30-2 v. 30 plus

Can someone help me understand the differences?

Obviously the outboard rudder on the 30-2 and the seating arrangement in the main cabin are not the same on both boats.

Other changes when the 30-2 gave way to the 30 plus?

I can tell you one of the big differences is the Fractional Rig. I owned the Ericson 30+ and that boat pointed upwind like no other. Really was a beautiful boat. Another obvious observation was one was tiller and the other wheel. The 30+ loved to heel at 15k of wind so had to prepare to reef unless you like your rail in the water.

I can't tell you about the 30 - 2, but the 30+ has exceeded our expectations! It is a lovely boat, fast in a wide range of winds, very functional, and aesthetically pleasing lines. Storage is a bit of an issue, but the rest more than makes up for this possible shortcoming.

Frank

One of my favorite 30+ pictures, Frank Langer 30+, awesome.

Dave N said:

One of my favorite 30+ pictures, Frank Langer 30+, awesome.

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Good looking boat!

I'm wondering if the 30-2 is the same hull as the 30+ but with a masthead rig and outboard rudder?

There are some older threads around here with hull model history from the son of the designer, but just off hand, I do not have the URL for them. Perhaps Martin will check in and provide a link.

But wait, there's more! I sent this thread link over to a friend at our YC who owned one of these for quite a while and asked him for any comments. He sent back a reply and permitted me to post it up. (His EY account is long since lapsed.) FWIW, he used to help organize the NW rendezvous when the Seattle Ericson dealer was hosting it.

His comments are attached as a resaved PDF.


Loren

Loren Beach said:

There are some older threads around here with hull model history from the son of the designer, but just off hand, I do not have the URL for them. Perhaps Martin will check in and provide a link.

But wait, there's more! I sent this thread link over to a friend at our YC who owned on of these for quite a while and asked him for any comments. He sent back a reply and permitted me to post it up. (His EY account is long since lapsed.) FWIW, he used to help organize the NW rendezvous when the Seattle Ericson dealer was hosting it.

His comments are attached as a resaved PDF.


Loren

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Thanks very much to all who replied. I will search for earlier threads.

Bob

So we have owned Dragonfly, 30-2 #25, for three years. She is an amazing boat. For our family of 3 she is the perfect cruiser. We've taken her on extended month-long cruses around Lake Ontario and the 1000 Islands and in 2013 she carried us around the Down-East Circle, 2200 nautical miles from Ontario down the St. Lawrence and the Maritimes to Maine and New England and back home via the Hudson and the Erie Canal. The interior layout is very livable.

This year we really clicked on the race course taking a bunch of flags in both regattas and Wednesday nights at the club.

In profile, the hulls look very similar, the big diffference being, of course, the outboard rudder on the -2. This makes the boat incredibly nimble and she is very well balanced with a 140 and main up to 15knots, then we dial her in a bit. I have raced in 35 knots with a 100 and reefed main, very solid.

30-2 vs 30+

The tooling for the 30+ WAS derived from the 30-2 if memory serves.

The stern was chopped off and narrowed, the rig went from masthead to frac, the outboard rudder was replaced with the rudder seen on the 30+, and the cockpit reworked for a wheel.

These are the differences you can see from afar. The biggest changes were in engineering as this boat (30+) was the first to have the TAFG (even if it was partial compared to later boats). Thus the rig, keel and many of the hull stress points were tied together structurally making for a stronger and stiffer (in terms offlexing under load) boat.

The 30-2 is still a great boat (one of my favorites), but it uses older construction technology and gets it's strength from lots of fiberglass rather than smarter engineering.

Happy holidays

Seth said:

The 30-2 is still a great boat (one of my favorites), but it uses older construction technology and gets it's strength from lots of fiberglass rather than smarter engineering.

Happy holidays

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Wow, then the 30+ must be literally a brick sh**house!
Our 30-2 has survived 2 very hard groundings and a major collision with a breakwall and a tumble backwards off its cradle in the last 2 years, absolutely no sign of damage t the structure of the boat.

Wow, Dave!! You've given your 30-2 quite a test in the last two years! I'm glad to hear that she was strong enough to withstand those incidents without structural damage.

Our 30+ does feel like a strong boat, but she is very fast and nimble, so doesn't feel like a heavy boat. We have a friend who owns a 1974 Niagara 35--a lovely boat, but not as fast as ours as she is quite heavy--hull is almost an inch thick fiberglass!

We have been very pleased with our boat, and would recommend her highly!

Frank

Frank Langer said:

...Our 30+ does feel like a strong boat, but she is very fast and nimble, so doesn't feel like a heavy boat. We have a friend who owns a 1974 Niagara 35--a lovely boat, but not as fast as ours as she is quite heavy--hull is almost an inch thick fiberglass! ...

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Huh! Eastern Connecticut Sailing Assoc rates the 30+ at 174 and the Niagara 35 at 159. Being Canadian, maybe the N-35 has a metric rating.

What am I missing?

Tom Metzger said:

Huh! Eastern Connecticut Sailing Assoc rates the 30+ at 174 and the Niagara 35 at 159. Being Canadian, maybe the N-35 has a metric rating.

What am I missing?

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Maybe the original rating was pegged to the Canadian dollar and someone converted it into USD?

Thanks again to all who replied. Does anyone have the shoal keel 30-2? What does it draw in cruising trim, and is the keel deeper than the rudder?