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The hull is Bruce Robert's Adaption of the classic Spray to a round bilge steel of 45.5 feet. He is the best source for Spray lines and adaptions. My modifications and additions to Bruce's basic hull lines are very few other than slightly raising the poop deck and changing the locations of the portlights. His lines are quite good and needed only a little correction for the welders in Riga to construct. It is possible that those changes were necessary to correct for the builder's own errors in layout of the ribs. The round bilge hull is more difficult to build than the chined (ridged) hull. The sharp bends, particularly at the bow, require more than just rolling the sheet metal. The sailing characteristics are quite the same. The only advantage of the round bilge is esthetic. |
The lines are particularly suitable to the kind of sailing that we plan on doing. It is not a raceboat, but it is very stiff (little heeling) and sea kindly. Historically, the lines are those of North Sea oyster boats. There is also some similarity to the classic Viking ships that plied the North Atlantic. The broad beam of the hull gives the boat its stiffness. It can be sailed without any ballast, but safety be first, we ballasted the keel, giving the hull a positive righting moment even when capsized. |