38' Ingrid Ketch

Raven's Song is an Ingrid 38 designed by John Atkin from the original concepts of Colin Archer. She is a fiberglass double-ended heavy displacement full keel ocean cruising staysail ketch. That's a mouthful but should paint a pretty good picture. She is extremely well balanced and provides a comfortable ride in most sea conditions. She was built in 1972 and is hull number 6 built by Blue Water Yachts in Washington State. There have been approx 140 of these boats built, some have been built with wood but most are fiberglass, some were kit boats and some were factory finished and there are cutters as well as ketches.

That being said, this is not a boat for everybody: Raven's Song is not a showboat, she is a workhorse! While there is tons of storage space inside it is not roomy like the modern designs. At best it will sleep four but is better with two and is an ideal single hander. This boat is designed for safety in a seaway where there is always a hand hold or furniture to grab onto. She is an easy boat for one person to handle and is primarily set up for that purpose. Wide side decks make moving around easy and a small cockpit keeps you safe from being swamped.

There is redundancy aboard with most critical systems, a near centerline sea berth with lee cloths, adequate size winches in the cockpit, two auto pilots plus a monitor windvane for self steering with a RUDD emergency rudder and several extra vanes.

To some, the onboard systems may seem sparse, refrigeration is a simple icebox, although there is 12 volt lighting there are also battery powered LED lights spread throughout the boat, the fresh and salt water systems are manual and the head is a porta potti or bucket and chuck iti. Water maker is manual and primarily for emergencies and there are rain catching set ups as well. You won't find air conditioning or heating systems, washer/dryer, television or electric windlass. The simplicity of systems on board allows the two 90 watt solar panels and the wind/water generator to easily meet the electrical systems needs. Plus there are a lot less things to fix giving you more time to watch out for the Orca's and pirates!

The 30hp Yanmar diesel is plenty of power for maneuvering around marinas or to fill in on windless days Ingrids do however sail very well in light winds. The beauty of the ketch rig is as the wind picks up you simply reef the full battened main or drop it altogether and sail jib and jigger with little loss in speed.

Twin downwind jibs nicely define the purpose of this boat, it is a tradewinds sailor, and if a storm happens by there is a hefty Jordan drogue and parachute anchor to assist you, plus a storm trysail on a separate mast track and a storm jib which sets on the staysail stay. When the wind lightens up you simply set the mizzen staysail or fly the spinnaker for extra power. The two spinnaker poles are permanently mounted high on the mast which you just swing out to put in use rather than lifting a heavy unwieldy pole on a rolling deck.

The origo two burner alcohol stove with oven is safe and efficient but as the weather kicks up the multi- gimbaled single burner propane swing stove will keep you in hot drinks, or hot hearty soup.
Raven's Song's decks are the original teak, they have however been covered with a rubberized roofing material called Grey Titan which is inexpensive and available at Home Depot. Non skid is infused in the covering. I simply apply a coat once a year and have extremely strong teak decks that don't leak and keep the cabin approximately 10 degrees cooler in the summer.

With the ICOM SSB and signalink sound card you simply download the free Winlink program to your laptop and you are able to comminicate via email with friends and family anywhere in the world for free as well as down load important weather information. The compact but amazing Garmin Inreach also lets you email, receive weather or broadcast emergency SOS for a slight monthly cost.

All in all, Raven's Song while an older vessel is a safe well equipped turnkey yacht that will have you sailing right away rather than spending your time with expensive refits. Sail on!