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E-34 trip up Ca coast this spring

FWQuinn

Junior Member
Hello everyone. Thought you might be interested in a trip I attempted with my 1987 E-34 up CA coast from San Diego to San Francisco a couple of weeks ago. No problems in socal and Catalina was great! Had a sailing buddy lined up to meet me in Santa Barbara to head north to SF. On the day we were scheduled to leave there were gail warnings off the Point with 14 ft seas so we postponed. Finally it looked like we had a window for Thurs/Fri with 6-9 ft seas at 8 seconds and 15-30 kt winds. We headed out to Cojo and anchored until midnight when we attempted to round the point. It was nasty! Waves breaking over the bow and dodger hitting me in the face at the wheel. The autopilot (ST-4000+) was useless. We were making 1kt over ground and each wave that hit pushed us off course at least 30-40 degrees so ap could not keep up. Hand steering we were all over the place because we had no speed on rudder motoring at max speed. Tried to get some sail up but wind at 30 kts right on the nose was too much. At 3am we had made 3 miles, with approx. 200 miles to go to Monterey. Oh yea, my buddy had taken a week off work and had to be back to work on Monday in 3 days. OK, time for plan B.. we turned around and headed back to Santa Barbara, put her on a truck and a little over $3K later she was sailing in SF bay.
I've talked to a number of people about this trip, some that have done it multiple times and they say I should have reached out to San Miguel island then tacked back to San Luis or Morro bay. They are probably right but I had run out of time. I did not want to be stuck in Morro bay after my crew left by myself with Pt. Sur to look forward to.
Anyway, SF sailing was great this Memorial day weekend and I sure am glad to have the boat up here safe and sound. If anyone wants to know more details about my trip send me an email.
Fair winds and safe sailing,
Frank - Sierra Star
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Nice write up!

There are some very active Ericson owners sailing (and keyboarding!) in the SF area. I hope that you get to meet and have some sailing time with them and vise versa.

Thanks for the narrative... kind of reiminds me of what I "missed" when I had a windy and rough ride downhill to SF a couple years ago crewing on a 36 foot Cascade. I remember that we all were loudly thankful that we were going with the wind and waves and not against them!
(We were in "fear-and-surfing" conditions for 36 hours -- the usual clear-air gale off Mendocino...)
My write-up is in the archives over at the YachtList <http://www.xs4all.nl/~erkooi/YL/index.html>

How did your boat hold up otherwise? Windows and hatches stay sealed? Any fuel problems? I am curious because I have an '88 Ericson built Olson with an M25XP diesel.

Best,
Loren in PDX
:cool:
 

ref_123

Member III
Where is the boat now?

Hi, Frank,

where is your boat now? May be we can set up some rendezvous :).

Thanks,
Stan
 

FWQuinn

Junior Member
E-34

Yes, I look forward to meeting other Ericson sailers in the bay. To answer Loren's questions:
"How did your boat hold up otherwise? Windows and hatches stay sealed? Any fuel problems? I am curious because I have an '88 Ericson built Olson with an M25XP diesel. "
The boat held up great. I had fuel polishing done down in San Diego so no problems there. I think it would have helped to have a 3 blade MaxProp because my standard 2 blade was cavitating badly. The 23hp from the M25XP is also way underpowered for an 8 ton boat.

That said, you sure can't beat sailing this SF bay. Nothing quite like it down south.

Frank
 

SingPilot

Moderator
Up and down that coast.....

I have been up and down that coast 40 or more times in my life... Have had only 3 nice trips in all those passages. Have tried inside, outside, you name it.

The only 'secret' is not to be in a hurry. Be ready to gunkhole your way north. If there was a common thread, it's farther outside southbound, farther inside northbound.

I have made it all the way north to Monterey and then sat there for a week waiting on either the wind to blow out, or for the bar to settle down into the Bay.

The smallest boat I have ever taken was a Cal40, and the largest a 174' Feadship.

I fly for a living, and even from altitude, that is a rough stretch of water.

The truck sounds like a good investment from the safety and wear and tear standpoint.

Enjoy the Bay, was based there for 14 years, loved it.

Michael.
 

ccorcoran

Member II
Welcome to the SF Bay

Frank,

Great story! Where are you in the SF Bay area? The bay is somewhat spread out with more than a few places to hide. We have an '87 E34 and we're based in Benicia...the gateway to the Delta. Perhaps we'll see you up here? Nice marina, great yacht club and fun Thursday night race series.
 

FWQuinn

Junior Member
Benecia

Chris & Wendy
1987 E34 Moonstruck,

Exact same boat and year. Wow. We should get together sometime. We plan on heading up to Benecia one weekend soon to get a guest slip and have dinner at one of those great places in town.

Keeping our boat in Richmond Marina Bay. It works out for us because we drive down from Auburn. Have actually thought about keeping her in Benecia but really like the immediate SF bay access Richmond gives us.

Cheers,
Frank & Mary
1987 E34 Sierra Star
 

ccorcoran

Member II
E34s in Benicia

Frank & Mary,

You're right, same model same year...must be a great boat! When you come up, we'll actually have a measurable percentage of the E34s made in 1987 -- in the same place. Benicia is a really fun spot. It's a small seaside-style village and there are a number of great places to eat (arguably one of the best sushi bars on the coast - Matsuri!). The marina office is generally cooperative (707 745-2628); there are always guest slips/space available. Please let us know when you're coming up...you can be our guests at the yacht club; worst case, we can have a few drinks and tell a few stories!
 

Sven

Seglare
Originally posted by FWQuinn
Finally it looked like we had a window for Thurs/Fri with 6-9 ft seas at 8 seconds and 15-30 kt winds.

That place does not sound very pleasant. The forecast today was 8 foot wind waves at 7 seconds ... yuck.

I wonder how far off shore one would have to go to get more reasonable seas ? I'm assuming the Point creates its own local "Cape Horn" imitation and that it lessens off shore ?




-Sven
 
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