What sets the Spray 36 apart isn’t one headline dimension, but the sheer range of ways an owner can specify the boat. Construction options include steel, aluminum, fiberglass, and wood-epoxy. Owners can choose a gaff, Bermudian, or junk rig, as well as deck and accommodation plans ranging from center cockpit and trunk cabin to an aft-cockpit pilothouse or a poop-stern, center-cockpit pilothouse. This is a boat conceived as much for the builder as for the buyer.
Design and Construction
The Spray 36 was engineered from the outset to suit several owner-builder methods. The hull can be built as a multi-chine structure in steel, aluminum, or wood-epoxy, or as a round-bilge fiberglass shell using Airex or C-Flex. The Centennial derivative was drawn specifically for round-bilge steel or wood/epoxy construction.
Reference material describes the design as retaining the stability and simplicity that make it approachable for amateur builders, with a seaworthy long-keel hull as its defining structural trait. One owner’s steel example used 4 mm plate and was hot-metal-sprayed with aluminum inside and out, reflecting the durability owners expect from the metal versions.
The poop-stern model, designated 36 C, is noted as one of the most popular versions. One builder’s 36 C had 10 mm toughened-glass windows, showing how robustly the cabin can be glazed.
Rig and Handling
The sail plan is available as a Bermudan or gaff-rigged cutter, or as a ketch. The cutter configuration has an inner forestay for a staysail, improving heavy-weather handling and sail balance while still providing efficient performance in light to moderate winds.
Owners’ accounts support that picture. Hans Jurgen Hoernicke reports fantastic balance. Derek and Hulya Leigh describe legendary self-steering, saying the boat will hold a course for astonishingly long periods once the sails are carefully balanced. They also found her very stiff and were convinced that reefing early was a mistake in heavy weather.
Running downwind, their boat rolled less than other boats they had sailed in similar conditions, behavior they attributed to the chines. Shoal draft can pay dividends in shallow cruising grounds. The boat can also heave to or lie to a bow-streamed parachute anchor on a bridle led aft to a cockpit winch, giving the crew several ways to stop or slow the boat.
Accommodations and Layouts
The interior is repeatedly described as unusually generous for a boat of this length, with more living area than other boats of the same size and a roomier plan than similar vessels. Reference data lists sleeping space for four to six.
Layouts aren’t fixed. Owners can choose and modify the accommodations to suit their requirements, and custom plans or additional layouts can be drawn for a reasonable fee. Alongside the standard center-cockpit and trunk-cabin arrangements, the pilothouse version, designated 36 B, and the poop-stern 36 C offer further cruising options.
In one documented 36 C build, the layout included forward and stern heads, with passage doors leading through the engine room to a stern berth. Much of the type’s popularity rests on this adaptability.
Proven Voyaging Record
Many Spray 36s have completed full circumnavigations, some more than once and often with only two crew. In 1982, a Roberts 36 named Tres Marias completed the first Brazilian solo voyage around the world.
An owner recalled that a foam-cored composite 36 C built in 1994 sailed like a dream. A heavily laden example with a 28-foot waterline crossed 2,037 Atlantic miles in 16 days, averaging 127 miles per day and recording a best run of 147 miles. Ed Kennedy, sailing 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 continues the original builder’s ethos. Chris Beidler launched a fiberglass Spray 36 in Florida in 1992 and called her a great boat. Adam and Barbara completed a fiberglass pilothouse example named SeaGoat, which 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 waste, and grey waste. 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 strength lies in configurable substance rather than polish. She rewards an owner prepared to specify the construction, rig, and interior around a known, sea-tested baseline. Her voyaging record is extraordinary for a 36-foot design.
The trade-off is that “the boat” is really a family of boats. Condition depends entirely on the version and builder involved, and sources differ on exact displacement and ballast figures between manufacturer and reference data.
Pros
- Multiple construction materials and rigs available from a single proven plan set
- Roomy, configurable interior, including pilothouse and poop-stern variants
- Documented self-steering balance and stiff behavior in heavy weather
- Extensive circumnavigation history, including voyages with solo and two-person crews
Cons
- No two examples have identical specifications; a survey must assess the individual build
- Shoal-draft and ballast figures vary among sources
- Owner-builder heritage means finishing quality is inherently inconsistent
