Spirited 380 Build

[cat49]

i was hoping i could get some info. i want to build a spirited 380 and want to see what it entails. i have never built a large boat....i have built kayaks though. What does the kit include? what are the approx. material costs above the price of the kit? any other info i can get about the build and the process/experience would be greatly appreciated.

[44'cruisingcat]

Where abouts are you based? I know a couple of guys who are building 380s in Qld.

For pricing and what the kit contains, it's best to talk to Spirited designs.

I don't know what the claimed build times are, but from the people I know who are or have built one, it seems to be around 6000 hours for a home-builder building to a nice standard.

[cat49]

i am in seattle washington, i know that it would be a good idea to talk to spirited i was just hoping to get some info from actual home builders because they could go into more detail about things spirited wont tell you.

[Abaco]

James Betts (professional builder) in Washington built one which was completed about a year ago. He should be able to provide you everything you need to know.

[wasafari]

Hi guys,

I am new to this forum. I am going to start building Spirited 380 in Europe. As I am professional furniture maker with middle sized factory and a lot of machinery including CNC, I think to set up a small production. There is a lot of interest from my friends. I thing I could make it in 6-8 months with basic equipment for about 200-220 000 EUR. I think Spirited is a very clever simple and in the same time sexy design and it looks like a very fast cat. Its ideal for Med condions cruising - not so big but perfect for living aboard. So if anybody is interested contact me.

[Abaco]

Wasafari,

I hope you are successfull in this endeavor. Please build a nice website and blog so we can follow your construction. By the way, what is the brand of your CNC router? My brother in law ownes a company that produces CNC routers and he sells them in Europe through a network of dealers.

[wasafari]

Hello Abaco,

Thanks. I have blog but its still not in english. CNC router is Homag. Is that OK.

[Abaco]

That's not my brother in law's. Just curious. Thanks. The Spirited 380 is a great design. If you can keep the cost down, you should be able to sell them well.

[Serenitycat]

Cat49 and Wasafari


The Spirited 380 is a sexy looking boat and quite fast. But there are quite some serious issues with the kit www.spirited380.com

Rudder badly manufactured. Rebuilt them with a new shaft and close all the voids between the fibeglass and the foam

Dagger board, that one is the worst, you just cannot use them. They are dangerous. Built in two half and then glued together. Good builder with good process can acheive it properly. In our case the edges where glue for around 5 cm and the rest was a void. The outside skin was also full of void and not bonded to the foam core.

The prodder laminate schedule as to be reviewed, actually an aluminum one is much cheaper and easy to install than the composite one (I agree that it looks nice, but quie a job)

Push pull cable steering as in his drawing it just is not proper. Those cable have never been engineered to be used that way. It just one of those cheap idea that put you in trouble in critical time.

The engine hatche design is just not water proof enough.

Material delivered with the kit is really insufficient by a ratio of more than 2 and the hours are not realistic for a complete ready to sail boat

Wasafari, expect at least 300 000 euro for very basic boat (I believe that you will be over 400 000 Euro at the end of the project, or you do all the work by yourself and you are ready to spend your next 3 to 4 years building the boat).

Your skill will for sure help you but your CNC will not be of much use. You will receive no file drawing only paper (not even PDF files) I would suggest you to look at the Fusion 40, the kit is easy to assemble and NO FAIRING and as there is no interior you will then be able use your equipement and ressources. It is really depressing to work for more than a year and still seing you are very far from even a launchable boat. The Fusion 40 will speed the built for an amateur by at least 12 to 18 month.
To the extreme It can even be assembled, engine in, mast and sails installed in just few month and be launched

The Fusion is also fully CE approved where for the Spirited you will have much more trouble

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by Serenitycat

Cat49 and Wasafari


The Spirited 380 is a sexy looking boat and quite fast. But there are quite some serious issues with the kit www.spirited380.com

Rudder badly manufactured. Rebuilt them with a new shaft and close all the voids between the fibeglass and the foam

Dagger board, that one is the worst, you just cannot use them. They are dangerous. Built in two half and then glued together. Good builder with good process can acheive it properly. In our case the edges where glue for around 5 cm and the rest was a void. The outside skin was also full of void and not bonded to the foam core.

The prodder laminate schedule as to be reviewed, actually an aluminum one is much cheaper and easy to install than the composite one (I agree that it looks nice, but quie a job)

Push pull cable steering as in his drawing it just is not proper. Those cable have never been engineered to be used that way. It just one of those cheap idea that put you in trouble in critical time.

The engine hatche design is just not water proof enough.

Material delivered with the kit is really insufficient by a ratio of more than 2 and the hours are not realistic for a complete ready to sail boat

Wasafari, expect at least 300 000 euro for very basic boat (I believe that you will be over 400 000 Euro at the end of the project, or you do all the work by yourself and you are ready to spend your next 3 to 4 years building the boat).

Your skill will for sure help you but your CNC will not be of much use. You will receive no file drawing only paper (not even PDF files) I would suggest you to look at the Fusion 40, the kit is easy to assemble and NO FAIRING and as there is no interior you will then be able use your equipement and ressources. It is really depressing to work for more than a year and still seing you are very far from even a launchable boat. The Fusion 40 will speed the built for an amateur by at least 12 to 18 month.
To the extreme It can even be assembled, engine in, mast and sails installed in just few month and be launched

The Fusion is also fully CE approved where for the Spirited you will have much more trouble

Quite different boats though. The Spirited is a far more performance oriented boat than the Fusion.

Also, I've seen recent Fusion mouldings, and the IMO their quality is not as good as earlier ones. Maybe it's time for new moulds?

There does seem to be a common theme with S380 builders - they love their boats, but have a less than happy relationship with the designer.

[spiritcat]

I built my own 380 over a period of 3.5 years and launched 'Ta Heke' last December. Since then we have sailed up the Queensland coast and across to New Caledonia and back and am extremely happy with the final product.
We changed a few things to the original design and built all of the rudders and boards from scratch. The changes we made were:

1. Modified the engine hatches to be at the same level as the bridgedeck and have had no problems with water ingress and have improved access for engine maintenance,
2. Redesigned the rudders to improve their performance, they are 25% larger in area, 140mm deeper and narrower,
3. The prodder is an aluminium section rather than the composite product in the original design,
4. We also made a couple og changes to the rig to allow us to carry a staysail in heavy winds.

We have a complete mechanical steering system using push/pull cables and have had no problem with them since launching. Material provided with the kit is not sufficient to complete the construction process. Our total material cost to launching was close to AUS$290k with about $20k of that in labour to fair the 380 inside and out.

I never kept a record of manhours but would think that it would be close to 5,000 hours.

The final result is a very good cat that meets our needs and looks great.

Peter

[Serenitycat]

44'Cruisingcat

You are perfectly right. Not the same boat and the moulds really deserve an intensive refit.

Though for an amateur builder to have the full hull assembled in a month or two can make the difference and much less hidden cost on the hull.

How much complain you can hear about Spirited design is so impressive and this from everybody I meet (I mean even from suppliers) On my side I decided not to ever work with them again.

[Serenitycat]

Spiritcat

Congratulation for your launch even if it is a bit late.

You did a great job to modify the part you mentionned, just a pity that this is not part of Spirited support. It is difficult for any designer to have everything right on the first boat but once several are built and improvement have been made, they are the one who should then upgrade their drawing or at the least forward information to the builders. But they are just stubborn. I am so furious at myself for not having done what you did with the engine hatche

I agree the boat sails nicely and quite roomy for its size

For the steering using push pull cable we had to add one additional length so as not to use full strength when pulling in (the rod bended during a reversed maneuver) basically with a 3 cables set up there is a continous load and never only a push in anymore. Hope I make sense.

How did you do your set up ?

[spiritcat]

Serenitycat,
I was part of an owner builder group who kept in contact with other owners including the designers co-owners and were able to identify potential problems early on and develop solutions, such as the engine hatch arrangement. We provided our solution to the designer but he refused to accept that there was a problem even though he changed the hatch access. He has now sold his shares in that boat and the remaining owners are going to use our hatch design to overcome the existing problems.

They have also changed the rudder design to one very similar to my own to improve performance, they were losing steerage when powered up on a reach.

As far as the steering system goes, I have a chain and cable link to a traveller mounted under the cockpit cabinet. from there I have a push/ pull rod to each tiller which has been offset 30deg to enable the rod to connect direct to the tiller and not bend. The autopilot is connected direct to the traveller via a mechanical linear drive and works really well.

Once the designer became aware of the changes we have made, we had no further contact although I tried to push the fact that the material supplies were way off what was needed to build the 380.

Regards

Peter