Recent content by Michael Bender

Custom folding table I have an E32-3 with the original table design and I would be interested in this table, perhaps even with folding wings. Any idea what this might cost?

Sure, sounds like fun. Want to all get together at Angel Island and have a picnic together? There is a Facebook group called Ericson Fleet One that has a few Ericson owners on it who might want to get together too. Mike

I am only in the Delta when I do the Delta Ditch Run race - from Richmond Yacht Club to Stockton Sailing Club. We are not allowed to sail on False River and go through Frank's Tract / Fisherman's Cut anymore, that is an explicit restricted area. I think too many boats were getting stuck in the...

Thanks Loren! We had a blast on the DDR this year. I have done it for a few years prior to this year, but never with a spinnaker. I've got a great crew of young, strong guys that have good balance, middle aged guys (me for example) that would probably fall off the foredeck if we were heeling ;-)...

Ericson 32-3 Asymmetric Spinnaker Well I finally flew my a-kite on Seascape, an E32-3, for the first time on the Delta Ditch Run 2016. It was an interesting experience because we had only flown the kite in the slip to test the rigging mechanics and practice gybing and working with the sock, so...

Thanks Loren, that is a really cool setup.

Hi Bob, well I was shotgunning my spinnaker questions to a few threads in the forum. I don't know of any other E32-3 owners in the SF Bay Area that race with a-kites. I didn't want to use the stanchions to take the tack line blocks because of the load on the line. Perhaps it's a different...

I hate to post anecdotal evidence, but I was talking with a friend of mine the other day about just this very topic, and he said that he has seen boats with a similar design to the U-channel that the Ericsons have just up and bend due to the pressure of the tack line's upward force. This was on...

This is sooooo nice - if only I didn't get a ratings hit by installing a sprit.

Unfortunately I have to share my primaries between the jib sheets and the spinnaker sheets, and during a bay race when you're rounding marks and going upwind to downwind over and over again on short legs, all the sail controls need to be ready to go right away. On a 2-hour race, you can loose a...

I think that cruising and racing require different ideas about how to control stuff on a boat. Since I primarily race, leading all the control lines aft allows me and the crew to do sail trim fairly easily and quickly as conditions change and so we can get that extra bit of boat speed (from 5.0K...

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm not comfortable putting any load on my stanchions or pulpit, the boat is 30 years old and the tack line has a lot of load on it. The parts of my boat that I know to be strong are the bow cleats and the inside and outside rails. In my tack line rigging design...

Good luck with your timeline! I'm hoping to get mine ready for the Delta Ditch Run race the first weekend of July. I want an adjustable tack line to play the tack during a race.

Can you post some more pictures of how you lead your tack line aft? Is there a block in front of or behind the anchor locker?

Ah you bought Christian's boat - good choice ;-) My bail was from West Marine, they sell a few different sizes. The one that's on Seascape is too wide for the anchor bracket but I shimmed it out with washers and used clevis pins to hold it in place. It has some side to side movement that I'll...