• Untitled Document

    Join us on March 29rd, 7pm EST

    for the CBEC Virtual Meeting

    All EYO members and followers are welcome to join the fun and get to know the guest speaker!

    See the link below for login credentials and join us!

    March Meeting Info

    (dismiss this notice by hitting 'X', upper right)

Ericson 32-I, Scorpion or 5.5

wrevans

New Member
I am looking to move up from my Bluenose sloop to a slightly larger version. The Ericson Scorpion looks like it would fit the bill nicely. So do they ever come up for sale? I would greatly appreciate any leads or info.

Thanks, Bill
Lopez Island, WA
 

JMS

Member II
Scorpion

Hi Bill,

If you are interested in a Scorpion, you may also want to look at a Columbia Sabre which is very similar, i.e. a 5.5 Meter with a cabin. They built almost 200 of the Sabres vs. 20 or so of the Scorpions.

There was a Sabre in San Diego listed on eBay a couple of weeks ago. It was a non-profit donation boat with with an opening bid of $99 with no takers. The listing can still be seen by logging on to eBay -> eBay Motors -> Boats -> Sailboats and then searching the completed auction listings. In the photos the boat actually didn’t look bad.

A couple of great sources for info:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/columbiasailingyachts/ A very active Columbia Yachts group.

and

http://www.columbia-yachts.com/ A wealth of stuff on Columbia Yachts broken down by model.

Sabre photos:
 

Attachments

  • heroic3.jpg
    heroic3.jpg
    25.6 KB · Views: 966
  • SabreBrochure.jpg
    SabreBrochure.jpg
    58.8 KB · Views: 485

wrevans

New Member
Hey JMS,

Thanks for the info. I actually stumbled on the Columbia Sabre first and then migrated to the Ericson. I tend to agree with folks who think that the Ericson has much better styling. So I thought I would just poke around and see if any existed.

Ericson Scorpion

e3211.GIF


Columbia Sabre

MrBone%20original.jpg


They both have the sweet hull lines of the 5.5 meters but I think that Columbia's coach roof is boxier and too far forward. Overall I think Ericson did a nicer job from the info I can see.

I will keep my eyes open and see what comes up. Til then I am happy to sail my little Bluenose Sloop.

Thanks, Bill
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
E--32-1 spec sheet

I found this on the 'net.
Under $7k...
but that was a lot of money in the 60's!

Loren
 

Attachments

  • e3212.jpg
    e3212.jpg
    54.2 KB · Views: 3,205

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
E-32-1 Historical trivia

Someone else was looking at this thread today, and I got to wondering if any more info was available on this very early rare Ericson.
Lo and behold, there is one for sale on Yachtworld, in VA.
According to the listing:
Specs
Builder: Ericson 5.5
Dimensions
LOA: 32'
Beam: 6'3"
Maximum Draft: 4'3"
Displacement: 4600#
Ballast: 2600#


And I copied over some pics.
Cheers,
Loren
 

Attachments

  • 1921008_1.jpg
    1921008_1.jpg
    55.8 KB · Views: 2,180
  • 1921008_4.jpg
    1921008_4.jpg
    36.8 KB · Views: 457
  • 1921008_7.jpg
    1921008_7.jpg
    44.7 KB · Views: 450

PDX

Member III
Scorpion info

Here is some historical info I have copied and pasted from the Sail Data website:

"The SCORPION hulls were built from a mold created from a wood 5.5 meter boat in which George O'Day won the 1960 Olympics. In 1967 Ericson produced 24 of these modeled after the COLUMBIA SABRE 5.5 METER and called them the SCORPION 32. It was Ericson's original 32' yacht, sometimes called the ERICSON 32-I. It is nearly identical to the COLUMBIA presumably built using this same mold. The Ericson has a standard counter (as opposed to the Columbia's reverse transom) and a slightly different deck and trunk cabin. Most had outboard wells though some were fitted with small inboards."

No info as to who the designer was, whether O'Day or someone else, or how Ericson happened to be using the design. Maybe both Ericson and Columbia paid for the same basic design and then did their own modifications?<!--mstheme-->
 

tenders

Innocent Bystander
It's my understanding that either Columbia tossed the molds and Ericson picked them out of the trash, or Ericson used a Columbia hull to make its own mold.

Either could be an apocryphal tale, but the point is that the two manufacturers' hulls are virtually identical.
 

tilwinter

Member III
Good Old Boat article

Nice article about the Columbia and the Ericson in the March/April 2012 Good Old Boat. Mentions a lawsuit regarding the design similarities.
 

PDX

Member III
Thanks for the heads up. Fascinating article. I had no idea there was a one design class of these beautiful boats down at Fernridge Reservoir outside of Eugene.

http://deangrabski.com/SabresandScorpions.pdf

I also didn't realize that Bruce King worked for Columbia. The other principals of early Ericson were from Columbia as well and there may have been some resentment over the defections that led to the development of a competitor. I understand there was another lawsuit in which Columbia sued Ericson over the window design and apparently won. If you look at early Ericson 35-1 pictures the window set looks identical to Columbias of the same vintage. As a result of the lawsuit Ericson put a bar in the middle of the rear window, forming what became the characteristic Ericson look of three small forward windows and a split larger rear window pair.

King found time to work for Islander sometime in between the Columbia and Ericson work. He designed the Islander 37 and the absolutely stunning Islander 55. The Islander 37 became, in reduced form, his initial Ericson design, the 30-1.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
an actual Ericson 32-1

If anyone lives near the Portland area, there is a mostly-restored one at a local boat yard - Danish Marine. They tell me they work on it as the owner asks (and, presumably, adds more funding).
It is a strikingly beautiful hull.

LB
 

HarryJames

New Member
Islander 37

The Scorpion isn't the only design that Bruce left Columbia with. The Islander 37 is a Columbia 36 by Crealock and the Ericson 41 is a Columbia Constellation which is a COl 38 with a cutaway forefoot which is a Col 40 with a spade rudder and the Col 40 is off a design by Charlie Morgan called Paper Tiger. There was a lot of that going on back then.
 

PDX

Member III
Islander 37

The Scorpion isn't the only design that Bruce left Columbia with. The Islander 37 is a Columbia 36 by Crealock and the Ericson 41 is a Columbia Constellation which is a COl 38 with a cutaway forefoot which is a Col 40 with a spade rudder and the Col 40 is off a design by Charlie Morgan called Paper Tiger. There was a lot of that going on back then.

I don't know anything about the bigger Columbias you mention. But I don't think I would go so far as to say, "The Islander 37 is a Columbia 36 by Crealock." The Islander was actually an earlier build by one year. Looking at the boats, an obvious similarity is the use of a partial rudder skeg as an engine strut to run the prop shaft through. Other than that similarities are pretty generic for any 1960s fin keel CCA designs derived from Lapworth's Cal 40, as both these boats were--75% water line and U shaped cross section with fine entry and strong chines aft, although the beam is carried further aft on the Islander than either the Cal 40 or the Crealock.

There are also some pretty obvious differences that stand out. The Islander rudder skeg is faired all the way forward into the base of the keel. The Crealock's is not. The Islander has a lot of sheer and a fair amount of freeboard. The Crealock has neither. The Islander has more of a Cal 40 style rig--low aspect, long boom, "P" measurement equal to boat's LOA. The Crealock, with its shorter boom, has about 50 square feet less sail area, quite a bit for being only one inch shorter overall.
 

frick

Member III
FYI
there is a fully restored Ericson scorpion with an inboard electric motor for sale right now in Oriental NC.
 

Barrymark

New Member
I am considering purchasing a Scorpion, and would be interested in any information on how these boats sail.
The one I sailed has not had the bottom cleaned for at least 6 months, and I believe, that is why the boat felt very unresponsive.
My understanding is that they sail at a tremendous amount of heel, but the winds were very light. What I did notice was that the boat loves to point very high, even in light air.
I also can’t seem to find much information. Any fleets, known issues, etc.
Thanks
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
The known issue is that it's a 5.5 Meter -class hull. Skinny and long and what a sailboat should look like. Points like a dream.

But of course, pointing ability has little value outside racing, the entire layout is cramped as befits the adaptation from an open racing boat, and in general the Scorpion is a sort of Sunday boat, which fully restored is a nod to history and pride of ownership. It is like restoring a TR-3 sports car, you do it because your life intersected the era, or perhaps you wished it had.

Almost any other sailboat makes more sense to restore for any reason except aesthetics. But then, "sense" is not why people restore Scorpions.
 

Barrymark

New Member
The known issue is that it's a 5.5 Meter -class hull. Skinny and long and what a sailboat should look like. Points like a dream.

But of course, pointing ability has little value outside racing, the entire layout is cramped as befits the adaptation from an open racing boat, and in general the Scorpion is a sort of Sunday boat, which fully restored is a nod to history and pride of ownership. It is like restoring a TR-3 sports car, you do it because your life intersected the era, or perhaps you wished it had.

Almost any other sailboat makes more sense to restore for any reason except aesthetics. But then, "sense" is not why people restore Scorpions.
Thank you for your quick response. I am thinking of this boat as a daysailer only. Taking it out on the bay for a quick 2 - 3 hour cruise. I’m done with the cruising part, and the maintenance that a cruising boat requires. Are there any fleets around, or known issues / problems with the original build?
Finding information on the boat seems difficult.
Thanks again
 

jtsai

Member III
If you are looking at the Scorpion at Oriental, NC with electrical engine, it cannot get simpler than that! Very nice looking boat when I admired it from a kayak.
 
Top