Peter and Christine half-own Spring Fever, a Sigma 362, which is a 36 foot cruiser racer designed by David Thomas and built in 1988. She is now retired from racing.
Tony, a Master Mariner with much experience in charge of big ships, owns the other half share with his wife Judy. He is now a Corinthian member of RORC while Peter has a Yachtmaster Offshore, has sailed small boats since the 1950s and was a RORC member a long time back when he raced.
When sailing together, which is most of the time, Peter and Tony take turns as skipper, usually two days on and two days off, a routine that works well. Judy, who met Tony when they were both working at sea, now prefers shoreside, while Chris’s many sailing days (see some of the earlier posts) have given way to enthusiasm for trekking. The latest cruises have been Peter and Tony with friends.
We were attracted to 36 foot Sigmas after Peter’s experience as navigator on two of them – a 36 then later a 362 – for two of his three Fastnet seasons. He was impressed by how beautifully they handled to windward.
Among many adaptations from her racing set up, all lines have been brought back to the cockpit, but Spring Fever retains some of the advantages of racing investment, including 8 winches. She has been regularly updated since we bought her in 2009, with a new Beta 30 recently installed.
Many of the posts on more recent cruises are about the jointly-owned Spring Fever, though there are some about time on other people’s boats and holidays with Chris and friends on charter yachts and inland barges. Older material is mainly about Peter and Chris’s previous boats. The blog is entirely Peter’s responsibility.
tide by tide 