starting construction in 1988
and launching her in 1992. The recently received letter that accompanied an excellent set of
photographs was written in Swedish so unfortunately I am unable to quote directly from Pelle’s
comments.
Fortunately the photographs speak for themselves; Pelle has made a beautiful job of not
only building the hull; the quality of workmanship exhibited in the fitting out of the interior is first
class. Solid mahogany timber was used extensively and the cabinet work is all of the highest
professional standard.
The decks and cabin top are all sheathed with a laid teak deck and again the photographs
reveal a well thought out arrangement and high standard of workmanship throughout. Pelle
has fitted the Ketch rig and I notice he has chosen tan sails that always look attractive on a
traditional boat like the Spray.

Southerly Buster
This Spray 33 was built at Ballina
NSW Australia by John Page and
launched in 1982. This boat was
completed in the very creditable
building time of under 8 months.
This must be one of the most trav-
elled Spray 33s ever built; John
has successfully completed many
single handed ocean voyages in
Southerly Buster cruising to New
Guinea, the Solomon Islands,
and Thailand by way of Christ-
mas Islands, the Philippines and
Indonesia.

The most notable voyage, a com-

Southerly Buster running in the Pacific. plete circumnavigation, was un-
dertaken with English born Carol
Larkin as crew. Countries visited included, South Africa, Brazil, various Caribbean Islands,
Panama, and back to Australia calling at Brisbane, before completing the voyage at Darwin
Northern Territory Australia.

The worst weather encountered was 200 miles off Townsville, Queensland, when in 1989
Southerly Buster rode out Cyclone Ivor. John found himself 40 miles from the centre of the
storm and considered himself lucky the avoid the worst of a very serious cyclone; he only
experienced 80 knots, at the centre it was reliably reported that the wind speed reached well
over 100 knots.

John reported his best passage was Cocos Keeling islands to Rodrigues a distance of 2000
M [5179 km] covered in 13 days. During this crossing the crew slept every night with winds of
25 to 35 knots on the quarter.
 Southerly Buster at a beautiful Pacific anchorage.

Anna Lee
Joseph W Rohloff of Nunica, Michigan, bought plans for the Spray 33 and had the hull shell
built in Canada. The Spray was extended 2ft [610mm] in length. This was before we de-
signed the Spray 36, but Rohloff also made other important changes. He used a steel bowsprit
and arranged the foredeck flush all the way to the bow. The bow was closed resulting in a
large foredeck. The builder also raised the gunwhale 2 - 8in [50 - 200mm],a change that
some others are also making. It makes sense, because high bulwarks mean safety at sea.

In December 1993 we heard from Jo Rohloff: ‘Anna Lee was launched on 4 June 1987. So
far, she has been sailed on the Great Lakes. She has met or exceeded all my expectations
and could certainly take me anywhere in the world’. Joe explained that Anna Lee is fitted with
6000 lb [2721 kg] of lead ballast. The cutter sail package for the Spray 36 was installed to
suit the longer overall length. A section of the keel was closed and used for a closed-system
engine cooling, which worked very well. A 20hp Humpah diesel provides adequate power
through an 18in x 12in [457mm x 305mm] three-bladed prop.

Isambard
This boat is jointly owned by Reverend Richard Gregory, and Mr. G D Luton, both of Dorchester
in Dorset, UK. Back in 1986, we heard from Reverend Gregory:

‘It gives me great pleasure to write and tell you that the plans I bought for the steel
Spray 33 at the latter end of 1979 have this season led to the launching of our centre-
Spray 33 - Anna Lee - Nice to have a boat named after
one ! My wife’s name graced one of our boats too.
 cockpit, gaff cutter, Isambard,
which we named after the great
engineer Isanmard Brunel. I ex-
tended the coach roof forward
about 18in [457mm], and cut it off
2ft [610mm] aft, and added an af-
ter cabin, which is really spacious
with an athwart ships double
berth. The two cabins connect via
the cockpit, and also by a pas-
sage down the starboard side un-
der the cockpit seat. This gives
excellent access to the engine,
which I fitted further forward than
shown in the plans. I raised the
topsides by 7in [178mm] abaft the
cockpit, but laid the afterdeck
without the 4in [100mm] bulwarks,
so I gained 11in [280mm] head-
room for the after cabin and re-
duced the apparent height of the
after coach roof. Under the stern
there are four galleon windows,
so that the after cabin is very light,
and there is a nice view for those
that occupy the after berth. For-
ward of the saloon, the forepeak
is 5ft [1.52m] between bulkheads,
Isambard - The gaff rig shown is one of several sail and is fitted out with a workbench
plans that are included in the plans for the Spray 33. and a store.

After launching in July, they managed a five-day cruise in light winds and have since done a
fair amount of day sailing. Although they have yet to experience any seriously testing condi-
tions, their verdict is that Isambard is a most comfortable yacht, and excellently stiff and
reassuring to live aboard. They say that she sails well in light winds and has impressed some
very experienced sailors.
Reverend Gregory said:

‘It’s been a long slog building the boat, only one day a week and no evenings from my
job as a parish priest, but I have enjoyed it all - except the grinding down and wire
brushing. She does not leak a drop, either from above or below, and I have not had
any condensation either, even though as yet the lining has not been done. I am, as you
can gather, very pleased with the design and look forward to many happy seasons of
good cruising.

He goes on to say that they have been restricted in their sailing to the English Channel and
Brittany because of work commitments, but that their boat has ‘dug a groove in the sea’
between England and Normandy, and that they have found her very sea kindly whatever the
weather. Reverend Gregory plans cruising on 52 to 6 knots, and though with a strong wind
they have done 8 knots, 5.3/4 knots seems to be the hull speed. They have had a number of
grounding experiences, and September gales parted the mooring chain and drove the ves-
sel on to a rocky beach. The boat’s underwater configuration, combined with the well-pro-
tected rudder and screw, and beaminess, all proved good insurance against damage, which
did not take them long to repair. Reverend Gregory comments that many fiberglass boats
did not survive nearly so well in these gales:

‘Despite dire warnings that a boatbuilding project that becomes too protracted leads
to loss of enthusiasm, I must say that for the six years we were building her, the project
gave me tremendous satisfaction, and I have gained such useful skills, especially in
metalworking, that I never could have imagined would be so valuable and in so many
fields. At present they are being used in the sculpture class, for which the students
need steel armatures. This winter my co-owner, Mr. Luton, has been building a large
wood frame screen, and we are extending the Spray hood to cover the hull cockpit. It
must be a sign of ageing!

Oysterman Spray
This steel Spray 33 was built for Mr. and Mrs. Giddy of St Athan, South Glamorgan, and UK.
Other than a photograph of the boat and a short note from Mrs. Giddy, I did not know much
about this particular vessel. ‘Enclosed, photographs of our Spray on the day of launching. At
the moment we have none of her sailing, but hope we might have some soon as we know
other members of the club have taken some photographs. However, as usual this is a view
that we never seem to get ourselves. ‘You may note that Oysterman is the same name as the
Roberts Spray 40 which was built in fiberglass by Roger and Riva Palmer back in the late
60s. Oysterman is a natural name for any Spray because apparently the original Spray was
used for oyster fishing before she came into Slocum’s ownership. When I later spoke to Mr.
Giddy I learned that Oysterman had been sold and cruised down to Malta in 1990 by her new
owners,

The subsequent history of

Oysterman came to me via a
communication entitled The
Malta Un-connection. Due to the
death of the owner, Oysterman
had been left in Terry Erskine’s
boatyard on the island of Gozo,
Malta.

This Spray 33, built of steel some

12 years ago, had never been
properly maintained and was left
virtually abandoned for the previ-
ous four years. She was indeed
a sorry sight when a prospective
buyer Mr. Bob Stewart first saw her late in 1993. Bob was smitten with the boat and returned
to the UK and negotiated the purchase and in early 1994 became the proud owner of a very
tatty Spray 33.

Oysterman was sitting in a locked boat yard that had now ceased to trade and was caught up
in the usual mess of third party properties. Terry Erskine, the only director of this business still
remaining in Malta, was in limbo with all sorts of restraining orders forbidding him to leave the
 islands while at the same time not allowing
him to be there. Notwithstanding all of these
problems, Terry agreed to help Bob liberate
his new boat and also to assist on a quick
‘tart up’ and re-launch of the vessel, so it could
be sailed back to the UK.

After a few days of working on the boat Terry

Erskine knew that the ‘tart up’ was in reality a
major refit. Almost everything on the boat was
in need of attention and Terry worked long
and hard to prepare it for sea. Bob Stewart
arrived for his three week vacation and
worked a 14 hour day alongside Terry, virtu-
ally rebuilding his recently acquired boat. At
the end of his time off, Bob returned to his oil
rig job and left Terry to complete the refit and
re-launch the Spray 33 by the middle of May.
After a Herculean last minute rush, common
to all refit and building jobs, Oysterman was
launched.

As Terry Erskine had an ‘Impediment of de-

This Spray 33 was built in Australia by Anthony parture’ placed on his person by the Maltese
Fountain - Anthony also was involved in form- government, it was with some trepidation that
ing the Spray Society in Australia. Oysterman was sailed out of the harbour un-
der the watchful eye of a Maltese gunboat.
After engine trials for an hour Bob then hoisted
the sails, put aside his worries about clear-
ance and set a northerly course for Sicily.

Bob continues, ‘ By the next morning we were

motor sailing along the Sicilian coast when
we received a buzz from an Italian patrol boat
asking where we were bound. We replied,
‘France’, and they lost interest in us at that
point, waving us on our way. After sailing
through some thick fog, plus an encounter with
a large section of hatch cover netting, we
pressed on towards southern France.

Next morning, a German warship was on the

RT asking for ‘yacht in position so and so to
identify’, itself and of course it was us! We
were informed that we had entered a 40 mile
radius, war games area, where live missiles
were being fired! They ordered us to leave
the area on 110 degrees which was back the
way we had just come. We tried a 60 degree
Spray 33 JOSE shown here sporting her full rig.
course, to slip out of the area without losing too much ground, but very shortly a large bow
wave was sighted, belonging to the destroyer, and we were told to clear out of the area
immediately. We politely explained there was no wind and we were a sailing boat with very
little fuel for our 33 hp diesel engine. After a pause the warship came alongside with the crew
lining the rails and we were given a jerry can of fuel and they filled our two plastic containers
as well. They waited for the return of the jerry can; it was the only one they had! It seems that
the whole of the North Mediterranean was closed to all shipping, except for a narrow three
mile channel at the top of the French coast.

At dusk we found ourselves in the three mile channel with all of the shipping of the Med.
funnelling through it and by now the winds were up to force 5 and right on the nose. It was a
very uncomfortable night with winds increasing to force 6 and 7, and by morning we were off
St Tropez. We finally arrived at Toulon where we tied up at the hospitable Du Port De Saint
Mandrier marina. We searched out the customs and were asked why we bothered, we had
no drugs did we ? We were British were we not? So all was fine, no paper stamping or form
filling needed here. Next day we headed off again, finally arriving at Sete. There was no room
at the marina so we anchored in the commercial dock basin. We had covered 872 nautical
sea miles, 7 nights at sea and an average of 4.98 knots; not bad for a Spray 33.

The next job was to un-rig the boat and prepare for the passage through France via the Canal
Du Midi and Canal Lateral, from Sete to Bordeaux. Sete is a nice holiday town totally domi-
nated by the port docks and canals. There are lifting and swing bridges dividing the town into
areas of fishing boats plus docks for commercial and tourist activity. It is possible to spend
considerable time in Sete without paying mooring fees. The bridges open at set times to
allow ships and yachts to negotiate the various areas and passage into the large Etang De
Thau. For the next month we spent time tied up in various locations taking advantage of the
free moorings and sampling the local wine.

During this time we met many passage-making yachts and boats arriving and leaving the
French canals so we were able to gain valuable information that would be useful on the next
stage of our trip. Several tires were procured from local garages and carried back to the boat
and strung around the sides of the hull as a canal ‘defence system’.

Bob returned for another stint of leave so we were able to proceed through the lifting bridge
that would admit us to the canal system. We tied up in the dark near the first lock, ready for an
early start the next day. At 0800 the lock opened for business and we paid the keeper a fixed
fee that would cover us for the whole passage through the canals. Our first days run of 66 km
ended at the junction of the Canal De La Robine, and having negotiated 16 locks, we felt that
our target of seven days to Bordeaux was possible.

Now we were in amongst the hire boats, nicknamed by the locals as ‘bumper boats.’ These
plastic boats are crewed and skippered by people of all nationalities and levels of profi-
ciency. An example of this experience is the memory of one skipper who, when his lady crew
fell overboard, immediately proceeded to reverse over her. He said he did not know how to
find neutral! The lady had a lucky escape.

After a 52 km [32M], 20 lock, day’s run we were greeted with the news that the lock keepers
throughout France were now on STRIKE! Tied up in the middle of nowhere with 85 degree
heat, there was only one thing for it, we would declare a ‘Make and mend day’, and change to
engine oil etc. Terry rowed back 3km [1.8 M] to the village of Trebes and secured a can of oil
from the English owned hire boat company.
The strike only lasted one day and with the lock keepers back to work we were able to con-
tinue our passage along the Canal Du Midi. Our next day’s run was 41km [24.4M] and 24
locks. Next day, we ran aground when the canal water dropped one foot! Within a minute of
the lock keeper’s start up time, a surge of lock water was released to float us off and allow us
to continue on our way.

When we left the Canal Du Midi and entered the Canal Lateral we soon cleared our first
automatic lock. The rest of the passage was uneventful and we arrived in Bordeaux having
travelled 572km [355M] and 148 locks in the very respectable time of nine days.

The canals were a great experience and they can present some minor difficulties to yachts
with masts laid on deck. They are a necessary part of moving around Europe and a boon for
those of us who do not have unlimited time to sail around, rather than through France. At time
of writing, Oysterman is in Bordeaux, re-rigged and ready for the next and final stage of her
return to the UK.

Dragon Spray
This steel Spray 33 was built by Dragon Marine then located on Hayling Island near South-
ampton. Dave Folwell of Dragon Marine has built many Bruce Roberts-designed steel boats,
and he built a Spray 33 for his own use. Often he would be out sailing and some of the so-
called ‘hot’ keel boats would think his Spray was a pushover, and would come alongside
wanting to show their superiority. However, in anything but a hard punch to windward, the
Spray 33, which could carry full sail long after the other boats were reefed down, would sur-
prise all concerned. Many of these impromptu challenges ended with the Spray 33 showing
the other boats a clean pair of heels.

Columbine
I photographed this steel Spay 33 when I was visiting Minnisot Beach Marina in North Caro-
lina. Dr Keith Wolfenbarger and his charming wife, Judy, carved out a 200-berth marina from
swampland off the Noose River, and they had personally owned four Bruce Roberts-designed
boats including Roberts 53s. There is always at least one Spray visiting the marina, including
one that sailed over from South Africa. The couple that brought her over, worked in the marina
for some time, hoping to remain in the USA. Columbine displayed as her home port the little
town of Littleton, Colorado.

Colorado is more or less in the centre of the US, and a very mountainous state; it is famous
for its skiing rather than its boating activities. However some people prefer to register their
boats in their home town, no matter whether the town is miles from the ocean. Also, in the
USA it was at one time an acceptable practice to register your boat in a state that had few
boating facilities, and consequently no taxes aimed directly at the sailor.

By registering the vessel locally, one could thereafter escape the taxes of the state where the
boat was kept. Of course, the authorities soon woke up to this ruse, and consequently any
boat that appeared in a marina in their state could be slapped with a tax demand. This in turn
lead to unfair situations in the extreme, as one could be visiting a marina or anchorage for just
a few days and have the taxman knocking on your hull.

Northern Spray
This boat was built by John E Bushnell of St Paul, Minnesota. I remember well the day that
John walked into my design office and said that while he found the Spray 33 an attractive
boat, he would really prefer to build something just a little longer, and would help in designing
a stretched version of the Spray 33. At that time, I considered this to be a one-off request, so
I consented to assist John with some additional sheets added to the Spray 33 plans which
would enable him to build a slightly longer version of this boat. John chose fiberglass as his
boatbuilding material, so we set about outlining the changes that would give him the space
he required. At this time, there were no plans to design the boat that is now known as the
Spray 36; this was simply a one-off exercise for a client who wanted something just a little
different. John subsequently went ahead and built his Spray.
After a considerable amount of cruising around the Caribbean, John wrote:

‘It is now four years since 4 July 1979, which was when I started constructing Northern
Spray. Suddenly the long task had become worthwhile. I cruised the Bahamas alone
for several months. Alone? Not really. At every anchorage I met other boaters. At one
of them in the Berri chain, my offer of a tray of ice cubes each evening from the plenty
my refrigerator turned out provided me in return with surplus fish from their snorkelling
expeditions.

John then goes on to chronicle all of the places he visited around the Caribbean and all the
friends he made both afloat and ashore, and the chance meeting with boats that he had met
up with several times, and all in one wonderful year of cruising. After that he went back home
to Minnesota to spend a winter with his family, and his letter closed by saying, ‘When I resume
cruising this spring, it will again be towards home, and then finally get to Lake Superior to
taper off with short trips on the Great Lakes for parts of the summers.’
Shortly afterwards, in January 1985, I received another note from John. It read:

‘I have owed you a letter for a long time to inform you how Northern Spray has turned
out. In essence, you in design, and I in execution, have both done a fine job on her.
There is no detail of design and execution that was not suitable for the requirements of
a fine, comfortable cruising boat. In the year and a half since I arrived in the Gulf, after
a fine trip motoring down the Mississippi, I have been fortunate enough never to have
been in any long-lasting heavy gale, but on quite a few occasions I have sailed in very
fresh winds. At no time have I had any green water on deck, nor has Northern Spray
heeled over far enough to put the deck under water. She has stood up well in the
occasional heavy gusts of winds such as those that often precede a thunder shower. I
have never had any failure concerning any of the rigging or operation of any part of
Northern Spray.

Brass Loon
This boat, owned by Leuder L Kerr of Comox, British Colombia, Canada, is of aluminum
construction, cutter rigged, and has a Perkins 4108 auxiliary engine. The hull was built in
1979 by a yard in Vancouver specializing in aluminum fishing vessels. It was then finished by
the previous owner over a three-year period and launched in 1982. The main departure from
the plans was the addition of a pilot house, which works very well, and the installation of a
larger engine.
Leuder Kerr is currently living aboard and finds it very comfortable.; the pilot house allows
him to sail in the Pacific north-west all the year round. It is not a fast boat but he particularly
likes its stability, sea kindliness and the sense of security its massive strength gives him. He
has run into floating logs, which are a local hazard - often at night and while at full speed -
without the least worry or hull damage. Another plus is the keel configuration coupled with the
wide beam. It lets him run ashore on a sand or mud beach at low tide to clean the bottom,
heeling only about 25 degrees. On the next tide, he simply changes sides !
Aluminum Spray 33 Brass Loon owned by Leuder L Kerr British Columbia.

Hazebra Lady
This fiberglass Spray 33 was the first of
several Sprays built by Jack Read, and we
visited this boat when it was moored on
the Norfolk Broads. Hazebra Lady is fitted
with a Vetus 33hp diesel, and rigged as a
Bermudan cutter. When Jack built this
boat, he wrote the following; ‘Since being
launched in June we have spent a month
cruising from Norfolk to Portsmouth and
back, and hope to get over to Amsterdam
next week. She took ten months full-time
work to complete and cost ,12500. Timber
is genuine teak, except for the mahogany
cabin sides. I am well pleased, and she
has been much admired at all ports of call.’

Jack Read eventually sold Hazebra Lady

to Paul Francis, who owned her for three
years and cruised for 5000 miles. Paul
Francis has a most complimentary opinion
of this boat, and only sold her to order a
larger Spray 36, named Hazebra Pride.

Fiberglass Spray 33 Hazebra Lady

Hazebra Lady was sold to the present owner, Mike Ambrose, and he has since crossed the
Atlantic in this Spray 33. The route was Walton-on-the-Naze, Ramsgate, Southampton,
Falmouth, and Lisbon. Gibraltar, Canary Islands, Barbados, Trinidad, Honduras and Guate-
mala. Last report was that Mike was sailing Hazebra Lady north to Mexico and then on to the
USA.

Molded Spray
Some years ago we received a call from Florida from someone who suggested he was
going to build a mould for the Spray 33; his company would produce fiberglass hulls. We
were pleasantly surprised when we received photographs of a beautiful moulded Spray 33.
Also enclosed with the photographs was a picture of a well-built mould. Some time later I was
in touch with the company, who informed me that so far they had only built the one hull, for
pressure of other business had caused them to put the project to one side. The photographs
reveal a hull, for that is incredibly fair, but I wonder where it is now.

Plucky Lady
This boat was built by Mr.
and Mrs. Depreitere in
France, and I first became
aware of this particular
Spray when I received the
following communication
headed ‘In the Wake of an
Obsession’:

‘It all began in 1987 when

my husband fell in love: he
saw the first picture of the
Spray. After owning three
other boats he had finally
found his dream boat, so
we bought the plans. The
hull and deck were to be
built by a professional, but
two months before it was
finished the company went
bankrupt and we lost
everything. In 1989 we
decided to buy another
boat. After visiting quite a
few sailboats, my husband
said that if we couldn’t
have a Spray to sail in,
then he didn’t want to sail.
In August 1989 we rented
a broken-down farmhouse
with lots of land space.
We did not have a lot of
money, but the courage
was there. My husband did
 not have any experience in welding, but that did not stop him. With the help of some
friends, it was OK after a few weeks. It is now 1994 and we will be launching in the
summer of 1995. My husband’s dreams, which also became mine, were not lost. It
was a beautiful dream come true. She is a real plucky lady, which of course is the
name of our boat. See photo on previous page - Plucky Lady is a dream come true
and she has now cruised many thousands of miles; the Depreitere’s love her !

Scesney Spray
This Spray 33 will soon be launched by George A Scesney of Atlanta, Georgia, USA. George
has written to inform us about his boat and to request information about the use of a solid
spar for his mast. One of the few designs in which we would recommend the use of a solid
spar is the Spray series. The Spray is so inherently stiff that the solid spar with its additional
weight may even be of some advantage over an aluminum mast of similar strength

Hamblin Spray
In 1982 Doug Hamblin was already well advanced in the building of his steel Spray 33, and
as Doug had a few ideas of his own, it is worth quoting him here:

‘It has been necessary to deviate from the suggested building plan in several cases. I
have chosen the upside down building method on a steel jig. The steel jig costs about
the same as a wooden one, and I feel the steel is sturdier, longer lasting and does not
change shape with the weather. I set the frames up on the jig with a transit to level the
head stocks. I built a complete framework for the transom. I decided to use a hydraulic
drive system; instead of putting in an angled propeller shaft, I have mounted the stern
tube horizontally 16in [406mm] above the keel. The hydraulic motor is to be mounted
deep in the keel. I plan to use a Mazda RX7 rotary engine because of its smoothness.
It will drive a Rex-Roth variable displacement hydraulic pump. This unit should put
about 50 hp at 3000 engine rpm and 900 propeller rpm.
Even with limited space available, this boat is still easy to build. Thanks to the multi-
chine design, the skin plates are kept to a reasonable size. I have had no problem
whatsoever building this boat alone.

California Spray
This fiberglass Spray 33 was built
in California. As our office at that
time was located nearby in
Newport Beach, we had quite a
lot of contact with the builder of
this boat. When the time came for
launching, which was to take
place near San Diego, I and
another member of my design
team were invited to the big event. Accompanied by my long-term Australian friend and
associate designer, Graham Williams, we proceeded to San Diego in time to see the boat
being trailed down to the marina. As is typical in California, the launching was undertaken
using a travel lift, so there was none of the panic that is sometimes associated with these
events. There was plenty of time for us to inspect the boat, which was beautifully built and
finished - both inside and out. The boat was rigged as a gaff cutter, and all of the masts and
equipment had been custom made. This was really a beautiful boat, and one that I would be
proud to own.
After this very joyous occasion, it was surprising and somewhat disillusioning to receive a
phone call a few months later from a doctor who lived in the area. The conversation went
something like this.

‘Have you read about my boat......? ‘No,’ I admitted, I had not heard anything. ‘Well, the fellow
who built it absconded with the boat’ The doctor explained that the person who had built the
boat, and who had been officiating at the launching, was only the builder and not the owner.
This was certainly a very different impression from that obtained by all who were present at
the launching party. It seems that the launching was held while the doctor, self-declared owner,
was away. On his return, he found his boat missing; the person who built the boat had sailed
off into the unknown. The doctor
alerted the authorities and a full-
blown helicopter and aircraft
search was made for the vessel
However they did not find the
Spray 33.

A few days later though she was

sailed back into port voluntarily
and the builder was arrested. The
doctor now wanted to sell the
boat, and unfortunately at the time
I did not have the sense to buy it
myself. I have to assume that the
story told by the doctor was
correct; the facts would have been
Truly a beautiful Spray 33 - I wonder where she is now ? easy to check.
 Bellavia
This steel Spray 33 was built in
England for an American client
who took delivery of her and
sailed down through the
Mediterranean, and subsequently
the boat was sailed across the
Atlantic and now is in the United
States. I did have the opportunity
to see her being built and also be
present at the launching and trials.
This Spray 33 certainly sails well
and she was beautifully built and
fitted out by Wistocks of
Woodbridge, Suffolk.

The foregoing was written several

years ago and appeared in my
earlier Spray book SPRAY The Ultimate Cruising Boat. Since that time Bellavia has had
some interesting experiances. Firstly she was sailed around Europe including some canal
crusing and the across the Atlantic to the USA and on to Bermuda where she was laid up by
her somewhat elderly owner. A broker friend of mine in Annapolis sold her to an Irishman who
operated a world wide salvage company. After enjoying Bellavia for two or three years she
was again on the market. As with most of our boats that are for sale, I heard about this and put
a prospective customer from Iceland in touch with the broker. She was purchased and after a
few minor repairs, sailed to Iceland. Now as we know ( I have been there) Iceland is has a
cold climate so a pilot house was called for. So she is sporting her new addition!

This is Bellavia a much travelled and modified Spray 33 - Her owner loves her and writes
glowing reports of her handling and sea worthiness in the rough waters around Iceland.
 Pilot House Spray 33
This steel Spray was built by Terry
Erskine when he was operating
his boatyard in the UK.Terry later
moved his operation to Malta to
take advantage of the low taxes
and other incentives being offered
by that country. However, he found
Malta too far removed from the
marketplace; we now have him
back in the UK building boats.
Pilot house Spray 33 built by Terry Erskine.
Rahmani
This boat was built by Major Pat Garnett MBE, who is attached to the Sultanate of Oman
Ministry of Defence. There are a few British military officers who serve in the Sultan of Oman’s
Army, and Pat Garnett has served in this capacity for several years. During his stay in Oman,
Pat built the Spray 33 called Rahmani, as well as the Roberts 434 radius chine steel Omani,
which he sailed single-handed around the world in 218 days - a record in itself a record for
the 27000 mile [43451km] voyage. Pat has also been involved in the construction of a Roberts
Waverunner 44, which was built for the Fisheries Inspectorate in Oman. Pat is also planning
to build a Roberts New York 65, which he will be sailing single-handed around the world and
trying to establish a record. But here is Pat’s Spray story:

‘In November 1986 I sailed my Spray 33 Rahmani’ single-handed from Muscat to

Bombay. During the voyage I suffered from increasingly severe pain in the left buttock.
By the time I reached Bombay, I was barely able to walk. The Breach Kandy Hospital
diagnosed a prolapsed disc and recommended that I be admitted and put in traction.

This posed a number of problems, so I repaired away to the five Star Oberoi Towers
Hotel to consider the options. Should I leave the boat and fly home? (Unthinkable.)
Should I accept the treatment? (Not attractive-it could be an indefinite period.) Could
I find a crew, at least two, and pay the return fares? (Probably difficult, expensive, and
what about visas?) Time was short, with only 14 days’ leave remaining. Perhaps the
pain would go away, but when?
In a blinding flash of foolhardy inspiration, I resolved to let Rahmani take me home.
When I informed the hotel doctor that I was going home, he said he would make the
necessary arrangements with the airline. I told him I was going by sea. In that case, I
must give the following instructions to my cabin steward. I explained as gently as I
could what I had in mind. His manner changed rapidly from incredulity to alarm, and he
insisted that I sign a note exonerating him from all responsibility. Doubtless, he still
has it.

The Tindal (head boatman) of the Royal Bombay Yacht Club rowed me out to where
Rahmani was anchored off the Gateway of India. It took some time to persuade him
to hoist the mainsail and the No.2 jib and to crank in the anchor. He was standing in the
tender as I motored away in a flat calm, and the expression on his face was memora-
ble.

The sea breeze came up around noon and Rahmani put her shoulder into it and be-
gan that gentle pitching motion that is so characteristic of the Spray 33. In order to
avoid the fickle winds of the Gulf Oman, I set a course for Oman’s southern port of
Salalah, a distance of about 1100 sea miles [1770km]; but I hoped to be able to go the
whole way on an easy reach in the north east monsoon wind. I set up the Aries and lay
down flat on the cockpit seat.

Except for easing the sheets for the land breeze, I remained there all night.
The pain was worse by the next day, but we were starting to feel the northerly wind so
I extended the Aries control lines to run below, prepared a stock of food and water
close at hand, and assumed a prone position on the lee berth. I was not to set foot in
the cockpit again until we reached Salalah.
 heading by the position of the sun and the constellations sweeping past the open
hatch. Each night I took the altitude of Polaris. No fancy corrections, altitude Polaris -
latitude is good enough for government work. This was much less painful than hanging
around waiting for a meridian passage.

I was in excruciating pain and great distress. The pills were gobbled up too quickly
and I resorted to whisky. I read the Walker log with the camera telephoto lens and,
when I felt able to do so, I took a morning sight draped on the ladder with elbows on the
bridge deck. A position line worked up by the Haversine method gave me a pretty
good check on longitude.
These navigational excursions presented an opportunity to dump my urine bottles and
plastic-bag bedpans overboard. No navigation lights. The battery was flat and I was in
no state to hand crank the engine. No lookout of any kind. It was a disgracefully un-
seamanlike performance, but we reached Salalah in eight days; 130 miles [209km] a
day virtually without touching a rope.

I anchored at about 2 knots in some disarray and then spent three months in traction in
various hospitals.; ample time to reflect on the remarkable qualities of the Spray.

Not long after I had received the story from Pat about their experiences I heard from Sarah
Wright, Pat’s long-time friend and associate, who has made several cruises with him on his
various boats. One trip was from Oman to Goa, India, and Sarah sent me the log of this trip;
it runs to 40 pages, so could not be reproduced here. The sail from Oman to Goa takes about
ten days and Sarah’s log reveals a relatively uneventful sail. Sarah, who at this stage was a
relatively inexperienced yachtswoman, found handling the Spray quite easy, and managed to
carry out her watches without any problems. As Rahmani has the characteristics common to
all Sprays - that is, she will steer herself for long periods - the log of the voyage to India has
many passages that tell of nice easy cruising. No big crises, and good daily runs with the
Spray looking after herself much of the time.

After a few days of rest and relaxation Sarah and Peter sailed the Spray back to Oman.
Again it was a pleasant easy sail without any drama. Pat went on to build his Roberts 434
Omani, which he sailed single-handed around the world in only 218 days.

Lucia
This Spray 33 was built by Paul Fay, who also built Spray 36 called Faizark, details of which
appear in Chapter 8. Paul is now a full-time professional boatbuilder and has made a won-
derful job of building Lucia for Maureen Dawson of Westward Ho, Devon, UK. Maureen in-
tends to sail this boat single-handed across the Atlantic, and will be sponsored by the Variety
Club of Great Britain. Her purpose in making this single-handed transatlantic crossing is to
raise funds for her favourite charity. She was hoping to leave England in April of 1995, to
coincide with the date on which Slocum left the USA on his single-handed round-the-world
voyage. Several other Spray owners are planning similar trips and hoping to leave on the
same date.
I first met Maureen Fay ( at that time Marueen Jenkins ) at one of the UK Spray owners get
togethers at the t ime we managed to organize a Spray Association in Europe ... Alas Spray
owners are very individual in their ways so eventually our small band was absorbed by the
Joshua Slocum Society in the USA. As you will see it all turned out well in the end.

Maureen, better known as Mo is a very attractiveand delightful lady. Mo was in the process of
having her Spray 33 built at that time. Mo’s boat was built by Paul Fay, his third Roberts boat,
see Fays Ark in the Spray 36 chapter. Paul did a great job of building the Spray 33 for Mo and
the next time I met Mo was at the Joshua Slocum / Spray centennial celebrations and rally in
Newport RI USA. With almost no previous experiance Mo had sailed her Spray single handed
from UK via the Azores to Newport. We all had a great time at that gathering, many Sprays
had sailed from far and wide were on show with short trips available for those who wanted to
sample the delights of the various boats.

Maureen Fay and

her Spray 33 LUCIA
The Slocum Society is comprised of not only many the many Spray owning members but in
addition admits anyone who is interested in Single handing. Many single circumnavigators
were present at the Spray Centenary get together.

One person present who I greatly admire is David Sinnett-Jones, see details of Davids Spray
36 later in this chapter ... Anyway David built a near replica of the Liberdade, one of Slocums
other boats I designed the hull based on drawings of Liberdade, for David and attempted a
single handed trans-Atlantic crossing from UK to make it to the Centennial but alas the
Liberdade replica hit an obstruction and bent her rudder and had to limp back to the Azores.
David did make to Newport by air and was one of the featured speakers at the rally. David
later sailed Liberdade from UK to Brazil and then sailed the same voyage as Slocum made
from Brazil to Newport USA.
 SPRAY 36A
MULTI CHINE STEEL.
WOOD / EPOXY
FIBERGLASS
There are over 500 Spray 36s in service
and as many again being built in Steel,
Fiberglass and Wood/Epoxy.

If you are looking for a medium sized fam-

ily cruising sailboat then the Spray 36 could
fulfill your requirements at minimum cost
to your family budget.

There are several versions of the Spray

36 and the accommodation can be rear-
ranged to suit all types of family require-
ments for a crew of up to six persons.

This design has also proven itself many

times to make a highly successful single-
hander so if you are expecting to sail on
your own or with minimum crew, then we
can recommend the Spray 36

LOD ............................. 36’-10” 11.23 M

LWL ............................... 30’-0” 9.14 M
BEAM .............................. 12’-0” 3.65 M
DRAFT ............................. 4’-0” 1.22 M
DISPL ................... 24,400 LB 11,068 Kg
BALST ..................... 8,400 LB 3,810 Kg
SPRAY 36 B
MULTI CHINE STEEL.
WOOD / EPOXY
FIBERGLASS
LOD ............................. 36’-10” 11.23 M
LWL ............................... 30’-0” 9.14 M
BEAM .............................. 12’-0” 3.65 M
DRAFT ............................. 4’-0” 1.22 M
DISPL ................... 24,400 LB 11,068 Kg
BALST ..................... 8,400 LB 3,810 Kg
This aft cockpit version combined with a
generous sized pilot house offers many
alternate lay-out possibilities. Using the
Super Study Plan package you can design
your own interior accommodation.

SPRAY 36 C
MULTI CHINE STEEL.
WOOD / EPOXY
FIBERGLASS
LOD ............................. 36’-10” 11.23 M
LWL ............................... 30’-0” 9.14 M
BEAM .............................. 12’-0” 3.65 M
DRAFT ............................. 4’-0” 1.22 M
DISPL ................... 24,400 LB 11,068 Kg
BALST ..................... 8,400 LB 3,810 Kg

Over 300 completed. The ‘C’ version of

the Spray 40 has been so popular that we
received many requests for a similar ar-
rangement for the smaller Spray 36. There
is a great photograph of David Sinnett-
Jones ‘Zane Spray’ in the book SPRAY The
Ultimate Cruising Boat. The same book
details David’s single handed round the
world voyage as well as his Atlantic cross-
ings in the SINGLE HANDED TRANS-AT-
LANTIC RACE.

If you are seeking the maximum family ac-

commodation while retaining the excellent
sailing qualities of the Spray then this ver-
sion may be just for you.

Note the 4 ft / 1.22 M draft, this is one of

the shallowest fixed keel cruising boats
available that really sails!

Super Study plan packages include

ALL VERSIONS A,B,C.
Originally, we prepared plans for this design because a few customers lengthened the Spray
33 to get extra room and in some cases desired a centre cockpit arrangement. After some of
these stretched boats were completed we were able to determine that this design would
work quite well, so we decided to prepare a complete set of plans for the Spray 36 for con-
struction in either fiberglass, steel or wood/epoxy.

Swedish Spray
On one of my first visits to Europe, I went to Sweden and I stayed with Sven Pettersen who
was my agent at that time; now retired. Many of our designs were and continue to be built in
Sweden, including many Sprays of varying sizes. Some were built at Sven Pettersen’s factory
at Kelmar, and others were built by individuals and various professional boatbuilders
throughout Sweden. One of the first boats I had the opportunity to see was the Spray that was
being built by Christos Athanasopoulous, a Greek professional jazz piano player who lived in
Stockholm. First, Christos built a model of the boat he intended to build. The pilot house
followed the typical Scandinavian styling and he blended this in with other features of the
Spray 36. The whole worked out very well and we later incorporated the arrangement into the
standard plans. When I visited Christos Athanasopoulous’ s boat, the hull, decks and
superstructure were completed and work had just started on the interior. Christos was very
proud of what he had achieved to date. About two years later a letter arrived from Christos:

Spray built by Christos Athanasopoulous, a Greek professional jazz piano player.

‘You perhaps have been wondering if I will show up again. Well, here I am, after four
years of building my Spray 36, and all in my spare time. I was able to launch her at the
beginning of last summer. I named her Spray and have enjoyed cruising in the Archi-
pelago around Stockholm. She is just a wonderful boat. She is still unfinished in some
details, like the decorative painting, the teak trim on deck, etc. Inside, though, she is
just about complete. I have altered the interior, as you can see in the photos; her great
space inside gives a home-like feeling.

Unfortunately, I cannot say much about her performance under sail, simply because I
have not had her rigged until now. However, the spars are now ready, although there is
 no chance of enjoying sailing as the boat is laid up for the winter. I can say a little about
her motoring abilities, though. I have installed a Kabota 6 cylinder diesel, developing
58hp, and 2600 rpm. My first propeller, which was 19in x 13in [482 x 330mm] was
giving 5 knots at an idle speed of 800 rpm. By that time, my optimistic waterline was
disappearing under water as she was weighing 26455 lb [12000 kg], so I took her up
on the land for a new antifouling job and changed the propeller to another that is 19in
x 10in [482 x 305mm]. It was at that time I discovered the rudder was full of water due
to bad welding, so repairs took place at that time. I managed also to fit a greaser to
the rudder stock for easier turning of the wheel. Motoring now at 1400 rpm gives a
good 6 knots and 7 knots at 1700 rpm, still having plenty of margin for adverse condi-
tions. Maximum speed so far is 9 knots at 2400 rpm. I very much appreciate your time
spent helping me, mostly for my peace of mind.

From the above, you can see how important it is to fit the correct propeller to your boat: 1in
[25mm] in pitch can make a lot of difference, and even after having calculated and recom-
mended hundreds of propeller sizes over the years, think trial and error seems to be the only
way to get the perfect propeller combination. This can be expensive if the error is too great,
as the propeller has to be changed rather than altered. Even with computer aided design, we
still cannot guarantee a perfect match every time.

It was another two years before I heard from Christos Athanasopoulous again, the letter was
from Athens: ‘I arrived in the port of Athens at the end of last summer. Spray has proved to be
a marvelous boat. She is now under Greek flag ready to be chartered. Finally, he wrote ‘she
is stable, like a rock, large and strong. She gave me many thousands of hours of pleasure in
return for the time I took to build her. I have now sold Spray and I will miss her a lot.

Hopeful
See photo of Hopeful on left. This
steel Spray 36 belongs to James
and Joan Moysey, who purchased
their plans when we were exhibiting
at the Newport, Rhode Island, Boat
Show. We heard nothing from them
for two or three years, but then we
received news that they were having
the hull, deck and superstructure built
by a professional builder. Shortly
after this, we received regular
progress reports:

‘Hopeful has been launched and

christened. The keel was laid in
1981 in Gulfport, Mississippi, by
Ray Merrell and his sons. They con-
structed the hull including decks,
engine formers, prop. tube, rudder,
window and port light cut-outs. She
was flame sprayed, zinc and primed
when I received her by truck on 10
October 1981 at my residence in
Grangeville, New York.
 I was working full time, and during the next five years not much progress was made. I
took early retirement, and in October 1988 I shipped her back to Ray Merrell, who was
now located in Pass Christian, Mississippi. My wife Joan and I had put our home of 26
years on the market. We followed closely behind Hopeful and moved south to enter
another phase of our lives. In Mississippi I worked full time on the boat, and received
direction and encouragement from Ray and his sons.

Hopeful was launched on 29 June 1992 at Misc Marine in Gulfport, Mississippi. After a week
of sea trials, James and John motored her over to Florida via the Intercoastal Waterway to
Hernando Beach on the west coast of Florida. Hopeful was not rigged at that stage, but she
was at their dock in their back/front yard. James said: ‘If you thought I worked slowly up to this
point, I really slowed down. Finally on 13 June 1993 the mast was raised with the help of four
others plus myself. When it came to raising the mast, it went very smoothly and was com-
pletely uneventful. After a last-minute clean-up and some accessory additions, it seemed like
time to have a christening.’ This was held in October 1993. Hopeful has now been sailed, but
not yet fully trialed. James is very pleased with the way his vessel has turned out and has
received excellent reviews from everyone who has been aboard.

It is amazing how some builders can build a complete boat from scratch on their own in one
year, when another builder will take up to ten years to fit out a hull. When I first became inter-
ested in boats some thirty years ago, I used to marvel at the various boatbuilding projects
around Brisbane, which seemed to take for ever to complete. My own first boat, a 28ft [8.53m]
sailboat, was built in under a year; however my neighbour Bill Haslet took about eight years to
build a 30ft [9.14m] planked motor sailer. Bill has now had that boat for about twenty-two
years.
ABOVE Hopeful - some photos of this attractive Spray 36
 Hopeful - it is interesting to the difference a new color will make to any boat !

FAIZARK is a Spray 36 was built in steel by Paul Fay, who has gone on to become a
professional boatbuilder. To quote Paul:

‘Before building our Roberts Spray 36 in steel, I read Jim Mellor’s articles in the Eng-
lish boating magazine Practical Boat Owner. I read these articles very carefully, and
bought a copy of Mike Pratt’s Own a Steel Boat. I also read every book in the local
library on boatbuilding, regardless of the type of material it was referring to. We found
that useful information on general methods of building could be learned from all of
them. We bought a copy of Boat World, which is a wonderful annual publication listing
all of the manufacturers of marine parts in the UK. Over a period of about two months,
we used it to find the makers of most of the items we would need to fit out our boat. We
then wrote almost 300 letters (not all at once), asking for details and prices. Savings
made here allowed us to spend more on other things. The best example of this were
anchors and chain, which were bought at half the normal price. We also saved money
by regularly visiting various second-hand dealers and going to marine auctions.

Paul and Fay his family and friends built the hull themselves, though they did need help in
carrying the 5 tons [5080 kg] of steel from the delivery truck to the garden. The cost of the hull
was ,4100, and this included the deck and cabin, and four steel bulkheads, two water tanks
and a diesel fuel tank, as well as the welding rods, grinding discs and gas used for cutting.
They bought several tools that the average handyman probably wouldn’t have, like a grinder,
oxyacetylene cutter and some smaller hand tools. The price of ,4000 for the hull included the
cost of grit blasting and painting. The paint scheme is epoxy tar for the inside and outside up
to deck level, and then epoxy resin over the deck. Regarding the rig, they bought a Sitka
spruce tree for the mast, which needed to be left to season and then planed down to shape.
The rigging wire is completely galvanized, except for two forestays. These need to be stain-
less, otherwise the sail hanks would quickly wear away the galvanizing. They made all the
mast fittings themselves, except for the blocks and rigging screws, and then had all the fit-
tings galvanized. All the running rigging is 2in [12mm], which should be obtainable at a dis-
count price if bought by the reel. (Regarding making your own fittings, if you are capable of
welding up a steel boat, you are certainly capable of making all the fittings that are needed to
complete the project, and it is worth remarking again that with a boat like the Spray, she looks
best if the fittings have that slightly rugged commercial or handmade look. A Spray looks all
wrong when she is glossily finished and fitted out with all off-the-shelf gear and equipment. It
is best if some of the vessel’s workboat heritage shows through.)

Paul Fay’s original estimate of how much the boat would cost to build was ,9500, with only the
cost of grit blasting and painting to be added. Nevertheless, they added ,3500 for luck to
make a total of ,13000. In the event, the total cost will probably rise to nearly ,1000 above this
because they have added to their original specification. For example, having bought a few
windows from the auction, they decided that the overall appearance of the boat would be
enhanced if the rest matched. They also bought a radio after being lectured by a coastguard
friend.

Paul wrote:
‘For anyone who would like
to build a boat of this size, but
cannot afford that sort of money,
don’t be put off. I am convinced
that an amateur who is prepared
to spend more time making things
himself can build a strong,
seaworthy boat about 35ft-40ft
[10.6 -12.1m] for about ,10000,
especially if he has bought a set
of Bruce Roberts’s plans, which
are full of money saving ideas. We
bought ours long before we were
ready to build. After studying the
plans thoroughly, we wrote to 20
steel stockholders asking for
quotes ‘to include delivery for the
5 tons [5080 kg] of steel we
needed’. This is one area where
great savings can be made, by
buying as much as possible in
one go. When we received all the
quotes, we were amazed to find
that they varied from ,1700 to
,2250. Our local stockholders
were some of the most
expensive, so our steel came all
FAIZARK anchored off the wild Cornwall coast.
the way from the Midlands to the
West Country and was still ,500
cheaper than we could buy it round the corner. As you may have realized, we don’t have a
bottomless pocket. Like most amateur boatbuilders, we have to watch the pennies very carefully,
so for those of you thinking of doing something similar, we have quoted figures that are
applicable to the early 1980s. Of course, prices will change, but if you just add in something
for inflation, you should be able to come up with an estimate that is fairly close.
Faizark’ s engine is a 4 cylinder, 42 hp Volvo Penta with a propeller bought from a second-
hand dealer. They bought a new stern tube and shaft. They have three anchors, 240ft [73.1m]
of chain, two anchor warps and a very pretty anchor winch, which Paul doesn’t believe will
last very long. There are six sheet winches, all of which were bought second-hand. The rea-
son for the number of winches is because they believe that the weakest member of the crew
should be able to handle the boat. Paul says that plenty of mechanical advantages are needed
but that the rest of the deck fittings were made by them and then galvanized.’ As you can see
from this list the basic boat, in what can be called sail away trim, can be built quite cheaply,’
he said.

Faizark was launched on 22 June 1983 into the river at Bideford, Devon, UK and despite the
slight change I made to the design, she floated dead level, about 22in [60mm] higher than the
design waterline (its always nice to have some waterline to spare !). Paul reports being ex-
tremely pleased with the way she handles and the speed achieved even in light winds. She is
very stiff, and even though there is more ballast to add, she has proved very comfortable to
sail in. Apparently she punches through the horrible Bristol Channel chop, like a dream. As
the photo shows, the deck layout has been altered by taking the poop stern 5ft [1.5m] for-
ward, and the deck used as cockpit seats, with simply a coaming around the cockpit. There
is full headroom throughout the boat. She certainly has as much accommodation as most
45ft [13.7m] boats. The engine is under the cockpit well, there is plenty of room to move
about.

Paul Fay and his family have extensively cruised their Spray 36 and some of their experi-
ences were chronicled in letters and phone calls:

‘We left Bideford on 5 September bound for Spain across Biscay. The first night going
down the Cornish coast we averaged 5 knots, rounding the end of Cornwall next morn-
ing. Then we crossed the Western Approaches. The wind fell light until we were totally
becalmed for the next night. The following day we moored for a while until a little wind
came. After this, only the log can tell the story, as the wind increased to force 7, quickly
going from south-west to north-west, causing a very confused sea that impeded our
sailing. Later, the wind swung back to the south-west, and increased to a force 8 for a
while, but this time the seas were more regular; and, under deep-reefed main and
staysail Faizark worked up to windward magnificently, giving us great confidence if
ever we get caught on a lee shore. During all of this, the only water we had on deck
was when going to windward, when she occasionally scooped up a dollop along the
bows. After this, we were again becalmed, eventually moping for 100 miles [161km].
The last night was really grand sailing, with winds of force 6 on the beam; we arrived
at La Coruna on the 12th, which seems a long time for this distance, but speaking to
others who crossed at the same time, it seems we did very well.

Since then, Paul and his family have taken a slow cruise down the coast of Spain and Portu-
gal. At the moment they are in Lisbon, and the next stop is the Canaries. In every port they
arrive at, Faizark causes quite a stir: ‘There are always several people who come up to us
with the expression “She’s a Spray ,isn’t she?” We have met a Norwegian who has a deep
keel yacht in steel. He has problems with water coming into his boat, and when I took a look
I found that his skeg was falling off, so between us we dried his boat out and did a major
repair on the beach in Lisbon. After getting to know Faizark well, our Norwegian friend is
interested in owning a Spray of his own, so perhaps you will send me some information that
I can pass on.’
Paul’s comments about the Spray working to windward were later confirmed during several
conversations. The addition of a slightly deeper keel on some Sprays makes a world of dif-
ference to their windward ability. This has also been backed up by comments of many other
Spray owners including Charlie Jupp, who added about 1ft [305mm] to the draft of his Spray
40, and also by owners of some of the older Sprays that were built in the 1930s, 1940s and
1950s many of which also had slightly more draft than the original Spray. With our smaller
Spray designs, that is, the ones smaller than the normal full-size Spray 40, we always design
in a little more depth of keel. This seems to have greatly improved the windward performance
of these boats.

Paul also has some other useful information to pass on:

‘After our recent crossing we decided to try a square sail, so we cut down a piece of
parachute that we had used as a spinnaker and made it from that. It sits right at the top
of the mast. So far, for downwind work we have set twin headsails and the square sail
above them. I have been so impressed with it that any boat I have in the future will have
to have a rig designed to carry one properly, i.e. swept-back crosstrees, etc. Although
ours is only 180sq ft [16.7sq m] it is much more powerful than a jib at 250sq ft [23.2sq
m]. Using it on the trip from St Barts to here, we averaged 5 knots, and the only boats
that passed us were a couple of large Swan, and they were motoring.
We well understand why the Spray is so popular, as we have found her to be fantasti-
cally comfortable in any type of sea, even running before a bad storm, which another
yacht equipped with accurate wind instruments reported as force 10 for a while. I went
to sleep on the cockpit floor. On top of all that she still punches up to windward when
everyone else is hove-to.’

Paul Fay subsequently returned to Devon in the UK, where he built a steel Roberts 345 that
was sold, and then, pleased with the success and profits he had made from previous
boatbuilding ventures, decided to become a full-time steel boatbuilder. Paul has recently
completed a steel Spray 33 that is mentioned later. As for Faizark, this Spray 36 was sold to
an Australian, who sailed it home to Brisbane, Queensland, and this vessel is now happily
cruising the Australian coast.

Hornicke Spray
Recently, a large package popped through my letter box from Hans-Jurgen Hornicke of
Vasteras, Sweden. This package contained a beautifully presented set of photographs cov-
ering the entire building process of Hans’s fiberglass Spray 36. To quote Hans:

‘I started to build my Spray 36 at

Christmas time in 1988. I started
by making the frames in May 1989,
and by 27 July I had completed all
the fiberglass. I then began to fair
the outside of the hull, and the
turning over was a happy day
because for the first time I can see
the whole hull, and it is beautiful.
The same time as I built the hull, I
made many items, including
blocks, mast fittings, rudder,
 pedestal steering and the wheel, and many other items. I work on the boat every Tuesday
and Thursday after my ordinary work is complete. I am a glass blower for neon lights.
I also work on the boat on Saturdays for a full day.

Another thing of interest was that I had to attach the foam myself without any assist-
ance, so I used pipe cleaners that I bent into a U-shape and inserted through the foam
so that each side of the U was each side of a batten. I then twitched the pipe cleaners
together from inside the mould. The whole thing worked beautifully. The pipe cleaners
are very kind to the polyurethane sheets, and there’s very little risk of drawing them
right through the foam. Finally, I hope you can understand most of this letter for my
English is not good..

PHOTOS . On left, below and following pages of Hans Jurgen Hornicke’s Spray 36
PHOTOS on above and
below are of Hans
Jurgen Hornicke’s
S p r a y 3 6
Steam Lady
For many years, Goran Kjerrman in Gavle, Sweden, thought about building a Spray. He had
read Slocum’s book, and he wanted to combine sails and steam power because his two big
interests in life are sailing and steam engines. Of course, the combination of sails and steam
is a very old idea; when Slocum decided to sail around the world, the steam engine was then
very modern and also becoming very common. Goran decided to build a Spray 36, fitted with
a steam engine auxiliary. He considered that this boat had all of the features to be a good
sailor, and he thought the boat very beautiful. When people hear the words ‘steam engine’, it
often conjures up thoughts about coal dust, soot and smoke, and a stoker shoveling coal in
the front of a hot boiler.

However this is not necessary with a small, modern steam engine. In Nkyvarn in Sweden
there is a small factory that specializes in building small steam engines; most of these are
custom built. This factory, HF-Maskiner, was able to build Goran’s steam engine just as he
wanted it. It is a triple expansion engine working at a steam pressure of 426 lb/in 2 [30 kp/
cm2] . The engine weight excluding the boiler, but including feed pump and lubricator is about
1322 lb [600 kg]. The engine develops 54hp, and the maximum number of revolutions is 400
rpm.

The diameter of the high-pressure cylinder is 3in [76mm] medium-pressure cylinder 5in
[132mm], and the low-pressure cylinder, 9in [228mm]. Goran Kjerrman,is a licensed welder,
and he made the boiler himself. He started with a water tube boiler, but this type took up a
great deal of room and he soon changed his mind and made another one, a small fire tube
one, very like the famous Scotch Steam Ship boiler.

Goran Kjerrman and his partner resting after a good days work on Steam Lady.
To this boiler he adapted a super heater, a feed water heater, a condenser and an evaporator
for the production of drinking water from sea water. The boiler has a diesel oil burner, but it
can also fire the boiler with coal or wood. The weight of the boiler and steam engine together
is about 2645 lb [1200 kg]. Goran has insulated the boat for living aboard in all seasons, and
the whole interior is fitted out with oak. The entire vessel is a masterpiece, and perhaps this
Steam Lady is the only steam engine Spray in the world.

Lady Hawk
This Spray 36 was built by Paul and Pamela Hawkins of Palatine Bridge, New York:

‘Our Spray 36 took us eight summers of weekends to complete. We might have been
able to build the entire boat in less than 16 months if we had worked on it full time. We
enjoy the boat very much, and can’t believe just how much boat we have until we com-
pare it to O’Days and Hunters of the same length owned by our friends. The overall
performance of the boat is outstanding. She easily handles 20 knots of wind under full
main, and 150 per cent Genoa. In 25 knots we routinely set the staysail and full main.
On Lake Ontario we have 5ft [1.5m] waves and our friends are amazed at how well
she handles these. The only changes that we would recommend are a larger diesel,
around 45hp, a 6ft [.8m] cockpit, and a 3ft 6in [1.1m] wide cockpit sole, to give better
clearance around the wheel.
Regarding cockpit sizes, it is always something of a decision as to what width your cockpit
should be. If you have it too wide, then you cannot sit on one seat and rest your feet on the
edge of the opposite seat, which is a common position for people sitting in a cockpit espe-
cially when there is any reasonable heel on the boat. Another thing is if the cockpit is too wide
and too deep, it will hold too much water in the unlikely event that you ‘cop a big one’, either
over the bow or stern. Generally speaking, we design our cockpits to be 2ft 6in wide
[760mm] and about 1ft 6in [460mm] deep. If a cockpit is too deep, it can be uncomfortable to
sit in. If you build a cockpit about 1ft 6in deep [460mm], then by the time you add a teak
grating or other similar arrangement, it works out just fine. As far as making a cockpit wide
enough to accommodate the wheel is concerned, quite often the seats are scooped out in
the area where the wheel is actually located; in that way, there is room for the wheel to be
located at the correct height and still clear the cockpit seats, and the temptation making the
cockpit too wide is avoided. As far as cockpit length is concerned, the ideal is around 6ft 6in
[2m] long. This allows the average person to stretch out full length on a cockpit seat, and this
can have the added benefit that the seat can be used as a berth when in port in a very hot
climate, thus allowing at least two of the crew to sleep comfortably on deck.

Silent Annie
This Spray 36 was built by Tony Nelson, who has made a particularly fine job of the interior; so
much so, in fact that an English yachting magazine is expected to run an article on the fitting
out of this boat. Some of the features of the interior include bulkhead doors fitted with stained
glass panels showing east coast smacks, and a hand-carved rose on the seat end, the sa-
loon table with 1/4in [6mm] beading and 15in [380mm] diameter compass rose inlaid in the
surface. All of the galley posts and fiddle rails are hand turned, with beautiful hand-made
mahogany cupboard doors and drawers. Other cupboards feature leaded doors, which gives
the interior of the main saloon a beautiful hand crafted appearance.
Tony says:

‘What I am trying to do is to build a classic boat that will not die as so many yachts do
in ten or so years, but one that will last for many, many years. Regarding the paint job,
outside I have used two coats of zinc-enriched epoxy, plus two coats of primer. Inside,
one coat of winter grade epoxy, plus three coats of Admer self-healing paint, plus of
course the 2in [50mm] foam insulation. All interior cladding is coated with primer on
the reverse side. The two stainless steel water tanks are 68 gallons each and situated
under the saloon floor. The keel is filled with steel punching, plus a welded plate over
the top, and then filled with cutting oil to stop rust. The engine is an 87 hp Ford diesel
with a 2:1 reduction.

Hazebra Pride and Hazebra Lady.

Paul Francis first purchased Hazebra Lady a fiberglass Spray 33 built by Jack Read. After
sailing this boat for some time, he decided he wanted a larger boat and commissioned Jack
to build this steel Spray 36. Paul said: ‘I sold Hazebra Lady in 1989 to Mike Ambrose, who,
although having only limited experience, bought it to sail to Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, USA.
Details of Mike’s trip are given under the Hazebra Lady heading in Chapter 9. Paul wrote:

‘Hazebra Lady is extremely sea kindly, very gentle and predictable; she allows you to
get away with mistakes. We sailed her for three years with many North Sea crossings
covering approximately 5000 miles without a moment’s worry.
Our second Spray, Hazebra Pride the 36ft [10.9m] aft cabin version that we have had
since August 1989, is owned jointly by my son and myself. To date, we have covered
9000 miles [14483 km] exploring the Ijseelmeer, and Holland in general plus the Bel-
gian and French coasts as well as the east coast of England.

Hazebra Pride is a lovely sea boat, again very safe and sea kindly; it is noticeable we
are one of the last to reef down. Our most noteworthy trip was the return journey to the
UK from Flushing in October 1990.(Paul related in detail this trip, where the weather
forecast of force 4 to 5 turned into a storm with winds in excess of force 9) ‘During the
crossing in these extreme conditions, Hazebra Pride gave us not a moment’s worry
and all gear stood the strain. We have so much confidence in our Spray we would go
anywhere in her.
Paul Francis was the founding Commodore of the Slocum Society (Europe), and took a very
active part in the centenary celebrations and other activities associated with the furthering
interest in the original Spray and her descendants.

Sally Belle
This steel Spray 36 was built by John Osborne, who decided to build her after he had been
coerced into doing so by his friend David Sinnett-Jones. David, as you will read later, had
decided to build his own Spray, so it seemed like a good idea for the two hulls to be built side
by side. David Sinnett-Jones’s first task was to persuade his wife, into accepting the idea of
his building two steel hulls on the concrete yard outside their disused cowsheds, and much
easier task was coercing his old friend John Osborne into building one of the hulls for himself
while they helped each other in the construction. John Osborne completed his Spray 36 Sally
Belle, and launched her, and she now sits snugly in Aberaeron harbour in Wales. John gets a
lot of enjoyment from his boat and uses her for coastal cruising. He contacted me with the
following comments:

‘I enclose a photo of Sally Belle high and dry, but sitting nicely on her legs in the
Cardigan estuary. I am very pleased with the way Sally Belle sails. On the way back
from the Cardigan trip I
sailed back with only the
staysail set in a rolling
sea, doing 52 to 62 knots.
Smashing! On another trip
last year we did it all to
windward quite a
crashing sail. But I also
enjoy peaceful sails and I
like the way Sally Belle
keeps going in light airs
down to about 2 knots.

Many Spray owners have

remarked on their boat’s
ability to keep going in the
lightest of airs. Not all
sailing (fortunately) is
done under gale
conditions, so it is
important to have a
cruising boat that handles
the light stuff as well as the
roughest conditions.

Zane Spray
As mentioned above, Zane Spray was built in company with Sally Belle for it is quite com-
mon for two builders to get together and build boats side by side. In fact, we have seen
several brothers build similar boats, father and son, or perhaps two friends or neighbours, or
sometimes more than two people with shared interest who want to share the companionship
of undertaking a similar project at the same time.
David Sinnett-Jones had a rather special reason to want to build his boat with some help, as
he writes:
 ‘I had been diagnosed as having advanced lung cancer and had to have urgent major
surgery to remove one of my lungs and part of the wall of my heart. Luckily, a few
months earlier I had taken up sub-aqua diving and my doctor had spotted the problem
when I went for a medical check-up and X-ray. Twenty years before that, in my motor
racing days, I was blinded in the right eye on being thrown through the windscreen of a
car, and now -at the age of 53 -, was getting a bit stiff in the bones. Some of the worst
things that have happened in my life have led the way to some of the most exciting
ones. I would never have started sailing if I hadn’t had cancer, nor farming if I hadn’t
been in and out of Sir Archibald McIndoe’s guinea pig ward, having eye operations
and 75 stitches in my face. McIndoe was a pioneer in skin grafting and plastic surgery
during the Second World War, treating most of the Royal Air Force pilots who had
severe burns; and when I was in there, the ward still had a very relaxed attitude to-
wards the patients.

Right from the outset of building their boats, John Osborne and David Sinnett-Jones were
looking to, build the boats for as little money as possible; and, with this end in mind, they used
an old steel-framed harvest trailer on which to set up the frames. When the hulls were com-
pleted, they moved them down to a car park by the harbour. The idea was that they were
going to have their yachts lifted into the water when the rest of the yachtsmen were having
theirs lifted out at the end of the season -, another example of taking the most economical
route. Regarding the masts, John and David found some clear knot free Douglas fir in a
timber yard that was about to go bankrupt, and for ,350 they bought enough timber to build
the masts and the booms as well. Zane Spray features a centre cockpit layout with a small
pilot house and is cutter rigged. The auxiliary is a Massey Ferguson 165 tractor engine that
David marinized using second-hand parts. His idea of using the Massey was that he figured
that wherever he might go in the world, he would be bound to find one in the corner of a field.
John and David made their own sails, and in all they made three sails for each boat, but no
spares. However, David was to take a roll of cloth and an electric zig-zag sewing machine
with him on his round-the-world voyage. He was fortunate in that John was a good friend and
actually stopped work on his own boat so that he could help David for the six months before
he was due to leave on his voyage. David comments on this by saying, ‘This was a great
sacrifice, as he wanted to see Sally Belle sailing, but perhaps he knew that once I had gone,
he would get a bit of peace and quiet’
When once Zane Spray was complete she was taken for a trial sail, and again I quote David’s
words:

‘Once at sea, we stopped the engine and unfurled the staysail in easy stages and half
the main. She picked up speed straight away in the stiff, south-west wind. We put out
more sail until we had all 1000 sq ft [92.9 sq m] up, and she raced along, throwing
spray into the air, and the lee scuppers in foaming water. We took turns at the wheel,
each one of us hogging it as long as we could. As we trimmed the sail ,she got up to 7
knots and then 7.5. We were overjoyed with our work. The boat was good, fast and
strong -, old Joshua would have been pleased with us!

Can you imagine the joy of these two friends out for a sail on the first of the two boats they
were building, and to have the boat perform as they had hoped. Both would have been equally
overjoyed. David Sinnett-Jones was fortunate. His friendly open-handed manner and his life-
long habit of easily making friends, including the period that he spent racing cars, came to
fruition when many people offered to sponsor him and his boat. They offered various pieces
of equipment that otherwise would have cost him a considerable amount of money. Not only
did friends from the past act in this way, but often complete strangers would come up, intro-
duce themselves to David, and take an interest in the project; this led to various sponsorships
and donations of gear and equipment. David also had a friend called Eric Williams, who is a
HAM radio operator and had also worked with him on previous voyages. He found David a
very reasonably priced transceiver that would do nicely for the trip. Originally, David had not
planned a single-handed voyage; however, one by one, the people who had planned to ac-
company him on various stages of the cruise became unavailable for one reason or another.

Another lucky break for David was when he met Phil Davies, known locally as ‘Phil Photo’;
Phil takes HTV news film and stills for the newspapers. As the media had previously given
David good coverage, he thought that he would ask Phil if HTV might be interested in David
sending back news reports on the voyage. The idea was to bring in some money. Phil sug-
gested that David should go and see the opera singer Sir Geraint Evans, who lives in
Aberaeron and is on the board of HTV. The upshot of all this was that HTV eventually worked
out an excellent sponsorship arrangement with David, whereby David was to make a film of
his voyage that would be sent back and screened on HTV. All of this worked out very well.
HTV got some very interesting and exciting film, and David secured very worthwhile spon-
sorship.

On 17 September 1985, exactly three years to the day from the time David Sinnett-Jones
had arrived home in his previous boat, Zane II, he motored out of the harbour and set sail on
his great adventure. David completed his circumnavigation, and on his return to Wales he
was feted. He received a considerable amount of press coverage, not only from HTV who
had in part sponsored the trip, but also from the local newspapers.

David’s single-handed voyage would have been a magnificent achievement for an able bod-
ied person, but even more so for someone who has lost both a lung, and the sight of one eye.
David has approached HTV to allow him to use the film in the form of a video, which will be
available to other Spray enthusiasts. Sailing round the world single-handed is not a first for
mankind, but an amazing achievement for someone with David’s disabilities.

When asked to comment on the most memorable part of his trip, David chose Percy Island
off Australia, a perfect tropical island that is kept by a former triathlon Englishman for the
benefit of passing sailors. Well, one would think that was enough adventuring for one man -.
Not so with David Sinnett-Jones.

In June 1992, at the age of 62, David took care of another ambition when he started in the
single-handed Trans-Atlantic Race, currently known as the Europe One Star. Zane Spray has
been given a new rig and suit of North headsails, and David was overjoyed to cross the line
in Newport, Rhode Island, USA, in 40 days. This is the same time that Francis Chichester
had taken to win the inaugural race in 1960. David is now living in a waterfront cottage in
Aberaeron, Wales; and his book Not All Plain Sailing has been completed and published
along with another book covering his voyages prior to building Zane Spray. According to
David, says his sailing days are still not yet over.

Because David Sinnett-Jones is a very friendly and generous person, he has offered to pass
on advice to those interested in learning more about the Spray and her sailing qualities, and
other aspects of preparing for and executing world cruises. Some of this can of course be
found in his book Not All Plain Sailing; however, he is more than happy to talk to anybody
who is interested in the subject of the Spray and cruising in general.
John Henry
Mark J Tompkins of Tolono, Illinois, USA was building a steel Spray in 1991. He used the
table of offsets to lay up full scale the frames for the hull, deck and cabin top. He also wanted
an aft cockpit with a long and cosy cabin. He was planning to build the mast and boom from
two flagpoles, one 35ft [10.6m] and one 30ft [9.1m] donated from two local McDonald’s
restaurants, I promised to take them sailing!

We know of many cases where various aluminum poles have been turned into masts. One
was Tom Corkhill, who sailed his catamaran Ninetails around the world. Ninetails has cov-
ered many additional thousands of miles on trips between Australia, Indonesia and so forth.
Tom built his catamaran at our Brisbane boatyard way back in 1967, and he is still sailing the
same boat. He rigged his cat with a light pole mast, and to my knowledge it is still in service.
People have used a complete assortment of items as masts, from cutting down a tree, through
to light poles and flagpoles, and of course purchasing a complete ready-made, custom-built,
aluminum spar with all the goodies.

Nascimento Spray
In July 1991 Edison Do Nascimento wrote:

‘I bought a plan of your Spray 36 in 1987 when I was living in San Jose, California. I
ordered the multi-chine plywood plan, but with the full-size patterns for fiberglass be-
cause I will build the boat in round-bilge, cold-moulded construction. Today I am living
in Campinas, Brazil. I built a temporary shed and bought the necessary timber to build
the boat. I am now starting to build a Spray model in the same scale of drawings as the
plans, 2in = 1ft. [1=24].

Here in Brazil the economic situation doesn’t feel nice, and the boat construction is
stopped for a while. Two years ago, a very hard storm destroyed my temporary shed
just when I had started to put the frames on the strong back. The frames were saved,
but I had to build the shed again. This time I’m trying to sell my powerboat to get back
on the Spray construction. As you know, whoever buys a Spray plan is a dreamer, and
as a dreamer we will never give up.

Gypsy Lady
In 1986 Mr. E Marvin Johnson of Salem, Oregon, wrote of his Spray 36: With 7000lb [3175kg]
of lead poured into the keel, and a Vetus P 421 engine, she is beginning to show signs of
wanting to go to sea, so thought it best to keep her tied up!’ The photograph reveals a moor-
ing line from the bollards, through the fairlead, and the boat is secured to a post in the shed.
‘You don’t have to be crazy to start a project like this, but it helps. She is a fine retirement
project and I’m having a lot of fun working on her. I’ll call her Gypsy Lady.

Sweet Ecstasy
Calvin Ayers of Boyne city, Michigan, USA described the building of his Roberts Spray 36 in
steel:

‘I’ve been sailing and building sailboats since I was a kid, and after going to sea in the
Navy I was hooked. I conducted five years of research before choosing to build a
Spray 36 in steel, with the centre cockpit layout, and decided to rig the boat as a
cutter. Before I started building her I had maybe 15 minutes of welding experience.
Needless to say, 125lb [57kg] of welding rod later, my welding skills have greatly im-
proved. I used the method of building the hull upright, welding the keel to an ‘I’ beam
 set in concrete. The reason for doing this is the cost of wood for framing. I am building
this boat on a shoestring, so every dollar spent has to represent a tool or part of the
finished boat. The only change in the design I am making is to add freshwater cooling
by adding a welded-up box made from T-section about 6in [150mm] deep at its aft
end, and when added to the bottom of the keel that will be used as a heat exchanger
I am having a ball putting her together!

Alpenglow
Back in the late 1970s the newsletter called The Steel Yacht was edited and published in
California by Bill Tapia. It was a three-or-four page photocopied publication, which after a few
issues grew into something a little more substantial. Unfortunately, this could not be sus-
tained and eventually it went out of business. Bill Tapia had some good ideas, and there was
-, and still is - a need for publications of this kind which give the builder and/or cruising yachts-
man good hard information. Because of the popularity of steel Spray replicas, they were
often featured in the magazine. To quote from one contribution:

‘Doug Knight of South Lake Tahoe, California, chose the Spray 36 design because he
was concerned with having enough living space for long distance cruising. ‘I never
heard of that fellow called ‘Slocum’, said Doug, ‘until my boat was well under construc-
tion. I must have lived a hundred years ago, because when I first saw the hull lines I
knew right then and there that the Spray design would be my next boat. In changing the
interior layout, Doug Knight moved the cockpit aft, containing the interior to one space.
‘In having one main area there will be no problem in heating the cabin in the northern
latitudes where my boat Alpenglow will spend much of her life. The freeboard on
Alpenglow was raised 3in [75mm] above the stock plans, and Knight is still thinking
about adding an additional 2in [50mm] that will give the bulwark a total height of 9in
[230mm]. With the main cabin contained into one area, the bulkheads were changed
to suit the rest of the interior. Doug Knight is very enthusiastic about his Spray 36: ‘I’ve
always kept privacy in mind, because I could never rule out the possibility of charter
service. I plan on having a solid timber mast that will support an enlarged sail plan of
the gaff rig. This working sail plan is just that, a working sail plan and not a show piece.

This attractive Spray 36 was recently photographed in the Mediterranean

 PRAY 36 PHOTO GALLERY:
Top: Glass Spray 36 built in USA
Second: Spray 36 built by Mr Moss,
his son also built one of our boats.

Above: Zane Spray ... David Sinnett-Jones much travelled Spray 36

Right above: German built Spray 36 that I saw in Paris when both of us
were moored in the Arsenal Marina just off the Seine.
Right: “Uvea” ... This Spray 36 Seen here sailing off the Loyalties Islands
 SEAGOAT

http://www.seagoatonline.com
[email protected] [email protected]

Almighty God,
who guided Noah in the building of an Ark,
and calmed the raging sea,
we call upon you to bless those who have prepared this boat for service,
and to protect and preserve those who sail in her,
and surround them with your loving care.
I hereby christen this boat the “SeaGoat.”

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 1 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 39 July 2005

Wednesday the 17 of August 2005 9:20 AM – operation begins.

The SeaGoat is ready for the trip

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 2 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 39 July 2005

The SeaGoat is traveling slowly forward the water.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 3 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

It is 9:55 AM – The SeaGoat is hanging over the water, and waiting for blessing.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 4 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

Master of the Ceremony – Barbara – is praying- see first page for the text

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 5 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

The bottle of champagne was smashed – the champagne was all over the place – the bowsprit and the fore
deck were wet the most.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 6 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

For the first time the SeaGoat is touching the water – it is 10:05 AM now

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 7 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

Two SeaGoats ☺.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 8 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

Already docked

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 9 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

The SeaGoat TimeLine

2001
November 2001
It is how it started. I’ve got the plans
from Bruce Roberts. With Barbra we
discussed what we liked and what we
didn’t like.

December 2001
I started working on this
project right away – after I
got the plans. I started with
frames for future mold. The
job commenced in our
basement.

December 2001
After the biggest frame was
done, we tried to fit
ourselves inside. One single
frame didn’t look so big. I
had to start working with
half the frame, to manage
the assembly out from the
basement.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 10 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

2002
By the end of January 2002
all frames were done. I put
all of them in the garage. I
was waiting for Spring, to
start building the mold.

Finally in March I was able

to start working with the
mold. My shipyard was
grounded.

In April the skeleton was

ready. The neighbor next
door asked me what kind of
green house I’m building.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 11 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

In May the mold was

almost ready

June – after working with

mold we started working
with real boat structures.
First we put the Corecell
foam. We were so excited,
because we started working
with serious tasks

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 12 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

July – it was time to buy

fiberglass and the resin, the
major two components for
the next step. I tried to put
all heavy stuff to my van –
it wasn’t easy, but I did it.

September – after almost

two months the hull was
ready. It was really hard
time for us. Applying the
fiberglass was an
unbelievably messy job.

October – still very hot. I

started working with putty
and fairing board – I didn’t
know at that time that it
was going to be, a never-
ending, very boring job. I
didn’t know that I would
have done that for almost
next two years.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 13 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

2003
January 2003 – My trip up North to
buy the lead for ballast – 8400 lbs

March 2003 – I started melting the

lead – first brick is ready.

April 2003 – the sanding begins

June 2003 – The hull was turned

over.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 14 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

June 2003 – Now the hull is right

side up and we can see how big she
is

August 2003 – first bulkheads have

been installed

2004
June 2004 – working with
putty and with structure of
the pilothouse.

July 2004 – the tarp has

been removed and
everybody can see The
SeaGoat now.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 15 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

August 2004 – The

SeaGoat had been moved to
marina – in one year and
one day she is going to be
launched.

September 2004 – more

sanding

December 2004 –
Christmas.

2005
February 2005 – Working in my
basement – Barbara is holding a very
heavy rudder.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 16 of 17

 SEAGOAT
Issue # 41/4 August 2005/S

May 2005 – The SeaGoat has got a

lot of hatches.

June 2005 – new paint – now she

looks much nicer. (Date on the picture
is wrong – I forgot to change it)

July 2005 – She got her name – now

she is ready for launching.

SEAGOAT August 2005/S Page 17 of 17

Spray 38
Plans and frame patterns are available to build this boat in multi chine steel.
L.O.D. 11.82 m 38' 10"
L.W.L. 9.65 m 31' 8"
BEAM 3.96 m 13' 0"
DRAFT 1.22 m to 1.52 m 4' 0" to 5' 0"
DISPLACEMENT 12946 kg 29,000 lb

This design was prepared

early in 1980 when one
customer who had
considered the plans for the
Roberts Spray 36, felt he
wanted a little more room in
the aft cabin. In order to attain
his wishes, we felt that a new
design was called for, and
hence the Spray 38 was the
result. As this was originally a
custom design, and as no
other client has come forward
requiring a boat to be built in
any material other than steel,
these plans were only made
available in steel.
Nevertheless, they have been
quite popular, and seem to fill
the gap between the Spray 36
and the full-size Spray 40. The
Spray 38 also has a limited
number of versions available.
However, owner/builders have
purchased the plans for this
design and made their own
changes.

RAVEN
This steel Roberts Spray 38
was built by Stuart J D’Arcy-
Hyder, who commented:

‘For your information, we cut

the first steel in May 1988 and
moved on board in March
1989. We had our first small
cruise last year, 1990. The
boat performs superbly. She
is by and large true to the
Roberts’s drawings.
 By altering the shape and size of the cockpit, we have a full headroom walk through-
arrangement with pilot berth under one coaming. The galley is under the other coaming.
We did put on the controversial bilge keels, but have never regretted the decision. The
sail plan is altered, the area being increased. She is rigged as a Galios cutter-headed
ketch, with square sail on the main. Much easier to handle than a spinnaker, and most
attractive. The transom and poop deck shape have been slightly modified and the
bow shape has the understated clipper line to it.
Machinery is a 72hp Ford by way of a 2:1 Borg Woerner, and a 23in x 16in [584mm]
pitch propeller. Steering is by Servi hydraulic system. Raven is amazingly stiff, and in
January when we sailed on the back of an easterly gale, my young son painted in the
saloon, and not a drop of water was spilled. She is surprisingly fast and responsive.
The finished boat cost something over ,25000 including absolutely everything, and
was completed in under a year. The fact that I’m in the trade probably helped in both
these respects, but none the less, it can be done.

We next heard from Stuart D’Arcy-Hyder in April 1991 when he said:

‘I concur with Paul Fay’s comments (Paul Fay built and sailed his own Spray 36, and
details of his experiences appear in chapter 8) on the square sail being a lifting sail as
opposed to the hard pressure of a spinnaker, and yes, keeping the yard tight into the
stick is a problem that is still under development. The sheer efficiency of a square sail
down wind is quite awe-inspiring to a man used to the more modern fore and aft
arrangement. Basically, the route we are working on is as follows; we have aluminum
spars, the sail yard is raised up a heavy genoa track fixed to the fore side of the main
mast. The fixing of the yard to this track is by way of cannibalized stainless fittings,
variously cut and welded together. There is no reefing. The sail is up or it is down. It is
controlled by lines that open or close it like theatre curtains. The sail is currently 240sq
ft [22.3sq m]. I was also concerned about the extra pressure on the mast, and have
added an extra shroud. Our costs were low; for example, our aluminum spars and
standing rigging cost only ,350, an insurance write-off. The main and mizzen masts
were originally 10ft [3m] longer, keel stepped spars, a crane had driven over their
heels, so we cut them off and deck stepped them. As a consequence, our main is 43ft
[13m], our mizzen mast is 35ft [10.6m]. We lashed some wheels on the butt ends and
towed them home. Why we didn’t get stopped by the police still amazes me, we had to
physically carry them around the roundabouts!
Our boat is called Raven. This year we only anticipate short voyages: the Scillies,
Ireland and Brittany. Next year we hope to go to the east coast USA via the West
 Indies. I live aboard Raven, and I have rigged her for easy single-handed sailing and
find her quite manageable. We haven’t as yet done any long passages, but we have
sailed recently from here to mainland England and up the south coast and across to
south Brittany in France.

Stuart supplied us with some details of modifications. He has increased draft to 5ft 6 in [1.6m]
overall, and has twin bilge keels of 2in [12mm] plate. The bilge keels and the main keel have
full-length sacrificial wooden shoes. The masts and bowsprit are somewhat larger than the
original design recommended, thus the sail area is greater. The vessel carries 4 tons [4064kg]
of ballast, 200 gal [909 lit] of water, and 120 gal [545 lit] of fuel. Raven is a cutter-headed
ketch at the present time. This summer Stuart will continue to experiment with the square sail.
He says he prefers it to the spinnaker for downwind sailing. He also carries a substantial
mizzen staysail, which in the right conditions is a wonderful sail. Stuart told us that the boat
balances wonderfully under almost any point of sail: stiff, comfortable and surprisingly fast.

It is our intention to make a centenary celebration circumnavigation, starting in 1995 via

Panama. Is anyone else interested? It would be lovely to cruise in company with other Sprays.
Our best run was from St Mary, Isles of Scilly, to Falmouth before a south-west force 7, aver-
age 8.4 knots, would have been faster but for the turning tide at the Lizard. If you ever get this
way, welcome aboard! We are the only live-a boards on the Isles of Scilly, thus locally world
famous, or infamous. You have to be slightly mad to live on a boat here in the winter.

Towards the end of March 1994 I again heard from Stuart, when he commented:

‘You may wonder at the rig I have. This somewhat antiquated vessel actually sails an
awful lot better than she looks, like she ought to. A friend built the jib furling sail. He cut
it out of different weights of cloth, so that when almost fully furled it is a flying storm jib.
This then becomes progressively lighter as it is unfurled for different sizes of jib/genoa.
Finally, when fully unfurled a large balloon comes out of the top, giving me a sort of
cruising chute/pseudo spinnaker. It is an enormously powerful sail. Whilst running be-
fore a gale of wind a couple of years ago, the poor old log kept bending the needle on
the pin at 10 knots. We broke our bowsprit, a 6in x 6in [150mm x 150mm] section of
Douglas fir. It was only a short thing too, and extended about 4ft 6in [1.3m] out from the
stem head. The new one is a bit longer and made of 9in x 8in [230mm x 150mm]
section. Originally I was going to have a nice modest gaff rig with tarred rigging and
timber spars, all lagged. However things didn’t happen that way. I got to hear about
those damaged spars that I bought cheap. The engine, twice your recommended size,
was another lucky find,17 year old, but had done less than 500 hours. Beautifully main-
tained too, it was an auxiliary generator engine at Treliske Hospital in case of power
cuts. It was sold by tender, and as a 17-year-old generator’ no one was interested in it
so my silly offer was accepted. My main problem now was trying to convince people I
am not an eccentric, wealthy man. They will just not believe that Raven was built in its
entirety in a little over 12 months for something just over ,25000.

Sea Pea II
Chris Parnham contacted us about his Roberts steel Spray 38, which was built in Kingswinford
in the UK by master steel boatbuilder, Philip Grosvenor. Phil has built several of the Spray
models, plus other steel powerboats designed by Bruce Roberts. This Spray 38 is fitted with
bilge keels. Sea Pea II was fitted out over a 32 year period and was launched in August 1993
at Newark on the River Trent. After a week on the river, the mast was stepped and rigging
installed, and the boat was sailed round to the mooring at Boston, Lincolnshire. Chris Parnham
is planning some blue water cruising, possibly a circumnavigation. The boat was built with
blue water in mind and says it is a ‘belt and braces’ job with steel, watertight bulkheads, in
mast roller reefing, oversize rigging, polycarbonate windows, Decca, GPS, SSB/VHF ra-
dios, bow thruster, power anchor winch, 300ft of 2in [12mm] chain, 35, 60 and 140 lb CQR
anchors, bilge pumps, full burglar alarm, Ampair wind/water generators, Mase diesel gen-
erator, Whitlock ‘Mamber’, and cable steering, Cetrek Autochart Pilot, hydro vane/wind vane
steering, keel cooling, ‘Striver’/Aquadrive, etc, etc. All this has had an effect on the waterline;
he reckons it will draw about 5ft. [1.5m]. It tips the scales at about 16 tons [16256kg].
 Chris Parnham wrote
recently, telling us that he plans
to follow in Slocum’s wake,
one hundred years on exactly,
and will be leaving from
Boston, England, via Gibraltar
etc, following his route, but
calling in at a few additional
places.

Geordie Lad
Mr. Lowther said that he spent
a year deciding which design
to build . He was only going to
build one vessel so it had to
be right. He chose the Spray
because it looked right. The building of the Geordie Lad started in June 1986 and was finished
in July 1992; The hull and fitting out was done by Mr. Lowther himself.

‘The remainder of the season of ’92, I spent in trials off the north east coast, and most
of the ’93 season we spent getting to know each other, then in August we went to the
Ijsselmeer in Holland for a month. My only sailing prior to this was a two-week sail in
the Western Isles. Going to Holland was quite an experience. I had two crew, one 71
years old and one 41 years old, neither of them experienced. The yacht handled beau-
tifully and looked after us; never gave us a bad moment. This year I hope to lift her out
and fit a bow thruster, and head for warmer climates. I am at the moment taking my
Yacht Masters, so wish me luck’

I note from one of the photographs that Mr. Lowther sent, that he has painted the port side of
his deck red, and the starboard side green. I imagine this was to assist some of his inexpe-
rienced crew in identifying port and starboard. This reminds me of an American yacht I once
saw in Australia. This boat had every possible piece of gear fully labelled. The inside steering
was clearly marked port and starboard, left and right, and all of the other equipment and
fittings on the boat were clearly identified. Although this may sound a rather unnecessary
arrangement, I am sure that it could have some benefits, especially in an emergency when
sailing with inexperienced crew.

Eagle Spray
Recently I received a photograph of a completed Spray 38, together with a long letter from
Alain Guichard:

‘Many people have written about how the Spray stands up very well in rough waters, or
how she seems to steer herself with a few minor sail adjustments no matter in which
direction she is sailing, but nothing has been written about her aesthetics, and the
following qualities are equally endearing. As an author and professional diver for three
decades, it took me two years to decide on all the requirements for my ideal boat. A
sailing boat is a bride. You marry her for better or worse, and it is important to know
the qualities before you go ahead. I knew as soon as I studied your plan that the Spray
would anticipate some of my minor distractions on a single-handed cruise, and at that
time I hadn’t yet read all the Slocum books. So what else made me choose the steel
 Spray 38, apart from my budget, and an analysis of the future cost and maintenance?

What we call l’assiette, French for plate, describes how she sits in the water. I didn’t
want a racing boat. If you are going to spend a long period living on a boat, you must
have a very large deck to give freedom of movement without knocking over your ship-
mate while running around the side-decks. The Spray 38, with its 14ft [4.2m] beam
which runs more or less the total length of the boat, gives tremendous space and
comfort both inside and outside. Where, alas, would you find a sailing boat of this size
where you can fit two toilets, one at each end with ample headroom. Ah, some people
may say, what about the speed with such displacement? Well, who cares when you
don’t have to be in the office by 9.00 am each morning.!

Although Alain Guichard’s Spray 38 is almost completed and about to be launched, he has
as yet no experience of sailing a Spray. Once he reads the favourable remarks made about
the Spray’s performance, as voiced by so many owners of these boats, then he will no doubt
add performance to his list of favourable points. Alain went on to say:

‘For my personal use I wanted a very large rear platform on the deck above the aft
cabin for diving, and had to be able to enjoy a good meal with friends, under a canopy,
of course. The Spray gives me almost 100sq ft [9 sq m] of space. All Sprays are so
well balanced and have such a low centre of gravity that they can be rigged as a ketch
sloop or cutter. I have chosen a cutter because it facilitates a single-handed trip, gives
me more room on the rear deck, and is much cheaper than a ketch to install. If you
intend to sail around the Med or around the coast of Europe as I do, you must give
some thought to the cost of mooring in these expensive marinas. A 38ft [11.5 m] boat,
being under 12 m makes a lot of difference to the cost per night, believe me. So
Bruce, if I cannot tell you right now how she will perform at sea, I can at least say at
Ridge Wharf Yacht
Centre, near Wareham
in Dorset, there is no
shortage of admirers for
this beautiful boat, from
both would-be and
experienced seafaring
folk.

Amanda Jane
Larry R Randall built his
Spray 38 mostly in
Oklahoma, which, as
most of you will be
aware, is a very much
landlocked state in the
centre of the US. Some
of Larry’s comments
follow:

‘Thank you for the

chance to brag about my
boat, Amanda Jane. We
 don’t get enough opportunities to do that. As a former marine mechanic I had many
bad experiences with what I refer to as production ‘Tupperware’ hulls. The keel of
Amanda Jane was laid in Oklahoma in 1984 by a very good friend of mine by the
name of Kendall Keeton. She was to be his retirement home on the water. She was
trucked to Washington State, in 1984 for the fitting and commissioning, and she was
finally launched at Point Roberts, Washington State in 1989. Kendall’s intention was
to sail to Alaska from Washington for the summer and then, like most sensible people,
sail south in the winter. Unfortunately for him the sailing gods decide that it was not to
be. While he was aboard her for the summer season in Alaska, fate changed his plans
when his wife suffered a heart attack. Returning to Port Roberts he realized that his
dreams of retirement as a live-aboard world sailor were not to be.

That is when I was blessed with the chance to acquire Amanda Jane. My wife and I
are still attempting to get to know her. We are finding that she is a very forgiving lady,
with the heart of a lion, a big steel lion.
As you can gather, I think she’s a fine vessel and we are looking forward to many
happy days aboard her with the wind in our faces. That’s how you generally end up
sailing in the north west.

Blair Spray
Jim Blair of Margate, Tasmania, Australia, wrote, My Spray 38 is under construction at present
and steel work is 90 per cent complete. Regarding the sail area displacement ratio of the
Spray 38; of course with the standard ketch rig, she has quite a low sail area displacement
ratio and would take a larger sail plan. However, many people with families prefer to be
slightly under-canvassed than over-canvassed, but it would not be a problem to design a
larger rig for this boat; and as you see by the information supplied by some other builders,
larger sail plans have been installed on the Spray 38 with considerable success.

Rosendaki Spray
Robert Rosendaki of Spring Field, Missouri, is building a Roberts Spray 38 in steel, and he
commented as follows: ‘On my Spray 38, the transom is done and most plating on. The pic-
tures are 90 days old, and we are snowed in today. I have used a trolley developed from
angle iron track and four roller skate wheels, about 400lb [181 kg] only, most helpful in frame
erection, etc. I’m painting all new oiled steel with aluminized asphalt paint. Accepts welds,
and sandblasts off easily, and prevents rust until I’m ready to blast and paint.’

Siaban
Sirius Yachts of Stourport-on-Severn in the UK built the hull and deck of this Spray 38 for
Angus Mackinnon of Milford Haven. Angus told me that the name he has chosen for his Spray
means ‘Spray’ in Gaelic.

Half Past
This boat is owned by Captain Harold Barbour who had the hull and deck built by Dragon
Marine UK. Captain Barbour also informed me that he first picked up one of my design
CATALOGS in Australia about thirty years ago and at that time he thought the Spray 40 too
large for his needs; when the Spray 38 became available he decided to have a Spray for
himself. This Spray was commenced in 1989 and completed in 1990. The hull is spar galvanized
outside and the entire interior is epoxy coated. Spray on insulation was added to the interior.
Captain Barber is 6ft 4in tall [1.93m] so on our advice, he increased the freeboard of the hull
by 3in [75mm] and reports that he finds sailing with 4 to 6 people just about right.
Spray 40
Plans & frame patterns, build the Spray 40 in round bilge fiberglass or multi chine steel.
L.O.D. 12.19 m 40' 0"
L.W.L. 9.73 m 31' 11"
BEAM 4.37 m 14' 4"
DRAFT 1.27 m 4' 2"
DISPLACEMENT. 16,257 kg 35,840 lb
BALLAST 6,804 kg 15,000 lb
AUX POWER 50 to 70 hp

Spray 40 Version A
The Spray 40 was
drawn by our design
office in 1968 and was
the first of the Spray
series plans. The reason
we called our design the
Spray 40 was the way
the boat was measured,
rather than any
difference in size
between our Spray and
the original as rebuilt by
Slocum. Traditionally, a
boat’s length is denoted
by the measurement
between the transom
and the deck line at the
bow. There are many
measurement systems,
but leaving these aside,
items such as bowsprits
(and in the case of
Spray, the cutwater) are
normally not included,
except when the
measurement is quoted
as length overall. This
often causes confusion
when comparing the
length of any boat. Our
Spray 40 is intended to
be the same size as the
original Spray. The
dimensions shown
below reflect the close
similarity between the
original vessel and our
fiberglass version.
Spray 40 - Version B
Spray 40 version C
 SPRAY 40 Pilot

The Spray 40 Pilot is proving to be one

of the most popular versions of this de-
sign. The S40P can be built in multi chine
steel from plans and frame patterns or
from a steel KIT which will soon be
available based on the already successful
Spray 400 kit and cutting files.
Hi Bruce
My wife and I have completed a
Spray 38 in 2001. We bought the
plans in 1996 from your UK rep.
It took me 5 years to complete her
and she is junk rig.
We sailed Ruffles Spray from
UK to the Med and cruised there
for 2 years. The boat looked after
us magnificently. Even in 42
knots of wind sailing hard on the
wind she behaved impeccably.
The junk rig works well on a
Spray and I can recommend it.
Next year we are heading to
Turkey to continue our cruising.
Best regards Mike & Ann Ruffles
S/Y Ruffles Spray

These photos of Ruffles Spray

were sent to us by Mike and Ann
Ruffles - see letter above.
Spray 40 version D ... The Spray that has not happened yet ! My idea of an attractive
Spray 40 that could be used for occasional charter or shared by two couples.
Jupp Spray
Charlie Jupp was a paying customer, and was ready to proceed, so it was decided that his
would be the first hull to be produced. We had completed drawing and fairing the lines, and
had prepared the table of offsets. Although we modified the bow by fairing the topsides into
the large cutwater, in other aspects we followed the original design as closely as possible.
The next job was to draw out the lines full size. Here George Love and Barry Long really
showed their worth, and produced a beautiful fully faired set of full-size patterns that we trans-
ferred to Mylar plastic film.

These same patterns have been used to produce over two hundred Spray 40 replicas. Once
we had the patterns for the frames, stem and keel, we were able to set up the male mould for
the first foam sandwich fiberglass Spray 40. We next built a male mould, and laminated the
first hull. What excitement there was when the hull was rolled upright, and we were able to
inspect fully the Spray’s beautiful form for the first time. One can study the lines and see the
hull during construction in this case, upside down but the first time we saw in full detail the
beautiful lines of the Spray was a moment to be remembered always.

Charlie Jupp took delivery of this first hull, which was finished outside with several coats of
urethane paint. The hull was transported to Charlie’s nearby home, where he proceeded to
complete the interior and build the decks and superstructure according to the plans prepared
for the fiberglass Spray 40. Charlie was working on his project full time, so I had my hands full
keeping ahead and supplying the plan sheets in time for him. He actually got ahead of me at
some stages, but this caused no problems, as Charlie was a trained carpenter and joiner,

It took Charlie about nine months to complete his Spray, and she was launched on our slip-
way with only two or three barrels of water as ballast. We knew that the original Spray was
built and launched without any ballast at all, but since our Spray was much lighter we decided
to use the barrels of water, this worked fine until we calculated the correct ballast amounts for
this fiberglass Spray. Charlie even tried mineral sand from the nearby sand-dredging opera-
tion to see if he could have easily movable ballast. We decided this was not heavy enough so
in the end the scrap steel set in resin putty method proved to be the most effective as ballast.

The masts were timber, and the rigging galvanized plough steel wire. Charlie wanted to use
the traditional deadeyes and lanyards to adjust the rigging. Although I was skeptical at the
time, believing that the rigging would require frequent adjustment, I have since become con-
vinced that within certain sensible limits, a person should rig their boat as they see fit. After
all, boats are supposed to be fun, and we each enjoy them in own way. We have a series of
photos of Charlie Jupp’s boat taken after he reached Lymington, England. The deadeyes
and lanyards were still in place and Charlie reported that he had no problems with his rig.
Charlie Jupp sailed from Brisbane, Australia early in 1976, and in November that year we
received the first of several letters:

‘I left for Mauritius, a voyage of 4500 miles and 2000 miles off the Australian coast I
had trouble with my appendix. I lay in my bunk for five days with all sail up, with a rising
wind; Spray steered herself. When the pain eased, I sailed for Mauritius, and on ar-
rival I let the anchor go. The yachties saw I was in trouble, and came and took the sail
off. I had an operation, but felt very weak so I stayed another two weeks, then sailed for
Durban. Lousy trip, last two days were storms and lightning. Had a glow at the mast-
head, rigging was very hot. I went below; I thought the boat was on fire. As I was com-
ing down the coast, a helicopter flew very close and took photos of the Spray, and last
This is Charlie Jupp’s fiberglass Spray 40 as she was built at our Marine
Park in Brisbane Australia and sailed to and from the UK .. We had the
pleasure of seeing her built plus meeting up with Charlie in the UK.
 night she was on TV here.
I will be leaving here at the end of December. Most yachts are taking on extra crew as
far as Cape Town; they think I am mad, but if I can’t get a good crew, I’m better off on
my own. I had no worry about my Spray in the storm. It blew 50-60 knots, gusting to 70.
I will let you know how things go around the Cape.

Charlie Jupp’s second letter came from St Helena:

‘Thanks for your letter and all the help I received in South Africa. I am in St Helena there
is no harbour, so it’s a big job getting ashore. I met a lot of people building boats in
South Africa, and over a hundred people came to see me off at Cape Town. My Spray
sails very well, I sleep ten hours, and she stays on course all night. I hope to sail tomor-
row; I will let you know how things go.

The next letter from Charlie was when he reached England, dated 3 July 1977:

‘I have just arrived in Falmouth after leaving the Virgin Islands. I was 40 days crossing;
I had calms, head winds, fog and storms. People who draw upwind charts should try
sailing with them. They show west wind; I went looking for it and I nearly saw polar
bears I was that far north. As I came up the Channel the weather was perfect, not a
cloud in the sky; it was warm seas, flat and a full moon. What more could I ask?
When I left South America for Barbados, I was 300 miles from Barbados when a
foreign fishing boat with 12 crew came alongside and forced me up into the wind. Two
crew came over the side ready to drop on to my deck, when a freak wave threw us
apart. The skipper pulled a revolver and fired. I got one in the leg, and a few in the
deck, so I shot at the two crew and got one in the skipper’s arm. He got on the radio to
his mate, but a naval patrol picked up his message, came and fired across his bows,
and gave me an escort for the day. So for a week after, every time I heard a noise at
night I would go on deck, with rifle in hand.
While in the Virgin Islands I did have an offer to skipper one of the charter yachts, but
I’d made up my mind I wanted to go to England first. The Spray stood up very well in all
weather. I carried sail, when in other yachts I would have reefed down, so over a long
distance I am not behind other yachts, sometimes I would be a day before them.

In January 1978 we received a further letter from Charlie:

‘I got a letter from a yacht club meeting in London to ask if I would go along and give a
talk on my trip, and also, my easy method of navigation. Everything was to be laid on,
food, drink and pay, but I had to decline the offer as I had very few photos and material
to talk on, and so many people are sailing round the world and writing books nowa-
days. I have decided to keep the Spray, and you may see me on the west coast of the
States this coming year. I have sailed and delivered a few yachts for owners, and so
far I haven’t sailed on a yacht as comfortable as the Spray. I think if ever I built another,
it would be on the same lines. On the River Hamble here there are over 3000 yachts,
but there’s very few I’d swap my Spray for. I thought with all the racing yachts here I
would be able to buy second-hand jibs, but there’s none available and new ones are
expensive.
The plans of my Spray show the draft at 4ft 2in [1.2m]. I changed mine, and put 12in
[305mm] on the keel before I left Brisbane. It sails close to the wind and turns very
 nicely in the harbours, so I’m pleased I did it. I’ve met a number of people who are
interested in building something they can take their families out sailing in. I’m sailing
on a number of yachts, but they are very uncomfortable because there’s a lump of
ballast low down. However, if you spread the ballast the motion is much better. Other
people may have different ideas. Two young fellows thought they would like to race
against my Spray from Falmouth. It was blowing hard, so they had to reef down. I was
in Southampton five hours before them, so a heavy boat is OK.

Here is Charlie Jupp’s Spray 35 years later! Charlie eventually went back to the UK and
later retired there after handing on Spray to a new owner who made several changes to the
original. Spray is still going strong ... now back in Australian waters where she was born.
Charlie Jupp was a regular correspondent and we learned that he ballasted the hull with 9
tons of track pins taken from bulldozer tracks in a scrap yard, and screwed the floors down on
top of them. He added a 12in [305mm] square wooden beam to the keel, and glassed it in
without keel bolts. This altered the planned draft by 16in [406mm] which gave the boat a draft
of 5ft 6in [1.6m]. He reckoned he could put a cup of coffee on his cabin table in a 30 knot
wind, and it would stand without movement.

Like the original, this Spray will sail herself, although rigged as a Bermudan ketch she will
hold a steady course for days on end unattended. In a storm the boat looks after herself better
than the helmsman can with a storm jib to hold her steady. With a good trade wind blowing,
Charlie set two jibs boomed out, with main and mizzen, and lashed the wheel, and left the
ship to her own devices.

Also like the original vessel, Charlie has two separate cabins, with no cockpit; his wheel is
amidships, sheltered by a canvas windscreen, and protected by ample bulwarks.’ There is
none of this sitting up in the cold and wet on this boat,’ says Charlie. ‘As soon as it gets dark,
I go to bed. I sleep ten hours every night and wait for the sun to come up before I get out of my
bunk.’

Charlie sailed like this across the Indian Ocean in 1976, some 4500 miles from Australia to
Mauritius, with the ship holding her own course. He did not touch the helm until he was in sight
of the harbour, being tied to his bunk sojourn by the attack of appendicitis.

Charlie Jupp enjoyed no special advantages over anyone else in making his dreams come
true. Twenty-seven years ago he was working as a labourer building sea walls in Essex when
he made the decision to emigrate, choosing Australia because of the sun. His subsequent
efforts at sugar cane farming convinced him there was no profit in small crop husbandry, so
he got a job as a builders’ labourer. After three years, he was building houses himself, which
he did for a decade or more until the credit squeeze forced him to lower his selling prices.
Spread over the five houses he had on the market, he just about broke even.

Charlie is not married and has done most of his sailing single-handed. One of the reasons
that many skippers are wary of taking on a crew came to Charlie’s notice in Tahiti. Three men
who had begged a passage from the West Indies then refused to go back to the yacht, saying
they had enough of the sea. The immigration authorities held the skipper of the yacht respon-
sible and ordered him to pay their air passages home, two to England and one to South
Africa.

Charlie arrived safely back in Brisbane after transiting the Panama Canal and sailing on into
the Pacific. With about 2000 miles still to go, Charlie had lost the use of his rudder. Crevice
corrosion in the stainless steel rudder shaft had caused the rudder to become inoperable. He
managed to sail the boat for some weeks without a rudder, and steered the Spray quite
successfully by adjusting the sails. Charlie is now in Brisbane; he has sold the Spray and
retired.

Trah
The second Spray to be built on the male mould that had been used to produce the Jupp
Spray, was a hull for Spray model builder, John Haskins. This vessel was called Trah.
John Haskins was working for us at that time, and the agreement was that he would help with
the construction of his own hull and would be paid for his services, and the money would go
towards the cost of his hull. John was a good worker, so everything was satisfactory to all
concerned. It only took a few weeks to produce John’s hull, and he elected to have his cored
with end grain balsa rather than the foam core we had used for Charlie Jupp’s hull. We were
experimenting with different cores, and one of the first ones we tried was made of a PVC
material, a similar product to Airex (tm). This core had properties that would make it suitable
as a core for our fiberglass sandwich hulls. The manufacturers assured us that it would do the
job, so we carried out some experiments making up test panels and subjecting these to
various tests, some scientific and some not so scientific to establish the suitability of the
material. I have had the opportunity to inspect some boats using this Australian PVC core
and they have stood up well. Unfortunately, the company that was manufacturing this material
has now stopped making it as they decided that there was not a large enough market for it in
Australia.

The next core we tried was urethane-based foam. This material is made in a similar manner
to Airex (tm) and other boatbuilding quality cores, but is not suitable as a structural core.
However, it did prove to be quite satisfactory in providing a base on which to lay up the
fiberglass hull. Later, when the hull is turned over and the mould removed, most of this foam is
also taken out and stringers and other reinforcements are bonded in place. This foam mate-
rial is really only used as a smooth former for laying up the outer fiberglass skin.

Another core material that was appearing in Australia for the first time was balsa core. This
material consists of small blocks of balsa that are glued to netting backing (something like a
mosquito net material), to which the balsa squares are glued. The arrangement comes in
sheets of 1ft 6in [457mm] x 3ft [914mm], and these sheets are used in a similar way to the
foam core; that is, they are either sewn or tacked on to a male mould and then the outer
fiberglass laminate is laid up over the core.

One of the drawbacks with the balsa core was that it did not lie on the hull as fairly as foam
sheeting. However, by putting extra cuts in the blocks and using other techniques that
developed, we were able to use this material quite satisfactorily for hull construction. John
Haskins opted for the balsa core in his hull, so that’s the way his boat was laid up, and we
actually developed the techniques of building balsa-cored hulls during this period. Balsa core
is an excellent material for coring fiberglass decks, and has been widely used throughout the
fiberglass boatbuilding industry for that purpose.

When John Haskins’s hull was complete, he moved it into one of our boatbuilding sheds and
proceeded to install the interior laminate and, as well as the bulkheads, web floors and other
interior joinery. John then worked full time on his boat for some time while the cabin and
decks were installed. He fitted a Lister diesel, which in its former life had been used to power
a local dairy farmer’s milking machine. The engine worked quite well until John replaced it
some years later with a more modern marine diesel. John used his Spray as a family ‘live-
aboard’, and his wife and three children lived happily on Trah while John worked the Marine
Park boatyard.

John motored his Spray up to Cannes, a distance of about 1500 miles, where he cut down a
tree and used this as his mast. He made a good job of converting the tree to a mast, and
properly rigged the boat. John Haskins is certainly not the first person to go into the forest
looking for a mast: many builders, not only of Sprays but of other vessels as well, have taken
a similar route.
Terry Spray
Brian Terry was the third customer at Marine Park who decided to have a Spray built from the
existing male mould. Brian wanted a quick start, so our staff laid up his hull which he then
fitted out himself. Brian then equipped his Spray with a large settee and other furniture and
lived aboard it.

Oysterman
The next Spray replica to be taken from our male mould was one built for Roger and Riva
Palmer. This couple hired the mould and built their own fiberglass hull; they certainly built it
well and we all made jokes about it being bullet proof and how it would knock down any reef
that it encountered.

Roger and Riva also built a Spray dinghy. They took the lines of the Spray, and their scaled
them down to create a set of lines for a boat of about 9ft [2.7m] length overall. Next they
proceeded to build this mini-Spray as a dinghy. However although the dinghy looked fine, it
was a bit too buoyant to be a good dinghy. Roger and Riva made a few changes to the rig of
their Spray, one of which was to fit booms to both foresails. Charlie Jupp, on seeing this
arrangement, commented (As most of us had already done), that he thought this was danger-
ous, especially if you needed to work on the bowsprit. Also, by having the outer jib on a boom,
it meant that the amount of sail area that could be carried with this particular headsail was
limited.
Roger and Riva have since sold their Spray replica, and I assume that the new owners have
changed the arrangement for the headsails. The rigging chosen by the Palmer’s was more
than oversize, so no doubt this very well-built, heavily rigged Spray is still happily cruising
today.

After the completion of these first four Spray replicas from the mould we built at Marine Park,
there was such a rush of plan sales that it is impossible to list all of the boats built in chrono-
logical order. Consequently, I will select some of the Spray replicas at random, detailing the
experiences of the owners, and commenting on the individual boats.

It is necessary to sort the various Sprays into sizes, because after the success of the Spray
40 design we then proceeded to prepare plans of other sizes for the Spray. These other
boats which came to make up the Spray Series were scaled up and down from the original
plans. Generally speaking, we tried to keep as close to the proportions of the original boat as
possible, but of course there were always customers who decided that they would purchase
a plan for one size, and then stretch it one way or another to suit their own needs. Some of
these boats are very successful, praising that the Spray is an incredibly versatile design. No
matter what criticisms have been levelled at the original Spray, and some of the replicas, I
feel that most of these criticisms cannot possibly be justified in the light of the comments and
experiences of owners with whom we have been in contact.

Salty Spray
We all well remember the day that Howie Franklin walked into our office in Vancouver, Canada.
The design office had not long been moved from Gabriola Island, and Howie came to see us
and saying that he would like to build a Spray. Howie had seen a boat that featured an unu-
sual poop arrangement, and he
decided that this would fit nicely
on the Spray hull. He asked us to
prepare plans for a semi-custom
Spray design incorporating his
own ideas of the poop stern and
a small pilot house. So shortly
after this, we started making
plans to meet Howie’s
requirements.

At the time, we considered

Howie’s ideas ‘a bit much’, and
we displayed our feelings when
drawing up the sail plan by putting
a pirate flag at the top of the mast!
As events turned out, we had
nothing to complain about when
it came to Howie Franklin’s Salty
Spray. Not only has Howie kept
in touch with us over the years,
relating the various experiences
he has had with his boat, but also
he has proved that there are a lot
of people out there who want
 something just a little different,
because the Spray Version C, (as
it became known), proved to be
a very popular arrangement for
the Spray 40, and indeed for
some of the smaller versions as
well.

Salty Spray was one of the first

steel Sprays built from the plans
that we drew up for building this
steel multi-chine version of the
Spray. We simply took the original
lines of Spray and redrew them
to a multi-chine configuration.
This retained the design
parameters of the original, but
made it possible to build the boat
in sheet steel. There had already been round-bilge Spray hulls built in steel; however, round-
bilge steel construction is beyond the ability of most amateur builders. For this reason we
decided to produce plans for a multi-chine steel version.

We drew up the plans for the steel Spray at about the same time as we were drawing plans
for several other new steel designs. This was in 1974, and anyone involved in the marine
industry, (or any other industry then where fiberglass resins and other petroleum-based mate-
rials were required), will remember that it was a time when anything manufactured from pe-
troleum was in short supply. Consequently, we found that we had many successful
designs that could be built in fiberglass, but unfortunately the fiberglass, or at least the resin
components, was almost impossible to obtain. In a way, this situation did us a favour, be-
cause it forced us to design boats that could be built in other materials. As it has turned out,
steel now represents just over half of the boats built from our plans.

Howie Franklin took his plans back to Toronto, where he had the hull and deck professionally
built; he then proceeded to fit out the boat himself. All the while he was in touch with us, and
sent photographs of the boat at all stages of the construction process. We received one letter
from Howie that reads as follows:

‘On 14 August 1978, we were out sailing on Lake Simcoe, which is just north of To-
ronto. It was a warm and pleasant day, but I was concerned about the possibility of
thunderstorms. About 1630 and on our way home, the sky darkened and it was obvi-
ous we were going to be hit by a storm. Since there was little wind, I had decided to
sail on jib-staysail and mizzen. The main was down and stowed. Soon the rain be-
came heavy, and visibility was down to 50ft [15.25m]. Things were still OK, until all of a
sudden the wind velocity increased from 10 knots to about 80 knots in less than 15
seconds, and Salty Spray was knocked down. The storm was part thunderstorm, part
tornado, and we didn’t have the time to release sheets. It all happened so quickly.
I am telling you this story because I want you and your customers to know of the incred-
ible integrity of the Spray. In our knockdown, I think the masthead touched the sea, and
yet she rolled back up with no damage done, except to the captain’s pride. She had
 water inboard, but
that was later
discovered to
have come from
the freshwater
tank, had
siphoned up
through the galley
tap. It was an
unfortunate
incident, which
could have been
much more
serious if not for
the incredible
integrity of the
Spray design; I
had 12 souls on
board that day,
and we all went
out again the next
day because of
the faith we all have (even stronger now) in the design of Salty Spray. Although it fright-
ened us at the time, the incident did not deter us from proceeding with our plans for the
future with the Spray. I just wanted you to know how proud we are of our boat.

Howie is a former airline captain so is used to dealing with crisis situations.

Some years ago he sailed Salty Spray from Canada down the east coast of the USA to
Florida, and we lost track of him for some time. However in December 1993 we received
another letter that read as follows; ‘Do you remember one of the first Spray 40s that you
featured in your catalogue way back in 1980? Well, Salty Spray is still going and has just
finished a total refit job with new rigging, new bowsprit, new bow rail, new wheelhouse and
new engine. I fitted an 85 hp Perkins diesel. She is in very good shape at this time. We are
still enjoying the boat, but would consider selling her at about $70000. Further correspond-
ence with Howie produced the following comments:

‘What I can do is tell you of all the good things we like about Salty Spray, starting with
that nasty double knockdown we had in August 1978 when she was maybe only half
finished and half ballasted. Her survival was a fine display of her great integral stabil-
ity. Since then we have had many good times, including a trip down the Mississippi
river to New Orleans, then over to Florida where she now resides at Key Largo. What
I like about the Spray is that most other people like her too. Spray seems to be like a
story book dreamboat, yet here she is for real.
She is a great live-a-board and when we get together with friends with their boats,
someone always says, ‘Bring your boat; we need the poop deck for dancing.’ Although
Salty Spray is not the boat for winning races, she is certainly comfortable, stable,
likeable and a lot of fun. There is one other Spray owner here in Key Largo. He bought
it from the builder when it was a schooner, then he changed it to a sloop.’
Lynch Spray
Virgil Lynch operated an engineering business in the mid-west: and, like many people who
live far from the water, he had a strong desire to own a boat and go cruising. Unlike so many
people who never realize their dreams, Virgil decided to do something about it, and came to
see us when we were located in California. Virgil purchased two sets of plans because
he had a friend who also wanted to build a Spray 40 in steel. Over the years we received
several letters and pictures from Virgil, mainly showing construction details and how he was
looking to improve the methods of fabrication that we had shown in the plans. I must confess
that we have learned as much from the builders of our boats as they have learned from us.
We are forever indebted to the many builders who have shared their ideas with us, especially
when we were constantly developing the building techniques. Virgil Lynch subsequently com-
pleted his steel Spray 40 and rigged her as a schooner. In fact, I remember he engaged us to
custom design the schooner rig for his Spray.
I assume that the Spray that is moored next to Howie Franklin’s Salty Spray is the same one
that was built by Virgil Lynch, so obviously this Spray has been re-sold and re-rigged as
described in the letter from Howie Franklin.

Jumbly Girl
Recently, in response to my notices in various yachting magazines, the following letter ar-
rived. Before going into detail concerning the contents, one must speculate about the name
of this particular Spray. This boat was built by Michael S Rigg, and although he does not say
in his letter what inspired the name for his boat, we all suspect it might be the fact that in
Britain sales of used and surplus marine fittings and equipment are generally known as boat
jumbles. Here is what Mr. Rigg has to say about his vessel:

‘I own a Spray 40,

version C, Bermudan
ketch built to your
plans. I bought the
bare hull in 1983 and
spent nine years of
my spare time fitting
her out. She is built of
steel, 3/16in [5mm]
hull, 1/8in [3mm]
decks and
superstructure, and
has hollow wooden
masts and
galvanized rigging. I
have installed quite
an old, but reliable,
Ford 57 hp diesel
engine, which drives
the boat at 8 knots.
The hull was built by
an amateur
boatbuilder near
Manchester, and I did
much of the fitting out
 in Whitby, which is where I lived before moving to Ipswich. The furthest I have been so
far was a trip last summer across to Denmark. We went through the Limfjorden south
through the Baltic, and back to Ipswich through the Kiel Canal. It has always been my
intention eventually to depart on a long voyage, and we have finally decided to leave
the UK this September.
Concerning the boat, she sails with a very small angle of heel, and has a very easily
driven hull for a heavy boat. I have only three tons of ballast in her, and even then she is
over her design draft of 4ft 2in [1.28m], due I think to her heavy construction. However
I don’t think of this as a detriment.

The photographs of Jumbly Girl show that she looks like a coaster. I use this term in its most
complimentary manner, because one often sees small chunky vessels, trading around the
coasts of Europe that give the appearance of no-nonsense, go-anywhere boats. This of course
is in keeping with the heritage of Slocum’s Spray. As we know, the original vessel was a
commercial vessel, not only before Slocum rebuilt her, but also during her trip around the
world with Slocum as her skipper. Quite often, he used Spray to carry cargo and for other
money-making ventures, so when I see a Spray that has commercial overtones, that the boat
is in the spirit of the original.

Shindera
This fiberglass Spray 40 was built by Larry and Karen Mahoney of Grand Rapids, Michigan;
Mr. and Mrs. Mahoney who have sent me a fine selection of construction photos, plus a
couple of photographs of their boat under sail. The Mahoney’s have made a great job of
building their Spray, and have been regularly cruising Lake Michigan. Although they do not
elaborate on their future plans for the boat, the construction photos reveal that the boat is
intended for long-distance cruising.

Mile High
One of the many interesting
customers who walked into
my office during the period
we were living in Newport
Beach, California, was
James Kirby. Jim was a
real- estate broker who
lived in Valyermo,
California, and operated
the Mile High ranch, which
(as its name suggests),
was up in the mountains of
California. Jim is an
interesting person, and one
with whom I enjoyed
working. He had the hull professionally built, then finished it in a boatyard in Costa Mesa as
this yard was close to my office. Thus I was able to visit the yard frequently to keep an eye on
Jim’s project. He did a fine job of fitting out the boat, and made his own mast from solid
timber. It was interesting to watch as he started off with a square balk and taking advantage
of the modern electric tools, gradually transformed this into a main mast for his Spray.
Jim kept in touch with us after his boat was launched:
 ‘Just a quick note to
let you know how she
handles; we launched 28
July 1981, and had her
sailing within two weeks.
Last weekend we came
back from the Ismus in 15 -
18 knot winds, and she
averaged 62 knots under
drifter, main and mizzen. I
am extremely happy with
the boat. It is much better
than I expected. As people
sail by us on our mooring,
which is two blocks east of
the Pavilion in Newport
Harbour, we get nothing but
compliments. Come out
and see us’

On 1 November 1981 Jim

got in touch again:

‘With our big drifter in

medium air she does really
well. We averaged 7 knots
on one of our return trips
from the west end of
Catalina in 20 -22 knot
winds, and on a return leg
from Dana Point we
averaged 62 knots to
windward with the main
mizzen and jib in 28 knot
winds and 6ft seas [1.8m].
Caught many fish with four
poles trailing off the stern.
The boat seems to steer
herself no matter in what
direction we are sailing,
with a few minor sail
adjustments. I just want to thank you again for all your help during construction, and if I
had it to do all over again, I would not change a thing.’

On 2 February 1982 Jim wrote again, telling us of all the compliments the boat was still
receiving. He also told us he had added polyurethane to all the topside teak. It is becoming a
real show boat. He then continued:

‘Saw another Spray in Catalina made out of wood. The builder was from Long Beach,
California. He stretched the boat out to 46ft [14m] with a 16ft [4.8m] beam. I tried to tell
 everybody not to mess with the original lines, but many people change them around.
We are still outfitting, and plan to leave for Mexico in November 1982 and then jump
off for the South Pacific in May of 1983.’

The 46ft [14m] long and 16ft [4.8m] boat that Jim Kirby mentioned was the first Spray that we
designed for strip plank construction. The builder had some ideas of his own, so he asked
me if it was OK to lengthen the boat to 46ft [14m] and also he suggested that as he was going
to be building in strip plank it would not be too much of a problem to slightly alter the mould
formers to make the boat a little beamier, and thus maintain the proportions. We have not
heard any more about that particular strip plank Spray, except for the mention in Jim Kirby’s
letter.

Spiritwind
The following report was sent to us by Earl Maupin Sr.

‘We would like to update you on our progress and send you some pictures. We have
been building our Spray 40 foot steel Version C for eight years this July. To give you a
brief history of our boat, Spiritwind, we received your plans and laid the keel and then
began the framework in the fall of 1987. We rented some farm property in a small rural
community of Washington State called Kingston, which is just west of Seattle. At this
time, we joined the newly founded Metal Boat Society, and for the next 22 years, with
the help of your material and boatbuilding books, we laboured on. In the spring of
1990, Spiritwind was shipped by truck to San Diego, California, and hit the water for
the first time. We moved aboard and began finishing the inside. During this time, we
were raising a family (two children), boatbuilding, and finishing a naval career. Since
that time, the boat has been back to the Puget Sound area, where we continued to live
aboard for three years, and our live-aboard home became a sailboat for the first time.
Spiritwind, though built on a shoestring budget, has turned into a comfortable and
seaworthy vessel. She was a participant in last fall’s annual Metal Boat festival, and
received excellent comments from all who boarded her.

Earl told us that

the inside of the
hull was
sandblasted and
painted with
coal tar epoxy.
The outside
received coats
of zinc-enriched
epoxy, epoxy
high-build and
enamel, and has
caused no
problems. Inside
the boat, they
welded 300 2in x
3in [50mm x
75mm] steel
tabs to which
 they attached 2in x
2in [50 mm x
50mm] cedar strips,
and then they
installed rigid foam,
sealing the backs
and sides. This has
worked quite well
for them. The
bulkheads are con-
structed of plywood,
cedar, and
mahogany. They did
not install the after-
cabin hatch. In-
stead, they have
only one hatch
entering the boat,
and by bringing the
sides of the cabin
and coach roof
back flush with
frame number 18,
they created a walk-
through on the port
side to the aft cabin.

On the starboard
side, they stopped
the coach roof and sides at frame number 17, giving them a walk-through to the cockpit on
the main deck into their enclosed pilot house. For ballast, they used concrete and steel,
giving them 15000lb [6804kg].Their mast and rigging are made from aluminum street lighting
poles, originally from the highway Interstate 5. The main mast is 40ft [12.1m] and the mizzen
is 30ft [9.1m]. The rigging is 7/16in [11mm] galvanized wire eye-looped with stainless steel
50 ton pressed fasteners. The total estimated cost of their rigging is $1500 [,1000 approx].
They chose the Marconi rig and have two after running backstays. Their bowsprit is made of
22 in [35mm] diameter schedule 80 pipe which they heated and bent around a tree into a
loop. It is welded to the hull, on which they welded deck plate and chain link fence rollers for
anchor rollers. The engine is a 75hp GM diesel with Borg-Woerner velvet drive transmission.

The boat has three staterooms, and a large enclosed horseshoe galley. The main salon has
an L-shaped couch and table for eating, and a wood stove. Earl chose to eliminate the head
in the aft stateroom, opting instead for a long closet on the port side and a full-sized bed on
the starboard. This also gives them room for a love seat aft, and a sit-down make-up vanity
area forward on frame number 18.
Earl continued:

‘Spiritwind was built on a shoestring budget. We estimate that over the last seven
years we have spent approximately $35000 [,23333] to this point. Our cruising plans
are to sail the boat south after our retirement from the Navy in the fall of 1995.
 We are always excited to see and hear from other Spray owners. To our knowledge,
during the time we spent in Washington State, we know of five Sprays and have made
friends with their owners. One wood and the rest were made of steel. We have also
met a Spray owner in San Francisco at the Alameda Air Station. His wooden Spray
looks like Slocum’s boat. Here in San Diego I only know of three, all steel; and, to our
surprise, a new arrival at the marina where we live is the new owner of the 40ft [12.1m]
version ‘C’ steel Spray, Mile High, which is featured in your publication. We have not
seen another version ‘C’ Spray 40 on the west coast so were delighted to meet the
very excited new owners, who were also delighted to meet us.
In closing, after nearly eight years of boat building and blood, sweat and tears, we are
still content with our choice of the Spray design and the help you have given us. We
would do it all over again.

Ara-A-Kiwa
Ron and Joyce Macmillan commented:

‘Our Spray, was built in Wellington ( New Zealand ) by Stain, Ward and Jones, launched
and registered in 1980, and brought to Auckland, sold to a Mr. M C Hornsby who fitted
her out, and sailed to Fiji and Vanuatu and New Caledonia in 1982. Then she was
virtually unused until we acquired her in 1991, when a major refit was necessary. Our
voyages include the North Islands, and in 1992 we sailed to Tonga, the Heiapaignvavau
Groups, then to Vitulevu in Fiji for the Suva regatta on the Vitulevu and Musatt Cove at
Malololailai Islands for the Fiji regatta and the Fiji-Vila race. Then reluctantly we went
back to New Zealand ahead of the hurricane season.
In the last year we have worked towards early retirement, and we are fitting out Ara-A-
Kiwa as a long-term live-aboard. The vessel is what we expect of her no ocean grey-
hound, but comfy as old armchairs. She sails well, and we have added a bit to the
rudder to track better. The multi-chine steel hull is 42ft [12.8m] on deck, 14ft 6in [4.4m]
beam and 4ft 6in [1.3m] draft. Overall length is 48ft 6in [14.7m]. We have added the
wood capped rail on steel stanchions, and recently the afterdeck canopy that per-
forms as shade, water collection, solar panels on top and easy furling for the mizzen.
We have seen three other Sprays. One from Canada, Spray Venture, and Blue Beard
and Susan II on the New Zealand coast, though I believe at least another four are
around here somewhere. Our interpretation of Ara-A-Kiwa is ‘Wake of the Navigator’
in Polynesian.
Recently, we
were ‘shaking
down’ after an
almost complete
refit, and Ara-A-
Kiwa was
behaving great.
Our new GPS and
radar were the
latest toys; the
new mainsail set
really well. On top
of this, both of us
were feeling really
smug, having
 passed the Yacht Master coastal exams together.

We visited Mayor Islands, and then decided to head north for the Great Barrier Is-
lands. The weather was good and the wind fair. A night’s anchorage at Slipper Islands
was planned and a short cut to the bay between the south end of the island and Pen-
guin Island was there narrow, but there. Our cruising guide indicated 12ft [3.6m] of
water in the gap, not a problem for the Spray.

The following breeze pushed us along at about 5 knots, but as we approached the
gap I started the engine just in case. Joyce went forward to the bowsprit to see if the
bottom became visible, and I watched the depth sounder as it rapidly decreased: 15,
12, 10, 5 , 3, 2 fathoms, then 1 fathom (1 fathom equals 6ft or 1.83m). Joyce began
gesturing, she had spotted large boulders that were getting closer; we had misjudged
and were about to pay the price.

The engine roared in reverse, but Ara-A-Kiwa is almost 20 tons and the sails were still
pulling well; we were stuck with a grating and sickening crunch and came to a halt. The
following swell was about 3ft [less than 1m], but it began to pick the ship and force her
further on to the rocks. The lifting and dropping could be likened to a pile driver. The
incredible jarring had the booms jumping and the timber dinghy in the davits was
attempting to turn itself over.

The tide is ebbing, it’s a beautiful day, and we are having a terrible experience! We
handed the sails as quickly as we could and took stock. The following swell meant that
efforts to reverse off were negated, and the rudder was being knocked around a bit.
There remained only one way off that I thought we could try. I gave the helm hard over
and pushed the throttle further than it had ever been before or after.

The Leyland’s 130 horse’s roared smoke poured, the engine temperature soared,
and Ara-A-Kiwa began to shudder forwards and to turn! Gradually and almost pain-
fully, the ship made her way, grinding over the stones until her bows again pointed
seawards. After what seemed a punishingly long interval, we broke free. Hurriedly,
Joyce took over the helm while I searched the bilges, surely we would be taking water;
there must be a broken weld, there ought to be, but there wasn’t. Good old Spray, I do
not know of any other boat I have owned or sailed that could take that amount of pun-
ishment and survive.

There was some damage; the lower edge of the rudder was mangled and punctured,
the shoe bent, and the 2in [50 mm] stainless shaft was ‘screwed’ at the tiller bar. Our
‘shake-down’ cruise had become a ‘shake-up’ cruise. We rigged the emergency tiller
and continued with our intended voyage, even crossing the Hanahe Gulf on a beam
reach with the remnants of Cyclone Betsy still blowing 28 to 30 knots. We did over 8.1/
2 knots and were comfy and proud.

Lowrey Spray
The following was an article in the New Zealand magazine, called Sea Spray:
Wellington fireman Chris Lowrey says,

‘If you are prepared to rummage through scrap bins and put in a day’s work in ex-
change for materials, you could get the boat you want at a price you can afford.’ And to
 prove it, he picked up his hull plating for nothing, made his blocks from old bedroom
furniture, sewed his own sails, had a brother-in-law make one SSB radio out of two
DSB rejects, and sheathed his cabin top with 35ft [11m] of brown striped nylon dress
material. The result... A 16 METRE CRUISER FOR NZ $20000 [,7000]. One of the
greatest hassles of building boats is paying for them, but Chris Lowrey has found a
way around the crippling costs. Over the past four years he has created a magnificent
ocean-going cruising yacht, a 40ft [16m] Roberts Spray design, for just NZ $20000.
The way he went about it was a simple process, and one he would like to pass on to
anyone with big dreams and small pockets. To this end, he is writing a book as con-
struction takes place.

The article went on to explain that four years before, Chris, a Stokes Valley fireman, had been
dreaming of an ocean cruising yacht. He and his wife Sue had reached the dangerous age of
discontent when the family became self-sufficient, and the mortgage was manageable. Chris
has been a sailor since schooldays. As a small boy, he joined the sea cadets, the merchant
navy at 15, and was never far from something afloat. Six years previously, as owner of a
Silhouette, a 16ft [5m] dinghy with a lid, he crossed Cook Strait single-handed one afternoon
on an impulse. There he tied up alongside a race finish of Wellington keel boats. ‘That was it
for me,’ he recalls. Chris just had to have a ‘real yacht’.

Chris had always loved traditional boats, and his initial thoughts were for something in timber,
and about 36ft [11m] long. He made sketches, and took them to a Petone boatyard.’ How
much to build this?’ he asked. ‘One hundred and ten thousand dollars,’ came the reply. That
poured cold reality all over his dreams, but Chris is not a man to give up easily, he had once
conducted a five-day vigil on Wellington harbour to protest against a nuclear ship’s visit. For
a cost of NZ $600
[,300] he bought a set of plans from two men who had decided against building a Ferro-
cement Spray.
The article continued:

‘Then, through consultation with designer Bruce Roberts, he exchanged the Ferro lines
for steel. ‘All I could do for six months was study the drawings,’ he says. ‘I didn’t have
any money, but decided there had to be ways of doing it. To Chris, that meant picking
up materials at the right price and building the boat himself. Soon after, his first deal
transpired. As payment for spray-painting a demolition yard owner’s car, Chris ac-
cepted two truckloads of Kauri, Oregon, pipe, iron and valves. One piece of Oregon,
46ft [14m] long, 8in [203mm] octagonal, is now his mast. It was a magnificent piece of
timber, not one knot in it. He set to work with a timber jack plane, bought a drum of
linseed oil, and for 25 nights swabbed it down. Now 42 ft [12.8mm] long, it will carry
the gaff topsail rig. ‘It has to be the most expensive mast in the country, counting the
hours I’ve spent on it,’ says Chris. ‘But it’s some mast, my pride and joy; if it ever
breaks, I will just put in a bigger engine.’

The article explained that the steel for the hull plating came from a diesel storage tank at
Miramar. The twenty lumps of steel, all corten low carbon content, steel cost nothing. ‘It looked
dreadful,’ said Chris. But once the hull was constructed, he and friends sandblasted it inside
and out, submerging the Lowrey household and surrounding neighbourhood in a fine-dust
cloud for five days. ‘One thing you need for this boatbuilding lark,’ said Chris ‘is heaps of
cheek. Never be afraid to walk into an engineering firm with a bin outside, and ask to have a
rummage. It is amazing what is thrown out.’

Chris scored 1640ft [500m] of tongue and groove flooring this way, at a quarter of the price.
For ballast, Chris worked for three days lifting 4900ft [1500m] of railway lines. He weighed
the ballast into 50lb [23kg] lots, and divided the weight across the bottom of each keel sec-
tion. Even the engine had a history: a Thorneycroft, it originally belonged to the New Zealand
Navy. Chris came by it in the hands of one of the men he bought the Spray plans from. It was
completely rebuilt, and Chris only had to tidy it up. It took six off-duty firemen to lift it, but it puts
out 40hp, has an oil controlled gearbox, and two to one reduction. The big plus is that it can
be hand cranked if necessary.

A tool making apprenticeship served years ago came to Chris’s aid. With the help of a forge,
made with the vacuum cleaner reversed, and a drum full of firebricks, he cast and made all
his own fittings. He also made hatches from teak, dorade vents from mahogany and kauri
laminated, and he made himself a lathe for the taff-rail. From old oak bedroom furniture came
52 wooden blocks, and he even turned his own axle pins and sheaves. The majority of hard-
wood on the boat is African iroko. Deck cleats at a cost of $1.50 each and jaws for the boom
were from a selected jarrah railway sleeper.

Sticking fairly rigidly to tradition, there are no winches on deck. Sail handling is with tackles.
The staysail is self-tending. He has one big headsail, though, to pull the boat along in light
weather, so he may relent later and have a couple of single-action winches. He is looking out
for a second-hand anchor winch, but is prepared to make one of those too. From lengthy
discussions with similar-minded alternative-lifestyle cruising folk, Chris had deduced that
when one closes the door on jobs and regular pay cheques, replacing worn-out gear such as
sails becomes an impossible task. So, for the sails, which can be expected to last at best
about five years, he has picked up an old sewing machine from a farm, borrowed a work
table, and is negotiating with an Auckland importer to supply him with tanbark sailcloth. Sail
making holds no mysteries for Chris. ‘You just mount the machine on the table with a motor
and clutch, and buy lots of books. I figure if you can’t make it in the workshop, there is no way
you’ll afford an expert when you are cruising.’
Obviously there are certain things one must buy, but the single sideband radio was not one of
them. From two acquired double sideband rejects, a ‘radio nut’ brother-in-law made one
single sideband pretty cheaply.

The 118sq ft [11sq m] of glass sheathing for the deck and cabin top, at $45 a meter, was a
difficult one, but Chris found out what the cloth was made from and bought the equivalent in
brown-striped nylon dress material for less than NZ $1.00 a meter. He glued a test piece on
to ply, boiled it, hammered it, and once convinced it was as good as you would get, down it
went. ‘It was harder to wet-out,’ says Chris, ‘but I defy anyone to knock it. You don’t have to fill
it, just paint over the top.’ Chris emphasizes, though, that you cannot build a boat for nothing.
‘You can’t make welding rods, silicon brass nails, paint. You have to buy the stuff and it costs.’
Chris also believes that a would-be builder need not be as fancy as he has been ornately
carved dolphins either side of the pushpit, and three bullet-proof work-of-art hatches.

Below decks the accommodation sleeps seven, and has a private owner’s cabin aft, and
another to forward. There is provision for a potbelly between the galley and the main saloon.
Naturally enough, Chris is making the stove. ‘I was not keen on gas [firemen are all safety
first], and it’s not easy to get fills in some parts of the Pacific.’ A kerosene cooker with an oven
(Chris is into baking bread) would have meant parting with NZ $1200. So, from an old gas
range, he made patterns, salvaging the racks and panels. Chris has installed a ring circuit
around the interior. He salvaged four brass lamps from an old railway carriage to provide
electric power over strategic spots such as chart table and galley, but the balance will come
from kerosene lanterns.

Senta
Kenneth P Latham Jr of Rockport Maine arranged to have his steel Spray 40 hull and deck
professionally built in Canada. The frame spacing was increased from 1ft 6in [457mm] to 1ft
8in [508mm] effectively increasing the hull length to 43 ft [13.11m]. Kenneth chose the gaff
schooner rig and the photographs reveal a well proportioned sail plan; the main carries a
topmast that often carries the topsail in lighter weather.

The pilot house was designer by the owner and provides extra comfort when the north east
coast weather turns nasty. The auxiliary engine is a 3QM30 Yanmar fitted with a 3:1 reduction
transmission and gives 6 knots. (Designers comment: Normally I would recommend a larger
engine than the one fitted here, however the 3:1 reduction somewhat compensates for the
lower horsepower rating.) The fuel tanks are integral (they use hull skin as one side of the
tank) and provide 150 US gal [567 lit] plus the water tanks hold 400 US gal [1514 lit] divided
between four tanks.

When the steel work was completed in Port Credit Ontario Canada, Kenneth motored the
bare hull, down the Erie Canal to Boston Massachusetts where he finished off the fitting out
over a two year period. Kenneth stated:

‘I think the hardest part was building the rig. The Spars are aluminum tubes, painted
with Allgrip (with a brush!) and I recommend the finish which has lasted well over sev-
eral years. The rig is that of a 19th Centaury Coaster with a single jib. All the blocks are
rope stropped, the standing rigging is galvanized, hand spliced and tarred. The run-
ning rigging runs to pin rails in the shrouds. The steering is by rope and drum. Nothing
fancy, but cheap, reliable and easy to repair.

The extended cruising has not happened; although we did live aboard for four years,
cruising New England coastline as time permitted. We are now settled in Maine and I
am modifying the interior to suit her use as a coastal cruiser. For example what had
been a workshop in the forepeak is now a two berth cabin for guests.

Walpurga
Mike and Christine Platzer wrote to us as follows:

‘It may please you to hear of another Spray that turned out well. She is built to your
steel Spray 40 design, with slight modifications. My wife and I built her; we always
wanted a floating home that was more of a cruising yacht, rather than one developed
from a racing design. After reading Slocum’s book, Pete Culler’s Building and Sail-
ing a Spray, and Kenneth Slack’s In the Wake of the Spray, the decision was quite
easy, and we don’t regret it. Our Spray is called Walpurga, which was a Bavarian
witch in ancient times, and we have lived on her now for more than three years.

After a season of trials in the German Bite, Mike and Christine left their home of Port
Wilhelmshaven in the summer of 1991 and cruised the Baltic Sea until November. They then
wintered in Hamburg and worked there on land. They left Hamburg in spring 1992 and visited
 many ports in
Holland, the
south coast of
England,
Brittany and
the whole north
coast of Spain,
where in
November they
found a little
fishing port
near Coruna to
spend another
winter and
work on the
land again.
Mike and
Christine left in
the spring and sailed comfortably along the west coast of Spain and Portugal, and crossed
from Lisbon to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands in 52 days.
They continued:

‘Here our boat, for the first time, could really stand up to her reputation. She steered
herself all the way, sometimes in strong winds, in exactly the same manner that Slocum’s
Spray and all the famous replicas did. She did it of course on other occasions, but
only for hours at a time, on this occasion she had the opportunity to show her paces for
a longer period. She does it on all courses and also under different sails.
We want to stay in the Canaries for at least a year, and do a bit of charter work in the
winter.
Chez Moi
This Spray replica is currently owned by John Guimont, who sent us the following account:

‘Chez Moi, currently at the Oyster Point marina in south San Francisco, California, is
a Spray based on your design. I am the second owner. She is constructed in steel with
some modifications. Don Lefler was the builder. Don is a retired custom home builder,
who began construction of the Spray in 1981 in Oregon. He contracted the hull and
deck welding project, and then moved her into his back yard where he spent several
years completing the project. She was completed in Richmond, California, in 1987,
and christened Shibumi, and sailed to Mexico, Hawaii, and then returned to Califor-
nia. The interior was photographed by Steve Dashu en route. (Steve Dashu is a fa-
mous American yachtsman who designs, builds and sails fast cruising boats, and is a
prolific yachting journalist and well-known figure on the American cruising/yachting
scene.) She was sold to me in 1991. The plan is to finish some upgrading in the next
few years and retire for an extended cruise.

Chez Moi has a steel hull, a staysail ketch rig, and the interior is fitted out with Honduras
mahogany. She was finished by a custom home builder, who did a wonderful job; this kind of
interior is effectively unavailable from any commercial builder. Don made a number of design
changes. She is powered by a 20 hp China diesel, which is marginal. The raised portion of
her cabin was extended forward for additional headroom. The masts were raised 6ft [1.8m],
and 6in [152mm] were added to the keel. John bought Chez Moi for the safety and comfort of
the design, and the steel for long-distance offshore ventures. To date this experience has
been in San Francisco Bay and the surrounding coast. John feels that the only drawback of
such a heavy, stiff design is that the genoa will blow out before she feels overpowered enough
to reef. This was his learning experience on a trip to Drake’s Bay.

Instead of a conventional V berth forward, Don, the original owner and builder, built one on the
starboard side, and then installed a complete head and sail stowage area on the port. In the
main cabin there is a U-shaped settee to port and two swivel chairs to starboard near the
heater and bookshelves. The galley is to starboard, and the navigational station to port. The
aft cabin has an athwart ships berth, which is usable under almost any conditions. Don built
pilot berths into both sides of the main cabin but John says there’s been a need for them. He
plans to remove the one on the port side to use it for an entertainments centre TV, VCR tape
storage, etc. The overall design concept was to set up for extended offshore work by a cou-
ple with the option of having a single crew member in separate quarters forward for long
passages. John’s plans are essentially the same.

Fuel capacity is 2 x 45 gal [2 x 204lit] tanks with a 10 gal [45 lit] day tank mounted above the
engine. There are four water tanks totalling 150 gal, [682 lit] and there is another 45 gal
[204lit] tank that has never been used. Don was not sure which fluid he would run out of first,
so he kept the last tank in reserve to be adapted to water or diesel as needed. He never
came up short on either one. John plans to carry water, maker so he expects to increase the
diesel capacity.

Don kept the construction simple and cheap, no refrigeration, but there are two huge ice
boxes that are very well insulated. It is basically a no-frills construction. Don had Loran, HAM,
VHF, and Satnav, supported by three batteries in two banks. John has added radar, and
plans to add GPS, two of them, electric windlass, three more batteries as a third bank, invert-
ers, scuba compressor, and salt water wash down.’ That’s more than enough complication
for me’, he says.
John continued:

‘When I bought Chez Moi I was single and planned to cruise alone. If I had known I
would marry again, I would have named her Chez Nous. I will probably change the
name when we repaint the entire boat prior to departure.

The Spray is a comfortable cruising boat, and one that can carry a lot of extra gear and
equipment without adversely affecting the performance. When fitted with the slightly deeper
keel that some owners have opted to install on their Spray replicas, then the boat does go to
windward better than one would expect. Also, the rig is an important factor; and, as the reader
will observe, many owners have opted for gaff ketches, gaff schooners and the like, so you
cannot expect impeccable windward performance using these rigs. Various owners go into
some detail about the rigs they have chosen, and try to assess the value of each in relation to
the Spray design.

Florissant
Last year when visiting Australia, my attention was drawn to a publication called Trade a
Boat, which contains hundreds of boats for sale. I decided to write to all of the brokers who
had Spray replicas on their books; the first reply was from John Latchford at Whitsunday
Marine Brokerage of Airlie Beach, Queensland:

‘We regularly see Sprays here in our marina, particularly during the cruising season,
and we are always interested to see how different boats of the same design can be.
They certainly are boats designed for the individual! The Florissant is a Roberts Spray
40, built of solid fiberglass. The owners live on Florissant permanently and also run
their business on board. She is cutter rigged with two furling headsails. The main has
Dutchman reefing plus a storm sail is fitted and a 2200 sq ft [204 sq m] MPS, which I
assume is a cruising spinnaker. The engine is a Ford 85 hp diesel, and the boat
cruises at 8 knots. This particular
Spray is well fitted out with Auto-helm,
wind speed indicators, depth
indicators, log and radar. She is also
well fitted out with navigation
equipment, including a GPS Navstar.
Safety equipment includes dry
chemical fire extinguishers, and a
good selection of anchor gear, chain
etc. Subsequently, a letter arrived
from the owners of Florissant which
stated:

‘We were very excited regarding

your plans for the forthcoming book
about the beautiful Spray, and to know
that our own yacht Florissant will take
part.
We bought Auntie, as we now
affectionately call her, in the beautiful
Whitsunday’s, Airlie Beach to be
 precise, which is part of the magnificent Barrier Reef on north-eastern Australia. It was
an instant love affair; and after an inspection and a test sail a deposit was placed, and
the arrangements made for a survey. In shock from our unexpectedly rash decision,
we raced back to Sydney to finalize the sale of our home, which was to finance the
purchase.

As nature would have it, we commenced our delivery voyage from Airlie Beach to our
boats new home in Sydney, a voyage of approximately 1100 nautical miles, at the
worst possible time of the year for the prevailing winds. The wind was on the nose at
regular forces of 25 to 40 knots. Rain squalls and large swells, possibly 16ft [5m] on
occasions, added to our time of about three weeks for the trip, which normally takes
about ten days.

Their greatest problem was of the manmade variety. About 15 miles off the coast opposite
the sleepy little village of Ballina, on one very stormy night, a huge container ship mistook
their yacht as a rendezvous vessel for, they suspect, illegal drug trading or illegal migrants.
Their radar screen picked him up about 6 miles away heading north to south, but instead of
continuing on his way after passing them, he turned and circled Florissant in ever-decreas-
ing circles until he was no further away than about 100 yd [92 m]
The letter continued:

‘Repeatedly, we called on the VHF for the ship to recognize us and signal his inten-
tions, but we were met with only the chilling response ‘We have no course’, which was
spoken in such a cold and cruel tone that we will never forget it. Eventually our local
volunteer Coast Guard came to the rescue via the VHF, and as soon as the ship knew
he was monitored by the authorities he sped off at a great rate in a southerly direction.
Naturally, reports were made to the Customs and other authorities.
On our arrival back home in Sydney, we had time to reflect upon our adventures and to
realize what a wonderful yacht Florissant truly is, that is, a magnificently strong, stable
and sea kindly lady. We would have no hesitation in sailing her in anything Mother
Nature cares to conjure up, and to recommend her design to anyone contemplating
purchasing a Spray.

Arnak
The owner writes:

‘My wife, Linda, and I have now been living on board our Spray Arnak for the past 14
years, and, after a shake-down cruise around New Zealand in 1980, have cruised the
south-west Pacific including Fiji, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Solomons, Papua New
Guinea and Australia.
We departed Australia in 1987 bound west across the Indian Ocean, visiting Christ-
mas Island, Cocos Keeling Islands, Chagos Archipelago, Sri Lanka, India, Oman,
South Yemen, Djibouti, Sudan and Egypt, then through the Suez Canal in May of 1988
to visit Israel, Cyprus, Lebanon, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Malta, Tunisia, Spain, Gibraltar
and Morocco. We visited many ports on the Algarve coast of Spain and Portugal, then
sailed to Madeira and the Canary Islands, thence to Senegal and Gambia on the
West African coast where we sailed up the Gambia and Casamance rivers, perhaps
the first Spray and New Zealand vessel to do so.
 Their next
stop was the
Cape Verde
Islands off the
African coast
and then
across the
‘pond’ to
Barbados,
Bequia, and
south through
t h e
Grenadines to
Trinidad and
Ve n e z u e l a ,
where they
explored as
far as they
could up the
San Juan river
in the Gulf of Paria. Next they went west to Bonair and Curcao, and on to the Bay Islands of
Honduras. Their next stop was the Rio Dulce in Guatemala, where they explored far inland,
then Belieze, Mexico and the USA, which is where they are at present. .
They called their Spray a ‘Spray type’, as a replica would indicate an exact copy, which theirs
is not. The owner says he has heard the term ‘Spray class’ used, which may be relevant.
The letter continued:

‘We bought your plans to the fiberglass Spray 40 and a copy of Ken Slack’s book In
the Wake of the Spray in 1975. After making some minor modifications and design-
ing the cabin and interior layout to our liking, we built our Spray, completing the project
in 1980. This is a rather sad time for us as we have decided to sell Arnak and live
ashore for a while, during which time I will build another Spray. Tomorrow, Arnak will
have a new owner, who will retain the old name and be using the vessel in his marine
biology studies around New Zealand, so she will complete her circumnavigation and
be an ideal platform and home for him and his wife. People often ask me what I think
of the Spray, and my answer is, ‘I am building another one.’

After cruising and working in many countries, Arnak’s owner believes that Spray is the ideal
vessel. To start with, a well-proven working boat type, modified slightly for ocean sailing, is a
great compromise. The stability and balance of the Spray are legendary. What a lot of people
don’t realize is that there is no perfect boat, only boats most suited to the work you put them
to. You can’t have 14ft 4in [4.4m] beam and 4ft [1.2m] draft, and go to windward like a witch,
just as you can’t have 10ft [3m] beam and 7ft [2.1m] draft and have initial stability and live
aboard comfortably on a small vessel around 40ft [12.1m].
The letter said:

‘Looking back over the last 14 years in black and white, we have spent 80 per cent of
our time at anchor or in port, 19 per cent sailing off the wind and 1 per cent on the wind.
How much compromise should you make for windward performance? Of course, this
is only the use we put our vessel to, which is, live-aboard ocean cruising. We have
 spent a lot of time
exploring rivers
and creeks as well
as coral atolls and
islands, a lot of
which are
uncharted, and our
4ft [1.2m] draft was
of great value. In
the open ocean,
again our draft has
been of benefit,
giving to the seas
rather than being
held when a large
wave hits. Running
dead downwind
with our great
beam has been very comfortable with no rolling from gunwale to gunwale.

This is a point of sail most cruising sailors hate, but one generally found on ocean
passages in the tropics. I believe there are basically three items that should be ad-
dressed when choosing a sailing vessel: seaworthiness: a proven design or type.
windward performance: look at where you will be cruising or sailing; comfort: look at
how long you want to live on board, initial stability/stiffness, roominess and displace-
ment. The Spray is exceptionally well balanced, and Arnak is no exception.

Arnak’ s hull is built in solid fiberglass using C-Flex (tm) as the base material with alternating
chopped strand mat and woven roving lay up. The hull laminate tapers from 13 in [31mm] keel
to the 14in [355mm] high bulwarks which are 3/4in [20mm] thick. The hull is divided up into 6ft
[1.8m] square sections using hollow fiberglass frames and stringers to give an extremely
strong and stiff hull. Ballast is 42 tons [4572kg] of cast iron securely glassed in.

All full and partial bulkheads land on frames, and are locked and keyed in place with a sub-
stantial glass laminate. Below the waterline there are four thick layers of epoxy tar to prevent
osmosis, followed by a waterproof barrier coat, then three coats of copper antifouling. The
coamings, cockpit and cabin top are finished in epoxy saturated, laminated plywood, cov-
ered with a 6 ounce [170g] glass cloth and epoxy resin followed by a two-pot polyurethane
paint system for very low maintenance.

The deck shelf is laminated New Zealand Kauri epoxy glued and through-bolted with 3/8in
[9mm] bronze bolts, which pass through the hull and the rubbing strake. The deck beams are
4in [100mm] and 2in [50mm] kauri, checked into the deck shelf and carline, which is again
laminated kauri. The decks are constructed using 2in [12mm] epoxy-saturated ply with 2in x
1in [50 x 25mm] teak over.

The cabin sides are 12in [37mm] laminated ply, and the cabin top is 1in [25mm] laminated ply
over laminated beams. The king plank is 10in x 12in [250 mm x 37mm] in kauri, through which
the anchor winch and large bronze bollard are bolted. There are six dorade vents on the
cabin top, giving excellent ventilation in hot weather. All deck hardware, including portholes,
winches, cleats, bollards and turn-buckles are bronze. There are no plastic fittings, and even
the sail slides are stainless steel.

The sails are all triple-stitched Dacron, made by Lidgard Rudling Sails of New Zealand. All
working sails are tan in colour; the large cruising spinnaker and mizzen staysail are gold.
These sails are still in very good condition. The rigging is hand spliced and swaged 7 x 7
stainless steel, oversized, and supporting a large section double-spreader mainmast and
single-spreader mizzen; a track holds the permanently mounted spinnaker pole. The headsail
is rolled around a furling gear that is strong and reliable and can be reefed from the cockpit.
All other sails are hoisted using double braid Terylene, all rope halyards leading on to New
Zealand made bronze Murray bottom action winches.

The davits are a heavy section 2in [50mm] pipe and carry the 10ft [3m] aluminum dinghy. The
outboard motor locks on to a pushpit bracket, and there are strong hardwood grab rails on
the cabin top. The spray dodger, which covers half the cockpit, has zipped windows for extra
ventilation. There are two large cockpit lockers. A large awning also doubles as an efficient
rain water catcher with flexible down pipes. The bronze steering wheel is attached to the tiller
arm with a 12 in [37mm] shaft, chain, cable and steering box, which is next to a robust autopi-
lot motor. This gives a very positive and strong steering system without the loss of feel. The
emergency steering drops straight on to the top of the flanged 2 inch rudder shaft for tiller
steering. Spare steering cables are only part of the extensive spares carried to make this
yacht self-sufficient. Under the cockpit floor is the main engine, a Ford 4 cylinder 60 hp en-
gine (diesel), completely rebuilt with new cylinder liners, pistons, rings, bearings etc in June/
July 1992, it is a slow revving and reliable motor, which has always started at first turn of the
key. Arnak’s owner has maintained this engine in top condition and kept a full log of all main-
tenance. Coupled to this engine is a large, two to one Paragon mechanical gearbox driving
double universals and stainless steel shaft, which is held solid by a heavy thrust bearing. The
stern gland is bronze and the stern bearing is of the rubber cutlass type. The three-blade
propeller gives a cruising speed of 6 knots, with 8 knots maximum. At cruising revs, 1500
rpm, the fuel consumption is about 1 gallon per hour, giving a cruising range of about 600 M
[965km]. Fuel is carried in two separate integral tanks of approximately 60 gal [270 lit] each
with spare containers on deck. Situated in the engine room is a 12 gal [54 lit] hot water
cylinder, which heats off the engine or via the AC system to which it is wired directly.

A lay shaft alongside the engine drives a 75 amp alternator and the compressor for the 4cu ft
[.36 cu m] freezer and the 2cu ft [.18 cu m] fridge. There are spare pulleys fitted to take any
other equipment that could be fitted at a later date. The freshwater pressure system is also
mounted here, along with the automatic and manual bilge pumps. There is good access to
the engine, and all regular maintenance areas can be easily reached. Two BCF fire extin-
guishers are fitted close to the engine room. Outboard of the engine on either side is the fuel
and water tanks, with sight gauges and good access for cleaning.

We water tank in a dry and easily serviced area. The switch panel fronts the main saloon over
the chart table, which hinges up for access to the fridge/freezer. The navigation equipment is
also in this area, including autopilot, VHF, Satnav, RDF, depth sounder and instruments. The
sounder swings out for easy helmsman’s viewing.

All the bulkheads are 1in [25mm] laminated ply, faced with New Zealand honeysuckle and
sapele mahogany. The cabin sides are fitted with polished brass grab rails and the main
saloon table is mahogany with a unique cork inlay, and seats six. Cupboards and under seats
provide plenty of storage space, and cupboard doors are fitted with rattan/cane for ventila-
tion. The floors are ply with cork overlay, easy to keep clean, and warm. Forward of the for-
ward cabin is a chain and rope locker with plenty of room for spare chain and rope, etc. The
forward cabin has two V berths with separate reading lights and storage under and along-
side. The galley is fitted with a stainless steel sink and tiled bench and up stand with a New
Zealand-made stainless steel, three-burner stove, and efficient oven. There is also a DC to
AC inverter fitted to run normal domestic appliances. There is excellent storage space for
food and crockery, etc in cupboards and drawers. In the aft section of the boat on the star-
board side is the master cabin, with a comfortable double bed and vanity unit with hanging
locker and plenty of drawers. On the port side is the roomy shower and toilet area, with shower
curtain and hot-and-cold pressure water. Forward of this is the sail locker with storage under.
Arnak’s owner said:

‘In 14 years of live- aboard cruising, during which she has carried us effortlessly three-
quarters of the way around the world, Arnak has proved herself especially comfortable
at sea, rarely heeling more than 10 degrees, and easy to sail for two persons in all
weathers. Had we not decided to have a break ashore for a few years, Arnak would
not be for sale. In fact, that period ashore will be spent building a new vessel, identical
to Arnak. but slightly bigger.

Capt J Slocum
Kjell Zetterstrom of Norway has told us his experiences of building and sailing his steel Spray
40 Version C:

‘Way back in 1980 I received the boatbuilding package and starting building shortly
afterwards. I decided to weld the hull, since I had done some amateur work in the field
and had access to left over 5mm steel plates from a shipyard. Your specification was
4mm (these two mm sizes fall one each side of 3/16 inch), but I estimated the extra
weight not to represent a problem.
Bearing in mind that I live in a cold and rainy country, I changed the upper decks and
cabin and cockpit. The cabin and cockpit were 1/8in [3mm] steel plated, on which 3in
[6mm] plywood was glued with polyurethane. In turn, 2in [12mm] teak was glued to the
plywood with epoxy. Next
change was the rig. Several old
sailors advised me not to use
the wooden gaff rig, and I’m
glad I didn’t, even though it
would look more classical in
appearance. I installed a new
6 cylinder Ford diesel that I was
able to obtain very cheaply, and
also installed hydraulic steering
and aft deck mechanical
steering. Also, I installed a 3
KW diesel-powered generator,
electric bow steering, and a
1500 Watt winch. Also included
are two 132 gal [500 lit]
stainless steel water tanks. The
hull was completely foamed
 internally with polyurethane foam, and all of the interior was fitted out with teak; it is
heated using a diesel heater and an electric oven. You can probably imagine that it
has become 1, 2 tons too heavy. On the other hand, less ballast was required, so the
total weight is approximately 18 tons.

Since I mostly sail alone, in moderate winds though, I saw the necessity of handling
the boat from the aft deck. The solution was a roller sail system, and a genoa foresail
using profurl. This gave effect that gave me more weather helm than I would like, so I
found the obvious answer, and that was to extend the bowsprit. Now she sails beauti-
fully. I don’t mind challenges, and I believe problems are there to be solved, and the
satisfaction in solving them justifies all the headaches. I will not hesitate to tell you that
my Spray is admired wherever we go, and I can only guess how many hundreds of
photographs have been taken of her by admirers. It probably does not surprise you
when I say that she was christened Capt J Slocum, and that I am very proud of my
Spray’

Mirounga
Ulrich Kronberg contacted me by fax to say he was the owner of a Spray 40, and that he was
building it from early 1985 until 1990. He said that he had two friends with Sprays, Cornchri
and Walpurga, Cornchri was standing in Wilhelmshaven and Walpurga was in the Grand
Canaries.
Naturally, I was most excited at receiving Ulrich Kronberg’s fax. Not only had I discovered
one more Spray in Germany, but another three boats had come to light. Shortly after this, the
postman delivered a large envelope, which contained a copy of the magazine Palstek, which
specializes in the practical needs of sailing people.

There are lots of ‘Do It Yourself articles’, and stories of the cruises undertaken by the readers
of the magazine. Ulrich Kronberg is the editor of Palstek and has written several building and
cruising articles that feature his Spray called Mirounga. In one of the articles Ulrich talks
about the early days of building the Spray hull and points out that everyone has to make
sacrifices if they are going to build a boat successfully. He says, ‘You yourself will have to take
a long period of deprivation. It is usually even worse for the family. No more visits to Granny’s.
The dog will be chased instead of walked. The theatre is a thing of the past, and conversa-
tions are just boring breaks that disrupt work, unless of course, they are about your own boat.

Ulrich Kronberg’s article goes on to lay out step by step how he built the boat, and some of his
comments are worth noting: ‘With all purchases, the best advice is to have barbed wire in
your pocket.’ On building a steel boat, Ulrich says, ‘The building site should not be too close
to a residential area, for most of the work is done at weekends, when other people, believe it
or not, want peace and quiet.’ On working under cover, Ulrich says, ‘The minimum covering is
a tent roof. We were very happy with our “Scottish” tent. In Germany, 10 per cent of the build-
ing value is due in fees; the “Scottish” tent is most suitable.’

When discussing obtaining some of the materials for the setting up and the strong back,
Ulrich says, ‘You can get all the beams from the scrap heap. New ones would be too expen-
sive and would not carry out their function any better. They will land up on the scrap heap
again anyway. Prices are according to market conditions, sympathies and moods. Here you
need to use the international boat construction currency: beer for small change, brandy for
banknotes.’ On buying the materials to build the boat, Ulrich says:
 ‘A sad chapter is the purchasing of materials and the acquisition of tools. It is sensible
to order large quantities, because small orders are usually over-priced. Things that
are used up like welding wire, grinding disks, etc, should never be bought individually,
but you should try to negotiate prices for a large quantity to be delivered. Do not forget
that high-quality tools are the only ones that last. Cheap DIY items seem enticing, but
are only suitable for DIY home handyman use. We are not putting together a hobby
room, but building a boat. A service network is important, although this can give you
grey hair too. Good planning is especially important, because shops are of course
closed at the weekend (at least in many countries!), when you do most of your work.’

On safety, Ulrich says, ‘Be careful with your eyes. Think of accident prevention. My two visits
to the eye clinic have strengthened my conviction that you cannot make savings here.’
 Peggotty
As is evident from the text, most
of the Sprays are scattered far
and wide around the world. There
are Sprays in almost every
country; and, as we wanted to
include the details of as many of
these boats as possible, we did
not stint in our efforts to track
down individual examples of the
Spray design.
The story of Peggotty originally
appeared in the Eastern Daily
Press, a newspaper that covers
Norfolk and Suffolk. Via a phone
call to the newspaper, I obtained
the original photographs that
appeared with the article; shortly
after filing the information away,
a letter arrived from Alan Sendell,
totally independently of the
information via the newspaper
article. Alan and his wife are the
owners of Peggotty. Alan wrote:

Alan Sendell
 ‘It was obvious to
us that Peggotty
was well suited to
strong winds, and
handled rough
conditions very
well. While I was
building Peggotty I
tried to imagine her
in the worst seas
and wind, and how
she would fare if
rolled or pitch-
poled, and I tried to
design all her
fittings and fixtures
a c c o r d i n g l y.
Always in the back
of my mind I had
the idea of sailing
the Southern
Ocean to round
Cape Horn.
Another desire of
mine was to some
day see the
Antarctic continent,
and it seemed
logical to do that at
the same time,
seeing as we
would be so close;
and now in Sydney
we started to prepare for the long trek across the Southern Ocean. We had new sails
made, and incorporated a trysail into the main so that we would have a gaff-headed
trysail, which I hoped would cause her to heave-to better. The new staysail had one
reef which was probably a waste of time; we have only used it reefed a few times,
preferring to use the storm jib.
A year after arriving in Australia, they left and crossed the Tasman Sea to Nelson, New Zea-
land, which gave them a chance to test their new systems and the new sails. Heaving-to now
with the new mainsail was much improved; they lay 50-60 degrees off the wind, ‘very comfort-
able’ and it was so much quicker than setting the trysail. The next months in New Zealand
were spent in preparation and waiting for November, the time they had chosen to leave. Alan
commented that another advantage of a Spray is the ability to stow 12 months’ food and all
the spares and tools needed for such a voyage.
Alan said:

‘We left New Zealand on 11 November 1992, and during the next 12 months we sailed
24000 miles. We sailed over 5000 miles direct to the Antarctic and cruised there for
three to four weeks before heading north to the Falkland Island’s where we stayed for
another four weeks before heading to the UK via Brazil and Granada. We left England
in October 1993 and sailed to Antigua via the Canaries. During all these miles Peggotty
took good care of us, and we had no really anxious moments (except for a few close
calls with ships in the English Channel), whether it was beating clear of Elephant and
Clarence Islands in the icy waters of the Antarctic, or drifting along in the Inter costal
Waterway. In the big following seas of the Southern Ocean, we lay below reading. With
the storm jib poled out and her long keel, there was little enough for the steering gear
to do. The only breakage we had was a gaff fitting that broke 300 miles south of Port
Stanley.’

This attractive Spray 40 - Pilot

house version was built in Severna
Park Maryland USA and later
sold to a young couple who sailed
her north to New York.
Harry B
Roland Latina of Illinois, USA, built his boat using some unusual boatbuilding techniques,
which seem to have worked out well in practice. Bob’s Spray 40 is not the first boat to be built
using the multi-chine steel patterns as the basis for building a fiberglass boat, but some of the
techniques Bob has used are a little unusual. He purchased the patterns for the 40 ft [12.1m]
multi-chine hull Spray replica sometime in 1978, choosing the multi-chine patterns so that he
could use the material that was available for frames.

He worked for the Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, and when they dropped their hockey
line, he made them an offer for all the left-over hockey sticks. He used the ash handles, four in
a bundle epoxy glued and bolted, for his frames. Roland was very pleased with results. He
then planked the hull, deck and cabin using C-Flex (tm) fiberglass planking, which was Monel
stapled to the frames, and inside the hull he backed this up by using epoxy fillets and addi-
tional fiberglass to attach and bond the frames into the hull structure. He discovered in order
to keep costs down; you had to be a great scrounger. Roland used just about every type of
wood available for the interior. He laminated his cabin and deck beams, mast, boom and gaff
from clear Douglas fir and epoxy.

Roland made his mast and boom hollow, but had a tough time getting the wood to give him an
8in [203mm] round mast and a 6in [150mm] round boom. Roland filled the hollow parts of the
mast with crushed aluminum foil, to ensure that he would be picked up on radar. He used
railroad tie plates for his ballast and bedded them in epoxy. His vessel has a 50 hp Perkins
diesel, an auxiliary engine and a three-bladed prop. When all this work was finished, Roland
had the boat hauled on a hydraulic trailer from Belleville, Indiana, to Berkeley Lake, Kentucky.

After a shake-down, Roland and his wife left Berkeley and headed south through Kentucky
Lake, Tennessee River, Pickwick Dam and Lake Cistlok, and then down the Ten-Tom Water-
way to the coast. The last two years they has been cruising the Gulf Coast from Biloxi, Missis-
sippi, and also around Ocean Springs, Pennecola, Pestin, and now at a marina in Niceville,
Florida. They love the boat! lots of room down below and they live aboard quite a bit. Roland
and his wife can easily handle the Spray (they are aged 69 and 66 years) and she stays
stable under sail. The boat is rigged as a gaff cutter with the foresail on a boom.

Ospray
Jim Mellor, the builder of the steel Spray 40 Ospray, wrote in March 1982 providing consider-
able detail about the building of his boat. Jim also wrote several articles for the UK boating
magazine Practical Boat Owner, which were run in the January, February and March 1981
issues. The articles and letters that Jim sent to me reveal that he was a very resourceful
builder and thought through each stage of the building programme, and developed some
useful building techniques as well as ways to save on the costs.

For instance, when it came to obtaining the timber for his mast, Jim researched the matter
thoroughly and found that there was a stand of suitable timber up on the Welsh mountainside
only 30 [48km] miles from his home. He said that for some reason or other this particular
stand of timber had not been thinned out and the trunks of the trees grew straight and tall. Jim
and another builder, who was also looking for mast timber, went off to inspect these trees.
Accompanied by a forester, he was advised that providing he was willing to pay a little over
the commercial price, he would be able to purchase one of these trees for himself. In effect,
when the time came to choose the trees, he and his companion chose three for the two masts
they needed, the idea being that if one proved unsuitable then they would have a spare.
The cost was ,80 for three splendid masts. The trees were felled without delay, and by good
fortune a timber merchant working in the area agreed to haul the timber home for ,35. The
same person had a 100 hp Ford diesel engine available, and Jim was able to purchase this
for ,50. As he says, ‘Thus by one stroke of luck did we acquire the basis of two forms of
motive power.’ Jim launched Ospray, and was in touch with us during the sailing trials and
later reported:

‘I am glad to say that Ospray has fulfilled all our hopes and expectations! After several
grand little cruises to the Hebrides, West of Scotland and Ireland Else and I took a
year off and did a round trip to the West Indies, going via the Scillies, Northern Spain,
Madeira, the Canaries, Cape Verde Islands and then across to Else’s birthplace -
Trinidad, where I can tell you, there was a great reception from the family. We sailed in
through the ‘Dragons Mouth’ just as dawn was breaking to the weird screams of the
Howler monkeys and the rich steamy smells of the jungle only a few hundred yards
away. An osprey swooped down and flew over his namesake which we took to be a
good omen.

After enjoying Christmas with the family we spent the next six months cruising the
tropical paradise of the Grenadines, the Windward and Leeward Islands and then on
to the British Virgins. The snorkelling was terrific and the variety and colour of the fish
has to be seen to be believed. We swam and dived in the ‘champagne’ off Parumica
where strings of bubbles trickle upwards from the sea bed as a result of volcanic
activity beneath the sea.

We had some close encounters with sperm whales who grabbed our attention by
throwing their great flukes in the air only a few yards from the boat. The hand of god
was what the old whalers called it. Mostly throughout the islands we anchored close in
with a stern line tied to a palm tree. Talk about idyllic! Boat boys would swarm along-
side, sometimes too many, bringing hands of bananas and other provisions. Osprey
was the centre of attention where ever we went and we made many friends along the
way.

Having built my Spray with the help of my sons I was very proud that two of them were
able to join us. All too soon it was time to make sail for old England via Bermuda, The
Azores and Ireland. The twenty day crossing from Bermuda to Horta was a rough one,
three gales and of the seventeen vessels that arrived in the Azores from Bermuda
during that period, Osprey was one of only two that arrived undamaged she looked
after us wonderfully well and in the big following seas she was brilliant; no yawing or
corkscrewing as I have struck in other boats.

On the way back we were guided by ‘Herb’ a radio ham and meteorologist from Ber-
muda. Each night Herb would call his ‘ducklings’ in listed order and give and receive
weather information, telling us which way to head to avoid the worst of the weather.
Over the years Herb must have saved many lives with is selfless all for nothing service,
God bless him.

We saw whales almost every day and one day a trio of fin whales which we estimated
to be nearly 70ft [21.3m] long, against Osprey’s 40ft [12.2m], swam up to us, one
swimming under the boat while we looked on with some apprehension, truly a mag-
nificent sight.’
Tanimara
This fiberglass Spray 40 was built in Belgium by Jack Danneels, who supplied the following
information:

‘Regards your calling all Sprays, I built Tanimara, (the name is Comanche for North-
ern Wind, Lonesome Wind,) in Antwerp in Belgium after work and during weekends
and holidays. I started in 1978 with a companion called Frank Nys. Preliminary study
of the subject via your booklet Build for Less, and the Spray, study plans plus Ken
Slack’s book In the Wake of the Spray finally set our minds on the idea.

The detailed construction plans and full-size patterns were received in the summer of 1978.
They were to build one mould and two balsa sandwich hulls together, sharing all costs. When
the first hull was finished and turned over in 1981, Jack’s partner Frank lost heart. Realizing
that the project was going to take up all of his free time and disrupt family life, he decided to
give up. So Jack was on his own. He decided to use the hull as a mould for the second hull
after he won the toss for the first hull. With the help of his wife, this second hull was completed
in 1982.

Jack slightly modified the bow, starting at station one-half, to give Tanimara an increase in
the clipper bow, making her LOA 44ft [13.4m]; the keel line was lowered by 5in [127mm] to
accept 6.5 tons [6604kg] of lead ballast and to allow for the slightly higher masts. Jack goes
on to list all of the equipment aboard his boat and then states, ‘The boat was built as a “live-
a-board” for four in great comfort, with room for another two occasionally.’

Tanimara -Small section of the beautiful interior.

Tanimara was finally launched in September 1991 and did not need trim ballast at all; she
sailed her maiden trip on the North Sea in 1992. Although Jack and his wife do not have long-
distance cruising experience, this is for them in the near future; they are hoping to circumnavi-
gate - they can already confirm some virtues of apparently all of the Sprays: excellent balance
on all points of sail, very sea kindly, and safe motion even in very chaotic seas. Tanimara is
easy on the rudder, but needs a lot of practice tomaneuver out of the small, crowded and
confined harbours of Belgium.

Jack’s partner Frank found a courageous buyer for his hull in 1987, and since then the boat
has been completed and Jack saw her sailing on the River Schelde on a return trip to his
home port of Antwerp. This Spray is called Jan Wandelaar (Johnny Walker). Jack says he is
convinced that all proud builders and owners of the Bruce Roberts Sprays will give ‘equally
enthusiastic experiences in reply to your call.’

Canores
My initial information about this Spray replica was obtained from the passage notes column
that appeared in a recent edition of the American boating magazine, Cruising World I quote
from the report:

‘Canores, a 40ft [12.1m] Bruce Roberts version of Joshua Slocum’s Spray, with
Floridians Julia and Jim Pensioner aboard, called at Barbados last spring, bound for
the Grenadines and Venezuela. Jim and Julia have lived aboard Canores since she
was launched in 1989, and have cruised the US east coast, Gulf coast and Bahamas
with her. The Pensioners, who built their dream ship in eight years, prefer steel con-
struction for its strength in comparison with other materials. They recycled some 5000
lead wheel counterweights for ballast and used masts resurrected from another boat.

Jim and Julia provided the US Bruce Roberts office with a brochure that details some of the
features of Canores. Obviously they plan some chartering, as this brochure details all of the
attractive features of the yacht that would appeal to would-be charterers. On deck they detail
that the boat is equipped with two anchors that are housed on the bow with bow rollers, and
an anchor windlass, for each. Some 200ft [61m] of anchor chain comes through the deck at
the windlass and the second anchor has a 50ft [15m] chain and 200ft [61m] nylon rode. Teak
anchor chocks are provided for on-deck storage for the two main CQR and Danforth an-
chors. A deck box behind the bowsprit contains mooring lines and anchor floats. The bul-
warks of this Spray are 18in [457mm] high and these are topped off with stanchions and
lifelines. The good-sized, comfortable, midship cockpit is covered with a permanent, but
removable, sunbrella awning with roll-up acrylic windows all round. This of course is a very
‘Floridian’ type of arrangement, as most of the boats that operate around Florida and the
Caribbean make plenty of provision for protection from the sun, and often the cockpit areas
are capable of being temporarily fully enclosed, so as to afford protection from the numerous
insects that prevail at certain times of the year in that area.

Spray of Dell Quay

Built from 1985 to 1987, using Bruce Roberts plans, by Trinity House pilot Brian Reed of
Liverpool, this steel Spray 40 is currently owned by John Corello of Chichester. The Spray is
fitted with a 80hp Watermota diesel. The sails and rigging were made by James Lawrence of
Brightlingsea; the mast and spars by Collar of Oxford.

All the above detail was supplied by the current owner, and looking at the photos of the boat
I can see why he has gone to some trouble to give credit to the various suppliers. This is a
beautiful example of the Spray 40, as an excerpt from a recent survey report conducted for an
insurance company reads: ‘Workmanship throughout the vessel is all of good standard, with
every care being given to all aspects of construction to give a strongly built craft with scantlings
in excess of normal yacht construction. The fitting of the plating is reflected in the fact that no
filling of the topsides has been necessary.’

Owing to the frequent difficulty of obtaining crew, John Corello has mostly sailed the boat
mostly single-handed. Poole, Portland and the areas around the Solent have been John’s
cruising grounds. John stated:

‘She is a magnificent sea boat under sail or power (I’ve owned or built a total of 37
craft), and I am very happy sailing her on my own, but now long for a companion. For
some years I sailed the famous Gold Belt, a coasting barge carrying foodstuffs around
the coast; she likewise has great seagoing properties, riding out many storms.’

Delphinae
This is one of several fiberglass Spray 40s built by Peter D Norman from a female mould he
constructed in Vancouver in Canada in 1974. During the period when I was I opening the
Bruce Roberts design office in Vancouver, Peter occupied an adjoining office, where he
carried on his practice as an insurance adjuster. I remember Peter was well respected in his
profession and was always in demand, flying here and there to inspect the latest major disas-
ter.

Peter approached our design office and purchased a set of Spray 40 fiberglass plans and
patterns. A female mould was to be built, and it was hoped several hulls could be sold. To my
knowledge, about a dozen hulls were built from this mould - and maybe many more. A photo
taken back in 1976 reveals several hulls being fitted out at that time. Hearsay leads me to
believe that the moulds were still in use until recent times. We would like to hear about some
of the other Sprays whose hulls were laid up in the same female fiberglass mould.

Drifter Way
Frank Thiessen, an airline pilot/training captain who is stationed in Taiwan, writes:

‘I leased a mould from Peter Norman in British Columbia Canada in 1979 and we laid
up a Spray 40 hull. Subsequently, I finished the ketch design with centre cockpit. The
boat was finished beside my house in Whistler in British Columbia, and we named
boat the Drifter Way. My wife completed the interior fabric work and like every sailor’s
wife, was a terrific support person throughout the project. Drifter Way is presently
located at Mosquito Creek Marina in North Vancouver. Our plans are that as soon as
Taiwan allows private yacht ownership, we shall park the boat here for a while.’

Derwent Endeavour
This is another Australian-based fiberglass Roberts Spray 40, which took Ronald Moss four
and a half years’ part-time work to complete. Derwent Endeavour was built in Tasmania close
to the banks of the Derwent River, hence the name. As the boat was intended for the Queens-
land charter trade, she was built to the strict survey requirements required by the Queensland
authorities. The hull was constructed using C-Flex (tm) fiberglass as the basis for a hand-
laid-up all-solid fiberglass hull. In May 1982 Derwent Endeavour set sail from Hobart with her
first planned port of call, Port Macquarie, which is on the New South Wales coast. After the
several hundred mile uneventful trip, Derwent Endeavour tied up at the marina in Port Mac-
quarie. Ronald was very pleased with his new boat, for she had behaved very well when the
boat was struck by heavy winds, just north of Newcastle.

The Australian east coast is famous for the dangerous sand bars that attempt to deny en-
trance to the safe harbours in this area. Many boats have come to grief when attempting to
traverse these bars, which can present a boiling caldron to any yachtsman daring to cross in
the wrong wind and sea conditions. Ronald discovered that if he opened up the engine, he
could surf in over these bars. He stated, ‘I realize I should have reversed the engine and
cleared the broken water as quickly as possible, but the Spray seemed to delight in this
surfing; no doubt the hull design, long straight keel and an 80hp diesel contributed to the
success of this action.’

Ronald felt that the craft had still not as yet proved herself, but on a trip to Lord Howe Island
the boat was to remove any doubts as to her ability. Ronald and his son, together with two
friends, sailed out of Port Macquarie. At first the weather conditions were reasonable, as had
been forecast; however, about 60 miles out, the wind veered and blew up. This caused a
confused sea condition, and the Spray was indeed in the middle of a sizeable storm. The
storm lasted all through the five days it took to reach Lord Howe Island, and the local met
office on Lord Howe recorded wind speeds of 60 knots. ‘As can be imagined, Ronald re-
ported conditions on board were pretty hectic, but the boat behaved beautifully, the only dam-
age was a torn mainsail.’

After an uneventful sail back to Port Macquarie, the next trip planned for Derwent Endeavour
was from Port Macquarie to Southport. Owing to business commitments, the crew who took
the boat to Lord Howe was not available, so Ronald signed one young totally inexperienced
crew (he refers to this young man as a ‘hairdresser’) and another older person with some
offshore powerboat experience as crew. In June 1983 the Spray was sailed out over the
turbulent river bar at Port Macquarie and headed north. The weather forecast was not par-
ticularly favourable, but as Ronald’s son and one of the crew had a tight time schedule, it was
decided to make for Southport in one hop.

With a 20 knot easterly, the boat was making good progress; but as the weather looked
threatening and as a seam in the jib looked suspect, it was lowered. It was decided to go into
Coffs Harbour to get the sail repaired. The next day it poured with rain as Derwent Endeav-
our left Coffs Harbour. The weather forecast was for more rain, and north-east winds of 15,
20 knots. Soon after leaving harbour, the winds freshened and backed to the north. Under all
plain sail, the Spray handled the conditions well. Mr. Moss reported:

‘At 4 pm I awoke, the craft was being thrown around; I put my head through the hatch
and the ‘hairdresser’ who had been on watch said, ‘She has been going off the clock’,
and promptly put his head over the side to be sick. The log read up to 12 knots, the
sea was menacing, and I remember thinking, ‘I hope it does not get worse.’ Well, as
later reported by all of the crew, it did get worse, a lot worse. Although a lot of spray
was coming over the cockpit, no sea was coming on board. After checking the Satnav
to assure there was plenty of sea room, everything was battened down and all of the
crew took to their bunks, only stirring to take it in turns to be sick.

By this time it was pitch black outside, the wind shrieked as only it can, and the waves ap-
peared to be massive. Ronald was wedged in his bunk in the stern cabin when he heard a
strange noise, loud enough to be heard above the din of the storm. On looking through the yacht
had been sitting out the storm for two days and the crew had about all they could take. With
two inexperienced crew and all on board seasick, they wanted to attempt the entrance in the
hope of getting some relief from the awful conditions outside. The Coastguard advised against
them making the run over the bar; however, the skipper of Derwent Endeavour insisted, so
the Coastguard officer gave all the help and advice that he could. The skipper sounded
confident, knowing of the Spray’s log keel and a 80 hp diesel. Appalled at the thought of any
boat attempting that entrance in these conditions, the club bar emptied, and, along with half
the town’s population, headed for the breakwater to watch the saga unfold. The bar was a
mass of boiling and breaking waves, line after line of breakers, surely no one would be mad
enough to attempt to make the harbour in these conditions?

It seemed as though every house in Ballina had a 27 meg. radio, for the word spread
so quickly. Cars from all directions converged on the breakwater. This is a fishing
town, and all the locals are very much aware of the bar entrance to their harbour and its
well-earned reputation.

As Derwent Endeavour approached the bar, she began to be picked up by the break-
ing waves that thrust her forward at accelerated speed before sliding off the back of
the wave. Closer to the bar as the seas got steeper, the onlookers expected to see
her broach, but it seemed that the long keel kept her heading in the right direction. The
flat transom caused her stern to lift, and the waves were lifting her as she surged
forward on each succeeding breaker.

An exceptionally large wave picked her up, right at the start of the breakwater and at
that moment the watching crowd could hear the helmsman give her full throttle. The
Spray took off like a surfboat, disappearing in a sea of foam, and she surfed in at what
was reliably estimated by the many experienced onlookers at an incredible 15 knots.
During the entry, her fiberglass dinghy was mounted on the stern in davits, filled with
water, tearing the stern out of the dinghy. Derwent Endeavour herself suffered no dam-
age, and a spontaneous cheer and applause showed the relief of the watching crowd.

Anne Clode completes her record of the events with the comments, ‘Anyone who watched
Derwent Endeavour can hold no doubts as to her seaworthiness and the skill of her captain.
Her full bow would not allow her to bury her nose, and the stern lifted exceptionally well in the
following sea. My mind balks at the thought of what would have happened to a fine fin-keeler.
The enthusiasm of one fellow watcher knew no bounds; he had recently launched his own
Spray in Sydney, and boy! Would he have something to tell the “knockers” back home’

Wagonga
In Cruising Helmsman magazine, the headline for the article by Bob Reynolds that described
the building of a Roberts Spray was ‘Wagonga, The Boat from the Bush’. Bob Bettini used a
set of Roberts Spray 40 fiberglass plans as the basis for building his Spray replica. Thus the
wheel had turned a full circle. Plans had been up drawn to build fiberglass Spray’s from the
original timber Spray, and now these fiberglass plans had been used to build a timber Spray.
It is interesting to note that Bob retained the Roberts Spray bow, and several other updated
features of the Spray 40 design. As we have said before, Slocum improved the original Spray
when he rebuilt her, and we in our own way tried to improve the boat without losing the many
features of the original Spray. It is for the owners and crew of the many Spray replicas to
decide if we have succeeded.
Resolve
Rick and Mary Smith are completing this steel Spray 40 at Mariners Farm Boatyard in Rainham,
Kent, in the UK. Rick’s steel work and attention to detail are superb examples of what can be
achieved by a careful builder.

Baggins
This Ferro Spray is owned by Wayne Marshall; the plastering was undertaken by Colin Brooks.
Wayne obtained his plans from our Australian office some years ago, after we had designed
the Spray Variant, for which plans were available for Ferro construction. At present, Baggins
is kept on the Medway in Kent in the UK.

Castelgate Spray
Many Spray replicas have been used for worthy purposes and none more so than this steel,
three-masted, schooner-rigged, Roberts Spray 40. This boat was built for the Castlegate
Quay Heritage Centre, which forms part of the ‘Vision 2000’. The Castlegate Quay is situ-
ated in Stockton-on-Tees, Cleveland, England in the UK. This project consists of a large
wharf side development that includes a floating, full- size replica of Captain Cook’s Endeav-
our, plus the Castlegate Spray youth sail training schooner and a number of other vessels
and associated co-ordinated facilities.

Throughout the UK there are many waterfront

redevelopment schemes and the Vision 2000
Castlegate Quay water activities centre has
made the Maritime Youth Training Centre one
of the centre points. The first project to get
started was the Roberts Spray 40 youth
training schooner, and after the recent crop of
modern sail boats and powerboats that my
office has recently designed, it was refreshing
to be asked to draw a special version of the
Roberts Spray 40 for use as a sail training
vessel. The object was to provide a sailboat
suitable for maritime youth activities; the boat
had to be capable of accommodating ten
young people for training cruises up to several
days long.

It was important to provide for handicapped youngsters, as well as make sure there were
‘plenty of strings to pull’, so as many youngsters as possible could become involved at one
time. Another requirement was that the boat had to be capable of being short-handed in the
event of seriously adverse weather conditions that made some of the young crew inoperative
due to severe sickness, or for some other reason. The sail plan was designed to fulfill the
foregoing requirements. The boat also had to be suitable for accommodating disabled per-
sons, and allowing them to share fully in the activities.

The Spray sail training schooner is currently nearing completion, and we are looking forward
to seeing her fulfilling her designed role of offering a seagoing experience to the youth of
Stockton-on-Tees.
MOULDED SPRAYS
Allan Roper of Box Hill, in New South Wales in Australia, informed me that he has a female
moulded fiberglass Roberts Spray 40. From the plans and full-size patterns a strip plank
male mould plug was built and a split mould was built on this plug.

The basic dimensions of the finished hulls are as follows: length of hull including bow fairing,
42ft 72in [12.9m] waterline length, 33ft 12in [10m], and beam
14ft 6in [4.4m]. Five solid fiberglass hulls were built from the mould. According to Allan, ‘I have
sailed on several of these completed boats and they are quite impressive and enjoyable,

Gallery of Spray 40's

Fiberglass Spray 40
built in Australia -
shown here with two
different paint
schemes.
Pilot house Spray 40
built in central Aus-
tralia and trans-
ported to the coast
for launching.

Spray 40 built in USA

Traditionally rigged Spray 40

Senta built by Keneth Latham
Traditionally planked timber
Spray 40 built in Burma

Above: Typical Spray

40 beating to wind-
ward - note small
angle of heel !

Left: Unknown Spray

40 photographed in
Newport Harbor USA
Top: Chez Moi - Photographed ashore in France
Above left: Spray 40 built by Jim Gladstone in USA
Above right: One of my favourite Spray 40 photo.
Spray 40 CORSAIRE
built in Australia
Homeward Bound
This fiberglass foam sandwich Spray 40 was built by Richard White of Cincinnati, Ohio, who
sent a sketch of his boat and his ballasting arrangements:

‘Enclosed find a sketch of my Spray 40 showing the location of the major weight items
and the ballast that is already installed. The ballast is lead pigs cast to fit the sections
between the solid floors, bonded in with resin and glassed over. Each section was
weighed as it went in. The hull is glass with 2in [12mm] balsa core and 10 ounces
[283gr] of fab-mat on the inside. The lay-up on the outside is pretty much as specified
on the plans. As my sketch shows, the keel is extended adding some weight in glass,
but is all enclosed, and not an outside bolt-on arrangement. The deck and cabins are
timber, as shown in your plans for wood. The aft end of the cabin has been shortened
6in [150mm] and the cockpit shortened to make room for a 12in [300mm] bridge
deck.

Pleiades II
This Spray 40 was built using fiberglass by Thomas R Scott (Bob) of Columbia, South Caro-
lina, USA who has made a nice job of it. Bob Scott recalls that as a youngster in Galveston,
Texas, he once went down to the beach and built boats out of sand. With the help of his five-
year-old imagination, Bob sailed his make- believe boats around the world, stopping along
the way to improve and enlarge his vessels with sand from exotic beaches and distant shores.

Almost half a century and half a continent removed from that scene on Galveston Bay, Scott
has built a real boat in his Columbia backyard, and he still dreams of sailing around the world.
His childhood fantasy has materialized as the 41ft [12.5m] fiberglass hull of an ocean-going
cruiser Pleiades II. ‘When I remembered that incident on the beach, it gave me a sort of
spooky feeling,’ said Scott, ‘because a fiberglass boat is made of sand too; sand and oil.’

Bob Scott’s boat became a reality when he launched Pleiades II in July of 1987. Since then
Bob has lived aboard for the past seven years and cruised the east coast of the US and the
Caribbean. Ports of call have included Bermuda, Abaco, Eteuthera, Berry Islands, New Provi-
dence Island and Bimini, to name just a few.
To quote Bob:

‘I had something of an adventure between Dry Tortugas and Havana when at around
two in the morning I ran head on into the biggest wave I have ever seen. The green
water came over the bow and filled the cockpit in a second. It felt like I ran into a brick
wall; I guess when you run into a huge wave like that it is pretty solid; thank goodness
I had installed four large drains in the cockpit.
Due to various circumstances, including my crew having the need to return to work to
top up their finances, I have done a lot of single handing in my boat. The amazing
directional stability of the Spray made my single handed passages considerably easier
since I was able to put her on ‘automatic pilot’. My automatic pilot consists of two lines
led from the tiller to cleats at the side of the cockpit; I just set up the sails to suit the
conditions and let her rip.

When Bob built Pleiades II, he added 10in [254mm] to the depth of the keel; he credits this
change for much of the exceptional windward ability of his boat. As for stability, Bob regularly
sails right through thunderstorms and 40 knot winds, he does not need to shorten sail; the rail
goes almost under but water never makes on to the decks.
Hale Spray
This steel Spray 40 is being built by Art Hale, of Brenerton, Washington State, USA. In 1991
he sent some photos: ‘Here are some pictures of one of your 40ft [12m] Sprays in steel. I am
building Version C, and I am not really big on all this high-tech rigging bull; I would like to go a
little more old-fashioned on the sail rig to complement the particular version of this fine ves-
sel, say a schooner rig or maybe a 1901 Amundsen’s sloop. I would like to use 2in [12mm]
steel cable, greased and sewn over with canvas the way it was done in yesteryear. Here is a
picture of what I want for the sail plan. Would you please look this over and let me know if it will
fly.’ But alas, the sail plan is now separated from the photos and the letter, and I’m not sure if
it would have flown or not.

Burma Spray
Bo Colomby reported from Myanmar (Burma) about a recently launched Roberts Spray 40.
Bo’s Company South Asian Nautical Explorations Ltd builds boats in Burmese hardwoods,
using quarter sawn teak above the waterline and for decks, cabin tops and interiors.

Burmese forestry practices are very sound; there is no strip cutting and logging is still done
by elephant and ox cart. The felled trees have to be dragged to the river and then have to wait
for the monsoons so there is enough water to tow them down to the places where they can be
collected or trucked out for cutting or shipping. The wood that is not used for boatbuilding is
used for framing sheds; what is left over is then used by the workers for cooking their meals.
The sawdust and shavings fire the primitive heating system used for applying direct heat to
the planks when bending them on the frames. There is no waste in this operation.

Weise Spray
Several builders have stretched the Roberts Spray 40 to various lengths, including 45ft [13.7m],
47ft [14.3m] and 50ft [15.2m]. Many of these boats have been redesigned after the builders
have contacted us for suggestions, and to obtain our approval for the design changes they
propose to make to the Spray 40 design. We have provided additional sheets of drawings to
some of these builders. In some cases we have designated the design as the Spray 45,
Spray 47 and Spray 50, and so forth.

One stretched boat was built by Mr. Weise, who requested plans for increasing the length of
the fiberglass Spray 40 to 47ft. [14.3m]. At the same time, he asked us to design a larger sail
plan. The Spray 47 was a great boat, tons of room, wide side decks with adequate, confi-
dence-inspiring bulwarks.

CHAPTER 19. Spray 55

Plans and frame patterns available for building the Spray 55 multi chine steel.

This version was created as a custom design for Robert T (Bob) Murk land, a civilian em-
ployee of the US military in Kuwait, this steel Spray will prove popular with anyone looking for
a larger Spray type for either charter or cargo use. As several stock plans have already been
pre-sold for this design, we can assume there will be several Spray 55s around in a few years
time.
Spray 55
Plans and frame patterns available for building the Spray 55 multi chine steel.
his version was created as a custom design for Robert T (Bob) Murkland, a civilian employee
of the US military in Kuwait, this steel Spray will prove popular with anyone looking for a larger
Spray type for either charter or cargo use. As several stock plans have already been pre-sold
for this design, we can assume there will be several Spray 55s around in a few years time.

Spray 55 Dimensions
LOD 55'-0" 16.70 M
LWL 46'-6" 14.17 M
BEAM 18'-0" 5.48 M
DISPL 75,000 LB 34,020 K

SPRAY 55 STEEL
We have been willing to listen to every
combination of idea's about this wonder-
ful boat and several layouts have been
drawn. Many of these features are inter-
changeable between the various versions.

CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL Multi Chine STEEL This is a VERY large Spray

and the accommodation arrangements are endless. You may have your own ideas
about the perfect Spray. We are always willing to comment on any thoughts you may
have regarding your next boat. A custom version of this well-proven vessel could be
your dream ship. You can choose to build this design in multi chine steel or alu-
minium and the boat can be rigged as a Bermudan or Gaff Cutter as well as a Ketch
or Gaff Ketch.
Spray Trawler Yacht built by Vejini Ltd Riga Latvia