Dear Bruce, 

Finally some pictures of her sailing! I have had a few trips up and down the coast from Fujairah and as always she behaves well. I am lifting her out later this month for antifouling and I am using Cuprotect System as it is guaranteed 5 years and purported to be a 10 year plus treatment. I will let you know how I get on with that. She now has davits on the back with a Niccollslite NN10 nesting dinghy hanging from them. On long trips I can put the dinghy nested on the foredeck. The watermaker is on the way Ultra Whisper 600 from Sea Recovery.  

I would just like to say how pleased I am with the Spray 370 and thank you for all the support you and Hal have given me during the build. Best regards Bill Wigan, Dubai.  NOTE: THE LATEST SAILING PHOTOS OF THIS SPRAY 370 ARE INCLUDED IN THE STUDY PLAN PACKAGE.

SEE BELOW for previous letters from Bill Wigan

Dear Bruce,

Just an update on my progress. I have just finished painting the hull and primer under water line. I am very pleased with the result and I hope you agree.  All the machinery and appliances are installed, wiring 95% plumbing 40%. Interior joinery fore and aft well on the way. Galley and saloon not really started yet. Leaving this until last. I am pleased with the progress as it is 20 months since the first plates were tacked together. Best wishes to all, Bill Wigan Dubai.

The Spray 370 A will accept a variety of rigs including the Bermudian cutter as shown here. Note that a variety of window and port arrangements may be used.

Spray interior featuring center-line table with folding leaves - see below for plan view.

STUDY PLAN PACKAGES ON CD GIVE ACCESS TO HUNDREDS OF step by step BOAT & KIT ASSEMBLY PHOTOS ... See details

SPRAY 370 KIT STUDY PLAN includes information on all the versions ( A,B,C,D ) as shown in these pages

STUDY PLAN PACKAGES ON CD GIVE ACCESS TO HUNDREDS OF step by step BOAT & KIT ASSEMBLY PHOTOS ... See details

From: Bill Wigan
Subject: Re: Spray 370  Hi, Hal and Bruce, I have just finished cutting my kit out using your cutting files and I would like to thank you for the time and effort you guys put into the nesting. I thought it would be good but I am amazed at the ease with which the machine just chugged along and the result with all the alignment marks and part numbers etched on, brilliant!  The file modifications for the aft cabin roof and the etching for the walk thru all appeared on the plate. It really is good to deal with professional people. The construction of the hull is going smoothly. I cannot say how pleased I am with the result of your cutting files ! Thanks and regards Bill Wigan Dubai 

The build is coming along fine and I have just about completed all the bits and bobs prior to painting. Anchor lockers, steering and engine and gen set fitting. Now removed again to paint. I have a few pictured that I hope may be of assistance to you which I attach. I am still as impressed with the concept as I was initially. Now for the hard bit. Indoors! The tank is one of my diesel tanks being pressure tested. Just an update on my progress. I have just finished painting the hull and primer under water line. I am very pleased with the result and I hope you agree. All the machinery and appliances are installed, wiring 95% plumbing 40%. Interior joinery fore and aft well on the way. Galley and saloon not really started yet. Leaving this until last. I am pleased with the progress as it is 20 months since the first plates were tacked together.  Best wishes to all, Bill Wigan Dubai   Dear Bruce and staff at Bruce Roberts! You were asking how my project was coming along? Well, quite some time has passed since I purchased the CAD-files for the Spray 370, centre cockpit version. My plan all along was to build it from scratch, and eventually move aboard permanently. Dozens of hours has since been spent examining every nook and cranny of this beautiful design! Still, the building process was some years into the future. But then, in the summer of 2003, I saw an advertisement in Practical Boat Owner. Topsail Marine, UK had a Spray 370 hull for sale, and after some careful consideration I bought it in the end of October 2003! The hull was originally the one built by Mr. Andy Goodchild but circumstances led to him selling it to Mr. Mike Ware at Martham Ferry Boatyards, close to Norwich and Great Yarmouth in UK. Mr. Ware has also taken the job of coordinating the finishing up of the welding (I need to get an certificate on the welding to bring it to Norway), sandblasting and priming before shipping it. Luckily, he has been most cooperative and offered me a price I could afford. Unfortunately, there has been some delays. Any work had to be done outdoors, and a wet and cold winter set the work back. But sometime during the summer, my hope is that the British Spray will change it's citizenship into a Norwegian one! The CAD-files, even though they will never be used to cut any metal, has still proven to be an excellent investment. I have used the last couple of years to plan the interior and layout into quite some detail. I guess I even could start building some parts of the interior before the hull arrives! But I'll wait! Most notably, I plan to raise the floor of the interior by approx 20 cm (I'm not a tall Viking, so I will not even be able to look out of the windows as she is now!). Following the same logic, I plan to raise the cockpit by 20-25 cm. A walk-thru will be fitted on the port side together with a small work-bench on the starboard side, inside the engine compartment. The centre of gravity will be kept as low as possible by placing grey, black and freshwater tanks predominantly below the floor, together with approx 1000Ah batteries divided into 4 banks. The hull will be heavily thermally insulated, to accommodate warm winters in Norway and cool summers farther south. The insulation will be partially polyurethane foam  and partially glass wool, to reduce the risk of fire and to contain the fire to small areas. As for rigging, I'm still totally undecided whether I'll go for a classic one or for a more modern, in-mast furling type. Ok, Bruce! That has to be enough for now! Thanks to you and to Joshua Slocum for a lovely, classic and almost timeless design! I promise to provide you with some photos as the work progresses! And a lovely summer to you all! Sveinung Usken, Norway

Anyway, so much for the present, let me give you a brief history of Blue-Belle to date. In 1987 I was looking for a long distance load carrier, big enough to cross an ocean comfortably, but small enough to be easily maintained. I purchased the plans of your Spray 33 and began building on the south coast of England.

Due to working abroad, I didn't launch her until 1992; She is built in 4 mm steel and is hot metal sprayed with aluminum both inside and out. She is as per your version B plans a part from lengthening her to 34 feet on deck, in order to incorporate a double self stowing anchor roller assembly. Upon completion she was then stored ashore for a further four years while I was away earning the cruising fund.

Her maiden voyage was in the autumn of 1996 London to Antalya/Turkey aprx. 3500 miles single handed. I hadn't fitted any self steering as yet, so this first long passage was a good test of the Spray's legendary self steering qualities. If you take care to balance the sails she will steer herself for amazingly long periods of time.
In Antalya my Wife and I were married and we moved on board to begin our full time cruising life style. Now I really did begin to appreciate the Spray's load carrying capability, I have never seen so much stuff poured into just one boat.

We spent two full seasons cruising the Med and in September 2000 departed Portugal for the Cape Verde Islands via the Canary Islands. December the 1st found us leaving Mindelo/Cabo Verde and bound for Barbados. We still didn't have any self steering fitted, but then again neither did Slocum. No problem. Blue-Belle took 16 days to make the 2037 mile crossing, that's an average of 127 miles per day. Her best days run being 147 miles. For a heavily laden cruising boat with a 28 ft water line she could certainly turn in a decent passage time. We were delighted with her. We also found that running downwind she didn't roll as much as other boats I'd sailed under similar conditions.

Maybe the chines have something to do with this. We spent the next 2,5 years cruising the Caribbean, Bahamas and the US Intracoastal Waterways. The Spray's shoal draft was paying dividends. June 2003 and we were on our way back across the Atlantic. We did purchase wind wane steering gear in the states, but were so busy being tourists, we didn't have time to fit it. I think that only the crew of a Spray would contemplate carrying their self steering gear as deck cargo prior to an Atlantic crossing.
Our North Atlantic Passage was the usual mix of gales, calms, and occasionally some decent sailing. However we ate well, slept well and apart from blowing out the genoa suffered no damage. In Spain my wife had to fly home to cover a family emergency. So once again I single handed to Turkey, finally arriving to the fabulous reception mentioned earlier. This winter we intend to haul out and I will finally get round to fitting the Wind vane and steering gear. For as my wife says "It will look so much nicer dear, hanging on the transom".
In conclusion we find the Spray to be a wonderful sea boat, and is a lot faster than she looks. When running in gale force conditions we find that our heavy weather staysail, sheeted flat amidships (a technique used by Slocum in his book) works well. The bow showing no tendency to dig in despite all the weight we carry up forward. One mistake we made in the early years was in reefing her down too early; the boat is very stiff and sails well in heavy weather. In storm conditions when it is more prudent to stop and we either heave to or lie to a parachute anchor streamed from the bow and attached to a bridle led back to a cockpit winch. In this manner we feel safe and secure.
So, would we part with our Spray? Would we change her for something else? No - not ever. After 8 years and 35.000 miles we finally have our ultimate cruiser.
Thanks Bruce, you gave us a great boat.
Kindest regards, Derek & Hulya

Derek & Hulya S/Y Blue-Belle Park Kemer Marina Kemer Antalya/Turkey
Phone        0090 242 814 14 90 (marina operator for extension)  244
Mobile   0090 536 390 74 14
e-mail   hd_bluebelle@hotmail.com