JC Spender
Sailing
Sorcery, my hard-worked but much-appreciated 1981 Lancer 36' in Stonington ME in 2006. Designed by Bill Lee - now of Santa Cruz Yachts - she is a ULDB (ultra-light displacement boat). Short cruising rig makes her easy for a single-hander. But there's plenty of room below - open plan layout with no forecabin (which is typically useless at sea and used mainly as an expensive sail-locker). Having been startled by the layout when I first saw it, I am now amazed that small yachts are laid out in any other way. Allows for a full galley and full-size forward-oriented chart table - and two quarter berths, to say nothing of hot and cold running water.
Sorcery had a good deal of overdue fixing during the 2008/2009 winter - reinforcing the deck around the wheel pedestal and changing the quarter-berth arrangements to prevent a re-occurrence of the flooding during the 2008 September hurricane. What a night that was! More refitting work during the 2009/2010 winter. Now have a gloriously shiny new mast with all the trimmings - actually the old one finally refurbished. Otherwise Sorcery is looking fine and ready for an August cruise.
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When Sorcery and I got together in 1993 I had been boatless for a number of years, having left my dear Altesse (below) behind in the UK. I sold her to a young American couple who planned to go off to the Mediterranean for a while.
Rigged as a Bermudian cutter with a self-tending staysail, she was built in 1938 by Abo Batvarf in Turku, Finland, to the designs of J. Lindblom. Pine on oak frames, with a Brit gas engine, original in 1938, that I eventually replaced with a 1978 Brit. Unbelievably the same block ! Altesse - sister ship to Altair - was (and I hope still is) a beautiful boat that drew kind remarks from many sailors.
