John Spencer's designs

Hi Tad! We have some plains of the Bucc. We meet Peter Tait in the net and hi send us by airpost, bud this we don´t have. Every thing new to us is so interesting. Thanks

 

Hola CT 249! We have a notice from New Zealand Sea Spray. I show you, if you have another different documents, can you send me, pls?

We try to treasure the Bucc at the origine. For exemple with the keel. Bud we didn´t a lot of info, just the plains from Peter Tait, and some info about the colour. We try to do the best job possible to us. No body to us was sailed on the Bucc, now be are ending the retif thinking in how she will sail... We hope come back to New Zealand and Australia, and way not to race the sydney-Hobart

If you can to introduce with some body of the Ragtime team, we are intereted.

Thank for keep in touch. Regards,

 

Spencer 25 Plans

Hi,

I am a recent owner of a Spencer 25 (Stiletto?). The boat was built around1978. as I am about to do some changes to it, including a much needed repaint etc, I was wondering if any one has some original plans, or knows where I can access these?
I have tried various internet sources, but no luck.

Thanks

Chris

 

Plans, J Spencer

Hi Chris!

Sorry for my delay. Searching info about the Bucc, I was founded Peter Tait. Hi has a very nice person, who offered us the plans of the yacht. Hi was sent to us. You can try contact tu him or, if you prefer i can ask in your place.

Keep in touch

 

Boat plans

hi thanks for that.
do you have his contact details or is he on this forum?

Thanks

Chris

 

I've just bought the moulds for John Spencer's Funsailor 12' dinghy.
Can anyone point me in the direction of any design information or history for the design.

 

MCH.... I have a Spencer32, and am trying to find out what the weight of her would be. Any ideas, info would be appreciated.
Cheers

 

Anyone with information about Spencer 28s?

Can anyone cast light on the history of South Australian built Spencer 28s? I bought a Spencer 28 earlier in 2010 and am in the process of repairing/renovating her interior.... (I keep telling myself 'this is not a restoration... do just enough work to get us all sailing comfortably again'). She's a fibreglass boat made, I think, in South Australia around 1980. If anyone has any information about Spencer 28s and especially any history about the boats built in Australia I'd be grateful. The boat's berthed at Batemans Bay, NSW.

 

Hi BB

You must have bought Lollipop - she ended up in BB some time after my own Serendipity returned to Sydney from the Bay.

I have a copy of April 1972 Modern Boating magazine with a test of the 'glass Serendipity, and a copy of Spencer's brief article about the boats in a '69 MB.

The SA Serendipities were initially built by MFG Boats, a powerboat builder I think, with rigging and marketing by Duncanson. The plug came from a boat home-built by a former Kiwi, John Rochfort. The first 'glass boat, Koa Atea was launched around early '72 and owned by Rochfort. I think she is now in Victoria, fitted with a bigger rig and a different rudder I think, but not going as well as she did under the previous owner when she was competitive with Thunderbirds, Sonata 8s and similar craft from the handicaps I saw.

The 'glass Serendipities are quick strongly built according to the magazine article, with some 1" of chopped strand and woven rovings at the keel, dropping to 3/8" at the chine and 1/4" at the topsides. If the MB article is correct, the 'glass boats weighed in at 2.8 tons which is well above the design weight of about 2.2; however I think the given waterline is identical so the dimensions are a bit suspect. My own boat is double-diagonal oregon and when weighed at BB for AMS rating came out at about 2050kg, which may be more of an issue with the weighing procedure as few 30+ year old timber boats end up underweight!

I think Lollipop, from what I have seen, is a standard boat although then again, they seem to have a wide variety of interior layouts. She was formerly owned by a business associate of my former father-in-law and was strictly a social sailing boat on Sydney Harbour. I can find no earlier information about her.

Others have done a fair amount of racing, including Melbourne-Devonport (Rouseabout, which won its IOR division in the mid '70s), Coffs Harbour (Anenome, a home-made timber boat that was very nicely built and normally a moderate performer) and Brisbane-Gladstone events (Conqueror, a GRP boat that my family used to own and may have been built lighter; El Encierro, a timber boat; and Rush, a timber boat built by El Enc's former owner with about 1" added to each section to stretch her to about 29 feet and a bigger rig). My boat did a bit of racing from Sydney and Lake Macquarie, but after fitting an old Etchells rig the JOG class put us in the same division as the new boats so we gave up. We did do the inaugural Sydney-Batemans Bay regatta, finishing 2nd of the 10 or so half tonners behind a Farr, which we were pretty happy about considering she hadn't raced for eons and lots of bits fell off or didn't work. With less weight than most Serendipities, a bigger fractional rig and a spade rudder, she is not your standard S28!

Some of the standard GRP ones go quite poorly, to be frank, as while they are a very, very forgiving and safe boat to sail, they are not particularly easy to extract the best pace from. With a small rig they lack sail power, and although extremely stable at high angles of heel they lack form stability at low angles of heel. If you do not trim them well, they seem to lose more pace than most other boats but always remain very easy to sail.

I don't know how many S28s were built in Oz. There's about 7-8 timber boats, at least. Some were built in 'glass in the UK (not many, I believe) and there's at least one in South Africa, built in timber. I only know of three other glass ones in NSW and Victoria and a couple in QLD, but there are several others in SA, including Mystic (racing from Port Adelaide SC) and one racing in a country club. For some reason they are often referred to as 29 footers in SA but the test and plans clearly say 28, as does my boat's measurement certs!

I've been meaning to scan some Spencer plans for some time - drop me a PM to remind me over the next few days.

Good luck, it's a great boat!

Chris

 

Spencer's New World

 

Buccaneer Sail Plan

 

Buccaneer Framing Plan

 

Buccaneer writeup in Yacht Racing May 1972

 

Buccaneer Rating and Dimensions (Yacht Racing May 1972)

 

Spencer 32 Sail Plan