Spider Pig was sitting on her road trailer when I inspected her yesterday down at The Sussex Yacht Club in Shoreham on the UK South Coast. Built in 1973, she is a quarter ton club racing yacht, built by Oivier Gibert who later became Gibsea or Gibert Marine. Under her first owner, she was named 'Ichabod', then later 'Born to Run'.
The current owners of Spider Pig are members of the Brighton Marina Yacht Club and intend to race her from there. The club's Frostbite Series that runs through January and February will most likely be their first. Judging by the bare, low profile deck and exposed cockpit of Spider Pig, the frostbite is going to reach every appendage of the five or so friends that will be crewing her.
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| Spider Pig, a Tequila Sport 24 |
Since buying her in early 2011, the boat has undergone a fairly substantial refit, with areas of the coachroof and foredeck being re-cored after the original balsa core had become rotten through moisture ingress. Her cockpit bares only a minor resemblance to the original after much of the cockpit moulding was taken out and replaced by a cleverly designed and built sandwich structure.
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| New cockpit of Spider Pig |
A fine addition to the boat, and a great improvement over the original, is the new Jefa rudder that they had custom built. The blade profile was modelled in CAD and then CNC milled to shape and to fit around the aluminium stock. The assembly was then overlaminated with GRP and faired to give a very smooth and light rudder.
I intend to keep a close eye on the Brighton Marina Yacht Club website in the New Year. The boat still needs a few hours spending on finishing off the re-fit, but she looks like she'll give a lot of smiles per pound and the bigger boats a run for their money.
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