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'81 Spirit 23 in Charlotte, NC

18K views 63 replies 8 participants last post by  hnash53 
#1 ·
Just thought I'd start my own thread for updates and modifications to my new to me Spirit 23.

Got it for $1000 with the trailer but no motor and brought it home this past weekend. Looks complete other than that. Came with the original sails and one other jib and one genoa. Upholstery for the V berth and the port berth is in good shape, although they used 6 inch foam for the V berth which is too firm and too thick. I may cut it down and resew it just to gain a few more inches of head room and it will be plenty comfortable with the addition of a one inch memory foam topper. I could then use the other bit of foam for the starboard quarterberth.

There is rot in the bulkheads from leaky chain plates, a couple of cracks in the forward hatch and the cable to the keel is broken of course. I haven't gotten it in the water since one of the cockpit thru hulls is broken off so it wouldn't float for too long! Also one of the winches is missing/broken off. And probably my least favorite, is the hull has been painted, some of which is flaking off with a power wash. Hoping it will strip easy so I can work from that, otherwise it will need to be sanded and painted at some point.

So projects for now:

1. Replace thru hulls, getting some stainless ones
2. Add bilge pump (nothing at moment).
3. New mounts for battery in front under vberth.
4. Replace winch (found one on ebay for $60)
5. Get my little 3.5HP motor running well enough to get around. That will be fine for the lake around here.
6. Add a keel board to the trailer, keel rests on rollers right now, not good.

So that will let me float it and play a bit, many other projects to follow.

And here are the before pictures.







 
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#54 ·
Good question Jeff. I am likely going to have to rebuild mine when I haul Zippey out this week. Last time I rebuilt it I only used plywood with no weight in it. My understanding is that most of the weight is in the partial keel and the centerboard is mostly for lateral motion resistance. If that is correct then any weight in the centerboard will further stabilize the boat, but may not be necessary for general cruising conditions.
 
#56 ·
A couple videos from our sail to Ocracoke. You can see the lines led back tha ti installed, not sure I mentioned that in this thread yet.

We had a great beam reach sail from Oriental, NC to Ocracoke and enjoyed some great days out there. Unfortunately, typical winds coming back are dead on the nose from Oriental. So considering it is 40nm across open water with zero spots to bail out, you are either in a 20 hour day tacking into the wind or you motor it. So the first video is our great sail out, averaged 5 knots in a 23 foot boat on a beautiful beam reach in 15-17 mph winds.



The second is the much less fun pounding directly into the steep chop on Pamlico for 9 hours. And yes I know these are only 2-3 foot waves, but they are like 8 feet apart and steep. Nothing dangerous just tiring.



Anyone know how to embed videos on here?
 
#58 · (Edited)
Here is a pic of my new mast raising system. Got a remote control electric winch for $69 on ebay, and added a bow roller. The bow roller will come in handy for anchoring of course, but I mainly did it so I had a pulley for the winch cable to run over as it goes up to the lever to raise the sail. The remote is so nice, not just for raising the mast easily (no more hand winching), but also works fantastic for loading the boat since i can guide it into place as the winch pulls it in, plus not have to hike out to the winch which is usually over a couple feet of water at that point! To power it, I use one of those small lithium ion jump starter packs. It's compact and about the size of a paperback book (if you remember those). I just bungee it to the winch and clip it on so I don't have to worry about running power from the car battery over water and what not.



In this pic, you see a classic cruiser boat layout with laundry and everything else hanging from the rails. You can also see the new pop top enclosure I made which has actual snaps and such so it handles the high winds really well (ask me how I know). I also brought along a small air conditioner which made sleeping at the beach in 95 degree weather a pleasure. Besides the comfort. the white noise really helps with blocking out marina noise. One of the really nice things about the pop top enclosure is that I could actually put it in the front by the mast rather than the companionway so I wouldn't have to jump over it to get in and out. In a 23 foot boat there is already plenty of contortions and hopping over things to be done. No good pics but trust me it's there!



And last, here's a little video of our trip sailing out from Swan Quarter to Hatteras in a pretty steady 22-23 mph winds. Running with the wind with full genoa slacked out we averaged 5.5 over and hit 9 knots surfing down some waves a few times. Wasn't bad but a bit rolly. When I had to turn into the channel into hatters it got a lot less fun motoring into the wind. Running with it I couldn't even get the motor in the water trying to push it down at 6.5 knots. Got a lot of splash in the face getting over but had a great weekend and another bfs down.

 
#61 ·
Yep, I see the pictures now!

I like that mast raising system! I had pictured in my head that the winch was on the boat itself. Nice to have it on the trailer though. Much easier to get the mast up and set on the hard rather than rolling around in the water.

That sail you had sounds epic. What size is your genoa? I had an old 135 that eventually delaminated and blew up on me leaving me with just a 100 and a lightweight 160 drifter. The 135 was pretty awesome in most conditions. The 160 is great in the Puget Sound which has light winds during most of the prime cruising season.

Does your bow not have an eyelet to attach a trailer winch hook to? Now that you have that roller I highly recommend getting an asymmetrical spinnaker. They are easy to handle and make going downwind extra fun. You could tack it right down to the bow roller (I do this on my Lancer 36) but you might want a supporting line running down from the roller to the eyelet on the bow to prevent the roller from lifting off the deck.
 
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