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Thursday, 21 July 2011

Endurance 35

When Naval Architect Peter Ibold launched his Endurance 35 design in response to a competition in 1970, it caused something of a stir, here was a full keel, heavy displacement cruiser, designed and built to go anywhere with a highly practical pilot house and flush deck. The design has been built in many countries, in many different materials and has been stretched over the years to 50 feet or more.

Angelina - Stratimar Endurance 35 in Western Solent

In the UK the design is associated with ferro cement construction, a number of Endurance 35’s were built using this method by Windboats in Norfolk during the 1970’s as were a number of amateur built examples. The endurance has also been built in GRP (fibre glass) including foam cored construction, wood, steel and even aluminium.



Our endurance Angelina was GRP by a French Yard Stratimar who built the design on the Canal de Midi in the south of France. Sadly the Stratimar yard is long closed, but in Spain the Endurance design was built by the Belure yard for many years and in Canada Spencer Yachts also built the 35.

Angelina - Stratimar Endurance 35 on her mooring

Although the basic design is instantly recognisable, there are many differences, both ketch and schooner rig was popular, although I had some correspondence with Peter Ibold the designer who admitted his favorite was the cutter rig as fitted to Angelina.

In England many were built as motor sailors, with an inside steering position in the raised pilot house, while this was practical for cold weather I believe it distracted from the design which was first and foremost a yacht. With heavy displacement/waterline of over 400 the Endurance isn’t especially fast, but in bad weather they will sail to weather in a gale of wind in some comfort, or rather as comfortable as is possible in those conditions.

Ketch rigged Endurance

Endurance 40 - the boat scaled well and was good looking


If you need proof of the capability of the Endurance, look no further than Unicornio a Stratimar built Endurance 35 which operated as a charter boat in Patagonia, South Georgia and the Antarctic.

Unicorno - anchored in Patagonia


17 comments:

  1. Well, what a coincidence that this should come up in late July 2011 as I browse the web as a break from boatyard work!

    We have a De Kleer Brothers fiberglas Endurance that we finished from a bare hull in 1979-85, and have sailed in BC and offshore (US/Mexico/Hawaii/BC again) for a couple of years in the late 80s. De Kleers built a lot of these hulls in the Vancouver area. I don't know that Spencer Yachts did build the boats--perhaps if they had a custom division they finished a hull or two on a contract basis from De Kleer hulls. The fiberglas layup on these is bulletproof!

    She's a great boat, perfect for a couple. Ours is rigged just like Unicornio above.

    We are currently installing a bowthruster--she has many good qualities, but turning on a dime is not one of them--the long bow overhang means she will blow off, if the wind is in the wrong place, particularly in close quarters such as docking. We are really looking forward to the Lewmar bowthruster!

    In other respects--sea-kindly, comfortable, and pretty as anything!

    Kathy
    BC, Canada

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    1. Kathy is correct. The De Kleer brothers built the boat here starting around 1974. I knew a guy who built one of the first hulls - they hadn't even finished the deck mould when he bought his hull.

      The Spencer connection is very tenuous. Someone on Vancouver Island bought up a number of obsolete moulds from defunct local builders, including a couple of Spencers - in the 90's IIRC - and branded themselves Spencer Yachts.

      To the best of my knowledge they never produced any Endurances from the old De Kleer moulds.

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  2. Kathy - thanks for your comments, we had a bow thruster, fitted by the previous owner too close to the waterline, at anchor with conditions that caused any kind of pitching there would be a "glug, slurp, glug" noise coming from the fore peak.

    Good luck with your boat

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  3. Hi,

    I am french.. I owned the proper Peter Ibold's Endurance in the 80'. Built in ferrocement by Windboats Ltd.. Very pleasant boat.

    I sail now with a catamaran, but nearly i will be looking after another... Endurance 35 ! :)

    Best regards

    Guy

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    Replies
    1. Guy,
      A bit late but are you still looking to buy an Enmdurance?
      Please contact me via syaditi@gmail.com (Holland)

      Delete
  4. Hi, my wife and I have a ketch rigged Endurance 35 built in ferro by windboats, she very friendly in rough weather and needs a decent blow to get the best out of her, marinas are always fun she has a real mind of her own, you sometimes think your getting good at handling her then she will do something compleatly different, we would never change her, great boat with loads of space and will take you any where!!

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  5. I juust buy an endurance 35 ferro-cement,,, reliable boat , 1982 bilt in frech , and been around the world for 15 yeras , and the forgotted until 3 yeras ago,,, now its in my hand and i have saild it brasilian cost , 13 days for 1250 miles with 2 days of stormy weather against ,
    would like to find some pictures about interior so i can make this boat better as it needs care
    thankz
    arvin

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  6. Another Smart post from you Admin :)

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  7. My father and I scratch built an Endurance 35 in 1972 & launched in 1975 from plans purchased from Peter Ibold.
    We built a male mold on a stongback in our backyard from the offsets. We covered it with 2 x 1/4" diagonal plywood strips above the waterline & 2 x 1/8" diagonal hardboard strips below the waterline, then glassed over the whole thing. It's 5/16" glass on the topsides and 5/8" glass under water which is doubled over the keel for a 1 1/4" stem.
    We dragged the hull out into the alley to turn it right side up with a couple of wooden arches bolted to one side and a couple of turfers.
    We pulled the hardboard out below the waterline and added additional glass for the 5/8" thickness. We left the 1/2" of diagonal plywood above the waterline for stiffness and insulation and added a couple of layers of glass inside for a bit of a sandwich effect. It is a very stiff yet light hull.
    Finished with 7000lbs lead ballast and 40hp French 'Bernard' V4 air-cooled diesel. She sails very well (cutter rig) and can point very well. All in all a very well behaved cruising boat that can hold her own in any conditions.

    BTW. I'm currently building a 1/12 scale RC model from the plans.
    I had build a 1/24th scale model from a female mold I built when we were building her, but I gave that away years ago.
    I'm building this one a little larger for better sailing performance.

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    Replies
    1. Do you still have your plans? Could I get a copy of them?

      Delete
  8. I have a cutter rigged De Kleer built Endurance 35 in Toronto, though it still has "Victoria BC" lettered on the stern. The previous owner apparently had it up and down the east and west coasts of North America without major problems.

    I bought it in 2011 for about $50K, and have replaced the original "Suzi" (Izuzzu) with a brand new 38 HP Yanmar diesel, added a new binnacle guard and NavPod and all new electronics and auto pilot and stereo, and two new battery banks of 2 super 8D AGMs for a total of 1,100 ah, and a new mastervolt 3x50a smart charger , among other tweeks. Plus lots of costemtioc work.
    Upcoming projects are to replace the old 80's vintage solar panels, add two wind gennies, convert the old fiberglass built in water and fuel tanks 2x40 water, 2 x 25 fuel) to diesel bladder inserts (for total of 130 gallons diesel capacity), a watermaker and new plastic water tank, radar, AIS, EPERB, life-raft, new sails and rigging (fed to cockpit), etc, to prepare for a retirement partial circumnavigation. I love the way she sails! She is not fast by any means, but when it is blowing, we are often the only boat out on the lake, and we can reef down and head to weather under all conditions we have encountered to date. She takes large waves with ease as she slices right through them with her weight, full keel and reserve buoyancy in the bow and stern (unlike many modern boats I have chartered that tend to slam their flat bottoms over waves and shake your teeth loose (along with cabinets, fixtures and bulkheads!) He best point of sail seems to be just slightly off the wind, but from close hauled to a beam reach I can balance the sails and do not need to use the autopilot at all. She has a furling Yankee, a club footed staysail with one set of reef points, and a main with double reef points, all in tanbark. Will probably replace with white sails, reefing furling Yankee, with a furling staysail on the jib boom, and a standard main, with all functions led back to the cockpit, as I am getting on in years and am not so surefooted on the foredeck as I used to be.

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  9. Good day all,

    I am wondering if there was any hull ID # on these boats and where would it (they) be? thank you,
    Al

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  10. Hello everyone. There is a Facebook group for Endurance owners and anyone else interested in these fine boats to share photos and information etc. please feel free to join, just search for Endurance owners group. cheers!

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    1. I am owner of a 1988 De Kleer Endurance, and am interested in finding an owners group. I have searched Facebook for their owners group, and find none. Could you post a link if it still exists?

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    2. Hi, I just found the group under "Endurance Yacht Owners Group". Have a nice day.

      Delete
  11. Hello Everyone,

    We have a Belliure 35 version of this lovely design, built in Spain. She is a little old at 1978 but fairly solid. Not the fastest boat in the world but then why hurry something you love doing. Concur with comments regarding manoeuvring in marinas, different every time. We have the cutter rigged ketch version which offers lots of flexibility but have yet to try her out in heavy weather. The power unit is a Volvo 2040 which does enough, and we are slowly upgrading bits of the interior and electronics.

    We always get interest from other people in harbours, partly because they are worried we will crash into them and partly because they love to see a fine old boat. Always interested to hear from others. Matt

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  12. Thinking of buying one to go cruising with my wife and 8 year old.Would the Endurance 35 have sufficient space? Also Ferro or Grp. Thanks. Any feed back would be appreciated

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