Design 1557 C3 Spirit

We have discussed the Spirit Class before and as shown in the above image. The boat was designed as a flush-deck one-design class for San Fransisco Bay in the mid-1960s. Although the class never took off the original Spirit was hugely successful and various sisters were built. It has been difficult to track what boats were built. Here is a list of owners and boats for this design in its various forms.

In 2000, Wooden Boat magazine published a ten page article about the boats (Wooden Boat #156). Even here they reference the ever-allusive hull #6 as follows: A sixth boat is rumored to have been built of fiberglass in New Zealand.

I was finally able to track down this boat, also named Spirit (just to further confuse matters) and shown just above. The boat was in fact built of fiberglass by the highly respected boatbuilder John Lidgard of Aukland in 1965. She was built with a small, attractive deckhouse, the draft was increased to 6-10", a separate skeg and rudder were designed and her sail area reduced slightly. Please note that the model with the small deckhouse was dubbed the Mariner Class.

Here are a couple of shots that give a peek at her underbody and a good look at her cockpit.