Bruce Roberts Spray 36 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

The Spray 36 was engineered from the outset for multiple owner-builder methods. The hull may be taken in multi-chine steel, aluminum, or wood-epoxy, or as a round-bilge fiberglass shell using Airex or C-Flex, while the Centennial derivative was drawn specifically for round-bilge steel or wood/epoxy anchor. Reference material describes the design as maintaining the hallmark stability and simplicity that make it approachable for amateurs, and celebrates a seaworthy long-keel hull as its defining structural trait. One owner's steel example was built in 4 mm plate and then hot-metal-sprayed with aluminum both inside and out, a treatment that speaks to the durability owners expect from the metal versions. The poop-stern model, designated 36 C, is noted as one of the most popular versions, and a builder's 36 C carried 10 mm toughened glass in its windows — a detail that shows how robustly the cabin can be glazed.

Rig and Handling

The sail plan is offered as a Bermudan or gaff-rigged cutter or as a ketch, and the cutter configuration carries an inner forestay for a staysail that sharpens heavy-weather handling and sail balance while still giving efficient light- to moderate-wind performance anchor. Owners who have lived with the boat reinforce the numbers: Hans Jurgen Hoernicke reports fantastic balance, and Derek and Hulya Leigh describe legendary self-steering, saying she will hold a course for astonishingly long periods once the sails are carefully balanced. The same owners found her very stiff and convinced that early reefing was a mistake in heavy weather. Running downwind she rolled less than other boats they had sailed in similar conditions, a behavior they attributed to the chines. With a shoal draft paying dividends in shallow cruising grounds, and the ability to heave to or lie to a bow-streamed parachute anchor on a bridle led aft to a cockpit winch, the platform is built for stopping as well as going.

Accommodations

The interior is repeatedly described as unusually generous for the length, with more living area than other boats of the same size and a roomy plan that exceeds similar vessels anchor. Reference data puts sleeping space at four to six berths. The layouts are not fixed: the owner may choose and modify the accommodation to suit personal requirements, and custom plans or extra layouts can be drawn for a reasonable fee. Beyond the standard center-cockpit and trunk-cabin arrangements, the pilothouse version (36 B) and the poop-stern 36 C broaden the cruising envelope, the latter offering both forward and stern heads with passage doors through the engine room to a stern berth in one documented build. The popularity of the type rests heavily on this adaptability.

Proven Voyaging Record

Many Spray 36s have completed full circumnavigations, some more than once, often with only two crew anchor. The first Brazilian solo round-the-world voyage was made in a Roberts 36 named Tres Marias in 1982. A foam-cored composite 36 C built in 1994 was recalled by its owner as sailing like a dream, and a heavily laden example with a 28-foot waterline crossed 2,037 Atlantic miles in 16 days, averaging 127 miles per day with a best run of 147. Ed Kennedy, aboard the pilothouse version, wrote that two hurricanes had never given him cause to worry about the boat's handling.

Refits and Ownership

Because the design is sold as plans as well as finished boats, ownership often means continuation of the builder's ethos. Chris Beidler launched a fiberglass 36 Spray in Florida in 1992 and called her a great boat; Adam and Barbara completed a fiberglass pilothouse example named SeaGoat that first sailed on 23 July 2006. One 36 C was fitted with a 48 hp turbo-diesel Bukh and four stainless tanks for diesel, water, black, and grey waste, while another builder stretched the deck to 34 feet to carry a double self-stowing anchor roller. The Roberts plan service will still draw custom sail and accommodation layouts to order.

The Verdict

The Spray 36 is a pragmatic bluewater hull whose genius lies in configurable substance rather than polish. She rewards an owner willing to specify construction, rig, and interior against a known, sea-tested baseline, and her voyaging record is extraordinary for a 36-foot design. The trade-off is that "the boat" is really a family of boats, and condition depends entirely on which version and builder you face. Sources differ on exact displacement and ballast figures between manufacturer and reference data.

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