Description
The Glen-L Spirit Ketch, a formidable 39-foot steel-hulled cruising ketch designed by Glen L. Witt in the 1970s and offered through Glen-L Marine Designs as a pinnacle of DIY blue water capability, melds multi-chine simplicity for amateur welders with heavy-displacement seaworthiness for circumnavigators eyeing trade winds or high-latitude passages from the Gulf of Alaska to the South Pacific. Measuring 39 feet LOA (35' LWL) with a 12-foot beam, 5 feet 6 inches draft on a full-length internal ballast keel (23,000 pounds total displacement, including 8,000 pounds lead for a 35% ratio and comfort ratio of ~38), it prioritizes a soft, seakindly motion in 25–35 knot seas while achieving a hull speed of ~7.8 knots under its masthead ketch rig with 800 square feet of sail (main 334 sq ft, foretriangle 392 sq ft, mizzen 74 sq ft; SA/D ~14 for steady, balanced progress with easy mizzen reefing for storm tactics). The multi-chine sheet steel construction (5/32"–3/16" plating over 25 frames, fully welded with doublers at high-stress points and epoxy coating for rust-proofing) demands 2,000–3,000 hours for a proficient builder using Glen-L's detailed offsets and patterns, yielding a bombproof hull that shrugs off coral heads or ice bergs; the interior delivers 6'4" headroom, berths for six (owner's double forward, saloon settees, twin quarter berths aft of the mizzen), a linear galley with gimbaled stove and 80-gallon water, separate nav station, enclosed head with shower, and cavernous lockers for a year's provisioning. Auxiliary power via a 50–70 hp diesel inboard (e.g., Perkins 4-154 or Yanmar 4JH) ensures 7.5-knot motoring with 300 gallons fuel range; with ~15–25 completed worldwide—several logging Panama-to-Tahiti circuits—the Spirit Ketch thrives on self-reliance, though its heft requires a heavy-duty trailer or marine railway for haul-outs.
