He attributed this breakage to the impossibility of further splitting his canopy in bad weather. Modification of the sail plan along the wayĪfter his departure, he broke part of his boom during a storm in the Atlantic in 1896. He carried out the work with his hands, for the considerable sum at the time: $15,000 today! He used a boiler to bend the frames and cut all the structural parts with an axe (which accompanied him on his journey around the world) from holm oaks that he himself was looking for in the nearby forests. The latter then undertook a complete restoration and modification, without plans or calculations, relying solely on his extensive experience as a sailor. A renovation close to a reconstruction carried out alone Its then owner, Captain Ebenezer Pierce, gave it to his friend and colleague Joshua Slocum, captain of the Merchant Navy, who was looking for a job, whose morale was far from its zenith. When he met Slocum's fate, Spray was a wreck, reformed 10 years ago, rotting in an arm of the Chesapeake River (USA). Equipped with a long keel, it carried a fixed 1.4 tonne concrete ballast, allowing it to straighten up in the event of capsizing. Spray (in nautical English 'Écume'), Joshua Slocum's legendary sailboat, with which he sailed solo around the world from 1895 to 1898, was originally an oyster working boat.Ĭreated as a auric cutter with a mainsail with horn, jib and staysail, equipped with a central cockpit, Spray had a draught of 1.35 m and a height under the bars of only 1.27 m! With a length of 11.20 m and a width of 4.30 m (very wide!) and 12.7 tons, it rigged 98 m2 of sail area.

Slocum sail around the world