Back to "Mariners
and their Owners" list
"Fiskeørn"
1977 Mariner 32, Hull# 10
Owners:Reed
& Rita Spangler -Redondo,
Wa.
- USA
Boat name : FISKEØRN, The direct translation from
Norwegian is Fish Eagle.
1977 M32 Ketch, Hull # 10
Owners : Reed & Rita Spangler
Hailing Port : Redondo, Washington.
Past names : LOKAII, Honolulu
Hawaii. REFERENCE, St. Helens Oregon.
Boat history : The first owners were blue water
sailors as the boat's home port was Honolulu.
I don,t know any more about
the early years.
The man I bought it from was a retired school librarian from Oregon.
He thought that he was the second owner. He bought the boat in 1992. When he
bought the boat, he said that it was ready to go around the world. It was set
up with all the blue water necessities. He told me he had been to the Mexican
Baja 3 times, Catalina Island a couple of times,
American and Canadian San Juans and Puget
Sound many times.
Owners history:
Reed Spangler: 44 years old and I have been sailing for many years. I first
started out in Optimus dingys
learning and racing with a childhood friend whose parents were heavy into
racing out of Gig Harbor Washington.
I also did a lot of Sun Fish and Hobie Cat sailing in
the 70's and 80's at Lake Chelan, Washington
in the summer when growing up. Well, then the power boat devil got ahold of me for the next dozen years or so, I'm sorry to
say. Rita, 43 years, and I were married in 1985 and in the late 90's we got
back into sailing as a family. Our first sail boat was a 1972 Venture 22 (later
to become MacGregor). Being a swing keel trailerable boat meant that it was narrow of beam and very
tender. This didn't do very well for my "Chicken Viking" crew (Rita
is 50% Norwegian 50% Danish). After the many hours of cleaning and repairing
the Venture 22 I hated to have to sell it but my crew had mutinied and would
not get back on board her. Well, I don't know why they
didn't have fun that first day on the boat. The conditions were perfect in Comencement Bay.
The wind was out of the West, 10 knots when we set out, a nice sunny day, one
foot seas. All was good, until that pesky little squall came through, then the
wind turned from the NW up to about 30 Knots, seas about 3 to 4 feet with white
caps and me with the 180 genny up. Perfect I say! The
next boat was Newport 27 flat top
cabin design. If anyone is familiar with this boat, they are great. Rita took a
basic sailing class and she really liked this one. We had many perfect sailing
days on the Mystic, it was just right for the Sound & day sailing. The
kids, Allie 13 and Nick 8 even came out of the cabin and enjoyed themselves
about the sixth or seveth time out, did I mention
Chicken Vikings? Well, the 10 day San Juan
trip proved that the Mystic was a perfect day sailer
and we needed more room. 4 big duffels for clothes and shoes, my little bag,
the four of us, 10 days, 27 feet, you do the math. This brings us to the
Mariner 32. After looking at boat designs and layouts for a year or so I
narrowed my list to a couple of boat designs. The Westsail
32's were to much $. The others in the running I
couldn't find locally, so I looked at 3 M32's in the Puget Sound
area. None of those were a good value in my book. Just when I was giving up I
found what I was looking for in Portland Oregon.
A somewhat neglected, heavily equipped M32! After low balling the owner (I felt
bad but got what I wanted) I had her trucked up to Tacoma Washinton.
She is presently in the yard on the hard undergoing a lot of needed repairs,
all of which I was prepared for after the survey. I will be posting a lot of
repair info and pictures on the sight as the work gets closer to completion. Also will be offering copies of the many technical prints that came
with the boat for any body that needs the info.
Pictures to follow when the weather gets better.