Another new 1984 E30+ owner

[bruce v]

I just purchased my 3rd Ericson, a 23 then a 29 and now the 30+. My wife and I moved aboard on Lake Erie in March in Huron, Ohio. No sailing this one yet as we are still trying to make it home and upgrade a few things before taking it on the Great Loop. Because of that, I have a couple of issues that I wish to address before we go. I am replacing damaged and shoddily repaired rub rails, repairing a bent Anchor roller and re-butyl taping all stantion, pulpit and pushpit. The question is - how do you get to the bolts holding down the anchor roller? The Anchor locker is in the way and even blocks access to the nuts and plate that secure the stantions around the pulpit. Did Ericson attach all of this hardware before they fitted the deck to the hull. Some help would be greatly appreciated as the two I have accessed had been poorly done w/o butyl tape and leaked like sieves. Finally, if anyone has access to the owner's manual for a 1984 E30+ I sure could use one. Mine came without and no repairs log. Any information would certainly be enlightening to a daunting task. Thanks for all help.

 

[Frank Langer]

The bow area cleats and related items are accessible only by removing the anchor locker pan. It's not a big job, just remove all the screws visible inside the anchor locker and then carefully pry it up with a putty knife or similar tool. It's a good opportunity to rebed the anchor locker pan to avoid eventual leaks into the V - berth.
Frank

 

[bruce v]

The bow area cleats and related items are accessible only by removing the anchor locker pan. It's not a big job, just remove all the screws visible inside the anchor locker and then carefully pry it up with a putty knife or similar tool. It's a good opportunity to rebed the anchor locker pan to avoid eventual leaks into the V - berth.
Frank

Thanks Frank,
I really can't see the screws right now as the PO used 5200 to seal the locker (still got water in the v-berth from a clogged locker drain and the stantions, pulpit and anchor roller done w/o butyl tape. Your input certainly will save me a number of headaches and valuable time on the hard. Again, thanks, Bruce V

 

[bruce v]

The bow area cleats and related items are accessible only by removing the anchor locker pan. It's not a big job, just remove all the screws visible inside the anchor locker and then carefully pry it up with a putty knife or similar tool. It's a good opportunity to rebed the anchor locker pan to avoid eventual leaks into the V - berth.
Frank

Just wanted to let you know, I removed the 5200 from the top of the Anchor Pan screws and was able to remove the screws. Unfortunately, that is when I found that the PO also used 5200 to secure the pan to the frame. I ended up cutting loose the Pan (ground it off - will rebuild it later). With a solid day's work thereafter and my wife's help she's a better fit at reaching those tight places, I released the 7 bolts and nuts for the Anchor Roller. I'm sure you can guess already, the PO used 5200 there too. It took a chisel, pry bar and wedges but the roller came free (at the shop for repairs presently). We moved on to removing the bow pulpit and now have all the stantions rebutyled (just butyled for the most part - small wonder we had leaks). Tomorrow, we'll finish off the cockpit and pushpit and hope to have a much dryer boat. Glad that butyl tape has a 30 year life span - I'd hate to have to do this again. That being said, kudos to you sir as I could not have done this w/o your input. When I redo the locker I too will seal the wood on wood frame with sealant but certainly not 5200!

 

[Frank Langer]

I'm glad you were able to solve this! Good work! At least now you know that part of the boat well if you have any issues there in the future.
In case you haven't thought of it, on our boat the wiring for the light on the bow pulpit goes forward near the cleats and then into the pulpit. If that wire is old and corroded, now might be a good time to replace it.
Also, the drain tube from our anchor locker down to the exit hole in the bow was very grungy on our boat, and replacement of that was super easy.
Frank

 

[mjsouleman]

another 30+ owner

Welcome aboard, there are a bunch of us 30+ owners ready to help.

MJS

 

[bruce v]

I'm glad you were able to solve this! Good work! At least now you know that part of the boat well if you have any issues there in the future.
In case you haven't thought of it, on our boat the wiring for the light on the bow pulpit goes forward near the cleats and then into the pulpit. If that wire is old and corroded, now might be a good time to replace it.
Also, the drain tube from our anchor locker down to the exit hole in the bow was very grungy on our boat, and replacement of that was super easy.
Frank

Again, thanks. I just pulled and rebutyleld the pulpit. The bow light is on the upper nose of the pulpit and the wiring runs forward from the aft starboard leg of the pulpit. I am now rewiring the light as I accident cut one wire when resetting that leg post rebutyl. As I have already removed the side panels up there for replacement post insulation work, it will be easier to pull the bow light, pull the bad wire and use the good one to refeed two new wires into the v berth area. As long as I am at it, I think I will replace the running lights (bow and stern) with l.e.d.s. Now if I could just find a way to loose about 40 years, I could climb the mast to replace the masthead and mid mast deck lights with the same. LOL. Guess I will hire someone for that.

 

[bruce v]

Welcome aboard

Welcome aboard, there are a bunch of us 30+ owners ready to help.

MJS

Thanks, I have already gotten a good deal of info. This is my 3rd Ericson 23, 29 and now 30. The previous came with owners/service manuals and I felt quite capable. The 30 is new to me and came w/o any manuals. It was almost as hard finding the forum and getting aboard as it was figuring this danged thing out while waiting out winter in the water. I couldn't get the yard to pull me until May when their season begins. Heck, I didn't even have water at the dock until mid April. You want to talk about roughing it. Comparatively speaking our month's tour on the hard is a piece of cake. That being said, I would suggest a great deal of my work load has already been eased by the info garnered here and I will continue to seek/accept advice. It is invaluable.

 

[Frank Langer]

I have found that maintaining any larger sailboat is quite alot of work, but on the E30+ the systems are mostly accessible and logical, and I've been able to work my way through repairs and upgrades over the past eleven years with only occasional professional help.
In the download section on this site there are diagrams of the electrical, plumbing and rigging, but they are faint, which makes them a bit hard to read. Mostly I've just problem solved and learned along the way. The experts on this site have made that possible.

 

[Christian Williams]

Importance of thread titles

You bet. This forum has bailed me out many times. Most recently, unable to bleed my water tanks, I recalled an off-hand comment here: "Step on the fresh-water foot pump. They can leak air until primed." I had allotted all morning to troubleshoot hidden water lines and had all my spare Qest fittings out and ready. But with one step on the foot pump, I had water flowing again!

These miracle solutions, however, get harder and harder to discover in search. It's a function of unimaginable yearly increase in Internet topics.

For example, I Goggled "E30+ owner". I discovered there exists a BMW E30 automobile --which dominated the first 7 seven Google search pages, after which I gave up looking for a sailboat.

My point is that thread titles have become important in the utility of the forum.

Adding "Ericson" helps the search engines a lot, even though it's obviously redundant on the "Ericson" forum.

"Ericson" is also critical when we're searching--on Google or any other big engine (no forum's proprietary search engine can compete).

I located my "foot pump" salvation thread.

Its title is "Fresh water pump runs continuously." ( http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?2235-Fresh-water-pump-runs-continuously )

Pretty good, once you add "Ericson" to the search. It was written in 2005, and bailed me out in 2017.

The better we all do with titles the better off we all are.

Also true: a picture uploaded here as GoPro349 has no identity on the 'Net. But if you name it "Ericson bow pulpit", it pops up when anybody searches Google Images.

Google images is remarkably useful for all of us, since if you are designing a dodger or sail cover or wondering how to set up slab reefing, it will pull up hundreds of pictures of similar examples.

Just some Sunday night meanderings--and yet another salute to Ericsonyachts.org.

 

[mfield]

thread titles

A tip mentioned by someone in another thread that works in the Chrome browser is to prefix your search with site:ericsonyachts.org (no spaces). This finds the more obscure references to your topic by restricting the search.