More from Tom B., the owner of Whisper out of Monroe Harbor, Chicago IL
“I own hull number 24, Whisper. She races out of Columbia YC located in Monroe Harbor, Chicago IL. PHRF handicap is now 96.
The only changes to the boat are moving the secondary winches to the cabin top, removing two of the halyard winches and replacing the other two with Harken 40 ST winches. The check stays now lead directly (no purchase) to the cabin top winches. We also switched to a MaxProp classic two blade propeller.
The only structural repairs we have made are cutting out the bottom 8 inches of the main bulkhead and scarfing in a G10 panel. This seems to be a common repair to both the 34 and 37.
Whisper has done very well racing. We have won our class once in the Chicago to Mackinac race, we dominate our class in the light air Wednesday evening series, and we do very well on the weekend races as well. We were the Chicago Yachting Association Boat of the Year last year.
Our sail inventory is all North.: Nordic Radian mainsail, 0.6 oz Norlon deep running spinnaker (shape between code 1.5 and 4?) and carbon 3DL genoa. Sail Number is US42934.
The most annoying thing about the boat is the location of the traveller. I have seen two Express 37s with racing cockpits (one originally built that way and one modified) which look great. But I do not have the money to do that with my boat.
The original name of the boat was Taxi Dance. Ownership history is somewhat murky but I believe we are the third owner. There was another Express 34 in the Chicago area in the early 90s, Second Helping USA41362, but I do not know were she is now.”
For now you can check out the Whisper page under the heading, The Boats.
Alsberg Express 34 