30th Annual Hardway Race: 14-16 May 2010

This was a big weekend for us!  It was our first multi-day trip and long distance race aboard Spray.  On Friday morning, we left our Channel Islands slip at 6:00 AM, emptied the holding tank, and headed up the coast to Santa Barbara.  The seas were calm and there was no wind so we powered the entire way at about 290 degrees according to our compass.  Along the way we saw some large schools of dolphins feeding and playing.  We also had a small green finch like bird fly along with Spray for over 30 minutes.  Spray's virtually new diesel auxiliary engine moved us nicely at about 6.2 knots while turning 2,400 RPM.  Charlie spent the entire time at the helm (since Spray's 30 year old Sharp autopilot is broken) while LeeAnne and Dean slept.  We arrived in Santa Barbara harbor at about 11:45.

Once in Santa Barbara, we got our slip assignment from the Harbor master and moved Spay to the big boat berth behind S dock.  We were the first of the Hardway racers to arrive so we had plenty of room.  Our friend Tom arrived shortly after us and we helped him dock his boat on the end tie.  We then met up with Tom's wife Kelly and headed to the marina for lunch at Brophy Bros Seafood restaurant overlooking the harbor and bay.

The next morning we got up early for breakfast at Minnows(?) and then visited the boaters swap meet. Charlie picked up a pair of nice Schaefer twin sheet Genoa blocks and a few stainless steel rub strakes.  After all, you can never have too many spare boat parts!  At 9:30 we attended the skipper's meeting for the Hardway race.  The race committee split the non-spinnaker class into two groups.  The A group had PHRF ratings <151 and the B group had ratings >=151.  With a rating of 180, Spray was in the B group with three other boats, two of which had the same 180 rating!  The wind was picking up and it looked like it would be a great day for sailing.

The race for our class started at 11:22 PM.  Although we were the last boat to cross the starting line, our start was not too bad.  We made two tacks to round the winward mark to part and had a straight course to our next mark, oil drilling platform C.  We actually gained ground on two of the other boats during this leg and were very close to the boat Superstition as we rounded the oil platform to port.  The other three boats flew directly down wind following the rhumbline to Ventura with twin head sails and whisker poles.  With our inexperienced crew and lack of racing grear, we did a series of jibes and broad reaches.  We lost ground on this leg due to the extra distance covered.  We crossed the finish line at 4:43 PM which placed us in last palce.  Overall it was a great race.  We couldn't have asked for better weather, we didn't make any major mistakes, we increased our experience with sail trim, and did a better job of judging when to tack in order to make our marks.

Specifications

BUILDER: Islander Yachts – Irvine, CA

MODEL OF VESSEL: Freeport 36

YEAR BUILT: 1980

NAME OF VESSEL: SPRAY

HAILING PORT: Channel Islands, CA

HULL ID NUMBER: XLY36112D580-F

USCG DOCUMENT #: 940266

USCG GROSS TON/NET TON: 11/10

CONSTRUCTION

HULL CONSTRUCTION: FRP

DECK CONSTRUCTION: FRP/CORE

CABIN CONSTRUCTION: FRP/CORE

RUDDER CONSTRUCTION: FRP/CORE

HULL TYPE: Fin Keel – Skeg Attached Rudder

SPECIFICATIONS

LENGTH OVERALL (LOA): 35' 09"

LENGTH WATERLINE (LWL): 27' 06"

BEAM: 12' 00"

DRAFT: 05' 03"

DISPLACEMENT: 17,000-lbs. +/- Reported

BALLAST WEIGHT: 06,300-lbs. +/- Reported

BALLAST MATERIAL: Steel

KEEL TYPE: Elongated Fin

RUDDER TYPE: Skeg Attached

ENGINE

MANUFACTURER: Westerbeke

MODEL: 44B

FUEL: Diesel

CYLINDERS: 4

YEAR: 2007

HOURS ON METER: 58 +/-

HORSEPOWER: 44 +/-

TRANSMISSION: Hurth

VENTILATION: Active/Forced, Intake & Exhaust

COOLING: Fresh Water with Heat Exchanger

SERIAL #: 122434-E206

RUNNING GEAR

PROPELLER SHAFT: 1-1/4" Stainless Steel Alloy

PROPELLER: 2-Blade Bronze – 18X9 RH

CUTLASS BEARING: Conventional in Shaft Log

PROPELLER SEAL: Flexible Stuffing Box

FUEL TANK

FUEL TYPE: Diesel

NUMBER OF FUEL TANKS: 1

MATERIAL: Aluminum

CAPACITY: 55 Gallons +/-

WATER TANKS

NUMBER OF WATER TANKS: 2

MATERIAL: Steel

CAPACITY: 125 Gallons +/-

HOLDING TANKS

NUMBER OF HOLDING TANKS: 1

MATERIAL: Poly

CAPACITY: 20 Gallons +/-

DISCHARGE: Deck/Direct

HOT WATER SYSTEM

NO. OF WATER HEATER/TANKS: 1

CAPACITY: 6 Gallons

NOTE: SPECIFICATIONS, TANKS, AND CAPACITIES ARE ESTIMATES ONLY.

ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS

AC POWER

VOLTAGE: 120

SERVICE AMPS: 30-Amp

GROUNDED: Shore

OVER CURRENT PROTECTION

MAIN BREAKER: Yes

SUBSIDIARY BREAKER: Yes

BATTERY CHARGER: Xantrex TrueCharge2 40 Amp (May 2010)

DC POWER

BATTERIES

SIZE/TYPE: (1) 8-D House and (1) Group 27 Starter

NUMBER OF BANKS: 2

SECURED: Yes

TERMINAL PROTECTION: Yes

DC VOLTAGE: 12-Volt

GROUNDED: Yes

OVER CURRENT PROTECTION: Breakers

BONDING SYSTEM

ZINC ANODES: Engine/Propeller Shaft/Prop

RIGGING

RIGGED: Sloop

MAST MATERIAL: Painted Aluminum

BOOM MATERIAL: Painted Aluminum

SPREADER MATERIAL: Painted Aluminum

CHAIN PLATES: Stainless Steel Alloy

STANDING RIGGING

TYPE: Stainless Steel Alloy 1X19 Wire

TERMINAL FITTINGS: Swage Type

RUNNING RIGGING: Rope & Rope to Wire Splice

WINCHES

PRIMARY: (2) Barient #27 Self-Tailing

SECONDARY:

HOUSE: (1) Lewmar 40 Self-Tailing

MAST: (1) Barient #22, (1) Barient #21

BOOM: (1) Barient 10

SAILS

MAINSAIL: Full Battened, Two Reef Points (April 2010)

HEADSAILS: 140% Genoa, Tri-Radial (April 2010)

ROLLER FURLING GEAR: Harken MKIV, Unit 2, (April 2010)

Interior Upgrades - March 2010

LeeAnne took charge of the interior upgrades while Charlie focused on the hull, engine bay, rigging, sails, portlights, and other mundane systems. LeeAnne picked out some carpet colors and curtain patterns that pulled together the colors from the teak wood, vinyl headliner, and settee / berth cushions. We had Gilberto, the local marine upholstery guy, make the new curtains and carpets. Spray's interior has a much warmer and homier feel now.

New Portlights - April 2010

This was by far the most challenging and rewarding upgrade so far! Spray had the six original 30 year old brown plastic opening portlights. These portlights had cracked frames that leaked, were missing some of the tightening knobs, mismatched hardware, and the windows were less than clear. After considerable research on upgrade alternatives, we ordered a set of six new 4x14" polished stainless steel portlights and teak wood trim rings from New Found Metals in Washington.

I got some very detailed installation instructions from the FOGgers web site and figured that I could install all six portlights in a weekend. Boy was I wrong about how much time it would take! The first portlight took me an entire weekend. I don't have much experience with power tools and cringe at the thought of cutting and drilling holes in my boat. Consequently, I had a long learning curve dealing with the laminate trimmer with bearing guided flush cut router bit, jig saw, mutli-purpose tool, counter sink bit, etc. And of course, everyone on our very active dock had conflicting advice on the best way to do the installation. I made a few mistakes and learned in the process. Thanks to some help from Michael, the master traditional sailboat guru, I was able to repair some of my mistakes and previous damage from the factory! Also, with Dave's assistance, we were able to complete the second two portlights in one day! The end result was beautiful and well worth the effort. Now I just need to get the courage to tackle the three on the starboard side ;-(

Note that we had the worn down wood "eyebrows" above the windows and portlights removed and replaced with blue stripes. Although we liked the warm look of the teak eyebrows, they were too worn down to refinish and we thought the blue stripes would provide a cleaner look and reduce the brightwork maintenance.

New Sails!!!

Spray's new sails were delivered and installed by Gary from Ullman Sails in April, 2010. We got a new fully battened, 8 oz. Dacron cross-cut main with two reef points and loose foot. We also got a new 140% Tri-Radial Genoa with foam pads in the luff for reefing. Both sails have the requisite tell-tails, draft stripes, US sail numbers and leech lines. The new sails fit like gloves. This is the first time we've ever had a boat with new sails and it was exciting to watch them fill and power Spray! Check out the official US sail number: 56789 That must be a very lucky number!

Rigging, and more rigging...

Kim Weir, our local rigger, has helped make a lot of welcome upgrades to Spray's rigging. While at the boatyard, he repaired the loose plate at the top of the mast, installed a new Windex wind vane, replaced the spinnaker halyard, installed new spreader covers, and replaced the woefully undersized original Barient 10 main sheet winch with a Lewmar 40 Self Tailing winch on the cabin top. Kim tuned the rigging once Spray was back in her slip.

In March 2010, Kim returned to replace the original Hyde StreamStay roller furling unit with a nice new Harken MK1V Unit 2. This required installing a new forestay since the Hyde StreamStay was the old forestay! Although the original roller furling unit worked, it was a bit undersized and difficult to furl with anything more than 10 knots of wind. Since we were getting new sails, we didn't want to risk flogging the new Genoa in heavy winds while trying to furl it. Also, it was hard to determine how much structural integrity was left in the 30 year old forestay fittings! The new furler is much easier to use and we're a lot more comfortable with it. While we were at it, we had Kim install a set of Lazy Jacks to simplify the process of lowering our new fully battened main. He did a great job with all of the upgrades and it was a real pleasure to watch him.

First Few Sails

Here are some pictures of the first few times that we took Spray out sailing in January thru April, 2010. We first sailed with Dave and his daughter Niki from Quebec. A few weeks later we had a great sail with Harry and Karen. LeeAnne and I participated in a couple of local racing events, but didn't get any pictures. In April we had a nice sail with Charlie's Amgen Karate Club friends. We're really looking forward to our first trip over to the Channel Islands!

Spray's Naming Ceremony - Jan 2010

Our boat was originally named Spray II by the previous owner. We liked the historical significance of Spray and decided to drop the II from her name. Of course we then had to have a naming ceremony once we had her cleaned up and back at D dock. For those of you that don't know, Joshua Slocum was the first person to sail around the world alone. He did this in the 1890s aboard a 36' sailboat. He wrote a great book of his solo circumnavigation adventure aboard Spray, titled Sailing Around the World Alone. It's a wonderful read!

Other Improvements

Spray was on the hard for the first three months that we owned her. While the bottom job was getting taken care of we took the opportunity to make a few other improvements. Since the original depth sounder didn't work, we replaced it with a Raymarine ST-60 Plus Tri-data system which includes a depth sounder, knot meter, and log with water temperature. We also installed a new horizontal aluminum propane tank and new hose to the oven/stove in the galley. The boatyard did a great job adding an active ventilation system for the engine bay with separate 3" turbo fans and ducting for intake and exhaust. This active ventilation should help keep the starter battery cooler. We also noticed that the steering system was binding at the rudder shaft coupling. The boatyard went to great efforts to disassemble, clean, and repair this. The steering feels much better now! We also installed two new stainless steel solar vents on the deck above the cabin. These will help keep fresh air flow through the boat 24 hours a day. We also had the 120V wiring replaced from the shore power inlet to the electrical panel. In addition, the windlass wiring was completely re-done and we installed protective covers for it and the instrument panel.

New Bottom Job - Oct-Dec 2009

We had the local boatyard start the bottom job while we were on vacation in October 2009. The blisters were only superficial at the gelcoat layer and did not extend into the laminate. Spray's gelcoat was completely removed from below the waterline, all blisters were ground down, the entire hull was flushed several times and allowed to dry for over a month.  Fortunately October had plenty of the dry Santa Ana winds which helped dry out the hull. The blisters were filled with epoxy and faired. Several coats of the Interlux InterProtect 2000E epoxy barrier coat were applied along with several coats of bottom paint. We also replaced the cutlass bearing and installed a new depth sounder/knot meter transducer while she was on the hard. Although the job took longer than expected, we were pleased with the end result.

Pre-purchase Survey - Sep 2009

Here are some pics of Spray that were taken from the broker's dock and during the pre-purchase survey in September, 2009. Spray's overall condition was very good. She had been used primarily as a weekend condo for most of her life. The bottom paint was failing in several sections and there were many blisters. Consequently, we knew a new bottom job was in order.