# spencer 1330



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

Does anyone know anything about a Spencer 1330. How does it sail, is it too much to handle for a couple, offshore capabilities etc.?

Thanks in advance


----------



## Faster (Sep 13, 2005)

These are solid boats, many of them have done extensive offshore voyaging. Roomy, center cockpit with a large engine "room", good livability and reasonable performance.

We attended a seminar last year put on by a fellow from West Van that sailed his 1330 from Vancouver - Mexico - Chile (wintered down there) then sailed the Patagonian coast, including a daytrip around Cape Horn. They then meandered back up the Chilean coast before sailing home via the Marquesas, Hawaii, Alaska, the Charlottes and the inside passage.

For the most part there was just the two of them, with occasional guest crew. The skipper was a retired airline captain, and obviously a very competent man at all he did. (and a fine photographer to boot!)

If you want his name, PM me. He may well be willing to chat.


----------



## TSOJOURNER (Dec 16, 1999)

I'm not quite certain, and perhaps someone who has the books can comment on this, but I believe one of Ferenc Mate's books had a chapter on Spencer? If it wasn't Mate, I apologize. Might have been Vigor? Can't remember which book. A couple of months ago I was in a used bookstore and leafed through a book about quality sailboats and Spencer was indeed highlighted in an entire chapter.


----------



## mustangxr (Jul 21, 2015)

Yes, That was my boat that was featured and mentioned, along with some other Spencers also. The book was by Ferenc Mate and was called "The Finely Fitted Yacht". I lived and sailed my Spencer 1330 for four years and did some offshore trips from Prince Rupert down to Victoria. This was before Loran became popular and GPS was unknown, so celestial was required. I would go west to off the Continental shelf and then turn south and then back into the Straits of Juan de Fuca to Victoria. I always seemed to pick up a screaming Southwester out there but the Spencer would work slowly to weather overnight with just a small storm jib up, and handled the seas a lot better than I did. I had a powerful strobe on the masthead and I would turn in and sleep over most of the stormy nights out there. (Nights are short up north in the summer) There was no anemometer on board but it would blow hard enough to give me 6 knots under a bare pole running downwind!!

Anyway, the Spencers are solid boats, cored with Airex closed cell foam in the hull and balsa cored decks and are a strong, stiff boat. Mine was named "Kacheena" after the Kwakiutl village in what is now known as San Josef Bay, near Cape Scott. (One of my favourite places in the world)

My Spencer was custom made for me and had a shortened cockpit with 4 X huge drains 3 inches in diameter for offshore work. I never got pooped but the cockpit would drain in about a minute when filled with a hose.

Anyway, Spencers are good.
Cheers, Pete


----------



## [email protected] (Dec 22, 2019)

The spencer is an amazing boat. Grew up seeing several in drydock. Cut my nautical teeth on hull#4.


----------

