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Ericson Blue Water Capabilities

bigtyme805

Member III
Rigging was upgraded and changed from Navtech compression fittings to offshore rated fittings. I had problems with the Navtech ones that were on the boat, they had hairline fractures and my surveyor thinks they came from the person who did the swagging but he was in shock that each one had cracks. They were on both sides of lower shrouds.

Bilges were upgraded to 1500gpi in engine room and main salon and shower room. Fitted the port outside locker with new engel freezer. I made the cockpit drains twice the size. I also have 75 gallons of water tanks on starboard main salon and port side V-berth. New S1 wheel pilot and Monitor Windvane to be added in the next couple of weeks. I will lose the stern ladder but plan to add one on later to the port or starboard side.

New dodger along with changing the wire to rope halyards to all rope.
Upgraded 12v wiring and made fittings for 12v appliances.
Added 3rd battery, never can have too much juice.
New solar panels on stern rails to minimize running engine when not necessary.

I hope this helps.
 

Frank Langer

1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
Thanks, Don. That's very helpful. While we don't have any immediate plans to go offshore, I do want to further strengthen our boat as opportunities arise so that we are as prepared as possible if we do decide to go offshore, or simply to have an even better Ericson for our coastal cruising. :egrin:
Thanks again!
Frank.
 

Bardo

Member II
You guys are KILLING me! All this talk of blue water cruising (who started this silly thread anyway?). I am losing patience with the boat search. I want my E34 and I want it NOW! And I want to sail it to Indonesia, or Micronesia, or Amnesia, somewhere far away, where the drinks are cheap and so are the....drinks. Sorry, didn't mean to rant. Carry on.
 

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
Why must it be a E34? There are others worthy of consideration, 35's, 36's, 38's, 39's. Might make your search easier? That way maybe more choices in condition, equipment, etc. Just a thought. RT
 

Bardo

Member II
Rob,
I really like the layout of the cabin in the 34. The aft "cabin" and head would work well with my family, and I like the converging setees in the salon. If I can't find the boat for the price I need, then I may have to extend my search. My current plan is to stick to my guns. It gets frustrating, but its also fun. The 38+ boats are out of my price range unfortunately.

Freeman
 

Jon Libby

Member II
Freeman,

We had a E-27 loved the way it preformed, and protected us. But when it came to working on it, things always worked out. You could just about predict what you had to do for work and you did it. If you are going off shore you are going to do work on your boat, even a new one. (unless you're Nigel and have a custom thing built for you)(Even he had a custom Pacific Seacraft Built form him) As we looked for our soon to be blue water boat, we knew it had to be an Ericson. We upgraded to the 36C and have not been disappointed. We are indeed doing work on it, we knew we would, and it is not bad to look at either. We also knew of a couple who have been out there for 10+ years in the same boat. Check out them also,

www.boatbumms.blogspot.com/

After seeing what and where they have gone, and done to thier boat, we knew yeap KIE (Keep it Ericson)

Something else you must think of, this boat as a home you have to live in it. We have been trying long weekends and long trips in bad weather on Lake Ontario this year and now know the things we need to be out there. They will happen over this winter and next spring. Yeap work on the boat, a good boat.
 

sleather

Sustaining Member
North of the Boarder?

this might be of interest on the subject. I've just bought a E29 out of Racine and am looking forward to sailing it on Lake Winnipeg this summer.

Rick, First of all WELCOME to the Viking Clan!:egrin: :clap:

I "need" to hear MORE about this Winnipeg plan! How are you getting it there from Racine? Are there adequate charts?:confused:

Be aware that Canada has some VERY restrictive trailering laws!:esad:
 

sail28

New Member
Hi Steve, thanks for the welcome. We're pretty excited (my wife and not so much the 4 kids) about the bigger boat. We have a Viking 28 that only sleeps 4 and the headroom is only about 5 feet, so the E29 will be a vast improvement.

We ended up having the boat shipped up by a lowbed trucker and he delivered it to the storage yard in Gimli, a few miles from our marina. Lake Winnipeg is a fabulous place to sail with huge expanses of open water. There are complete charts for the lake and a cruising guide available. Check it out on Google Earth, the marina is at Arnes.

Take care

Rick
 

sleather

Sustaining Member
North of the Boarder!

Rick, Lake Winnipeg is a "virtual" inland sea, I can understand why you responded to this thread. Is Lake Winnipeg going to be it's permanent home? How much were the shipping fees(?/m), if I might ask.

That's going to be an amazing adventure! I've always been intrigued by Lake of the Woods(so many islands, so easy to get lost w/o GPS).
 

sail28

New Member
Hi, yeah its a big lake and can get fairly vigorous when its blowing. The other interesting fact, okay two facts, are that due to the shallowness (30' max in the south basin) the water level can change by 2 or three feet when the wind is blowing N or S. Also because of the shallowness, the entire water volume of the south basin changes twice a year compared to 100 years for lake Superior. It is not as clear or as scenic as Lake of the Woods but the sailing is much better without having to worry about hitting reefs. Now you know as much as I do about the lake.

Shipping ended up costing about $3K for the 900 mile trip.

What are you sailing? On Lake Michigan I presume.

Rick
 

sleather

Sustaining Member
Rick, Erie's similar ~30' and is notorious for it's waves. Was working on Superior awhile back and experienced a storm induced seiche(storm tide) of over 8', the harbor looked like the Bay of Fundy w/ boats lying on the bottom, back to normal 15 min. later.

My boat's on Lake Mendota:( w/ occasional trips to Michigan and Superior.
 

Ian S

Member III
I am a lifetime Ericson owner and sailor I can assure you Ericson's can be taken anywhere you want to go, however they are definately NOT! true blue water boats! Alot of this comes down to you're level of conservancy. They are built to perform well (light) they are built for interior volume (stability) They were designed as coastal cruisers (tankage) and built to be realitively affordable (marginal hardware and build qaulity in some aspects.) I could go on and on. People have crossed the Atlantic in a dingy that does mean I'm doing it. Spade rudders are weak when compared to keel or skeg hung. Fin keels are absolutely out of the question for serious off shore work especially if you're cruising grounds have coral. The best advise I could give you is to buy Nigel Calders: Cruising Handbook ISBN#0-07-135099-3. I love the Bruce King designs Thats why I own them but some owners are just not realistic about the limits and capabilities of there vessels. We all like to be proud of something we paid alot of money for, worked hard for and researched long and hard, however that seriously adds to our degree of bias and limits our impartiality. I've sailed on the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and carribiean. An Ericson will not give you the protection you want in seriously heavy weather. Lastly Ericson's vary wildly in their capability depending on year of manufacture. For example wood with Plexi hatches OUT OF THE QUESTION! If you get rolled you'll be wishing they were water tight! Prior to the tri-axial grid system chain plates got ripped out at an alarming rate once these boats reached maturity. I hope this is helpful Please don't misunderstand me I think that Ericsons are some of the best overall boats built but they do have their limits as with any design.
Best Regards: Ian S :nerd:
 

Seth

Sustaining Partner
Opinions

.....No disrespect to Ian, but I would offer that his rather strong feelings are not taken as fact by the majority of those who cross oceans in sailboats these days.

His preferences are of course legit for him, and many others, but in terms of keels and rudders, I would differ and most modern ocean going sailboats seem to indicate otherwise as well.

I would not choose to go offshore with a full keeled boat if given a choice, and having had skegs come off in mid-ocean (more than once), I am not convinced they are the answer. Obviously you can't make any conclusions on these 2 design parameters by themselves, and obviously there are many seaworthy boats with and without these features.

For me, windward ability is a key part of "seaworthiness", and I have been in a situation where I was able to get off a lee shore in a gale (deep reefed main and storm jib) on a Hood 40 (Fin keel/Spade rudder) with relative ease, and the Westsail 32 we had shared the cove with was lost on the beach-it had a professional skipper on board, yet was not able to make any headway upwind, not even hold her own, and ended up on the beach.

We have talked about the rudder question endlessly here, so I will leave that alone.

His comments about hatches and tankage are right on of course, and he is certainly right that almost any production boat is not ready for world cruising until it has had some appropriate mods performed-some rigging upgrades, tanks, hatches, electrical, plumbing (incl drains), etc. But I do feel that if properly prepared, the newer E-boats are 100% capable and better than many other designs.

S
 

rwthomas1

Sustaining Partner
.....No disrespect to Ian, but I would offer that his rather strong feelings are not taken as fact by the majority of those who cross oceans in sailboats these days.

His preferences are of course legit for him, and many others, but in terms of keels and rudders, I would differ and most modern ocean going sailboats seem to indicate otherwise as well.

I would not choose to go offshore with a full keeled boat if given a choice, and having had skegs come off in mid-ocean (more than once), I am not convinced they are the answer. Obviously you can't make any conclusions on these 2 design parameters by themselves, and obviously there are many seaworthy boats with and without these features.

For me, windward ability is a key part of "seaworthiness", and I have been in a situation where I was able to get off a lee shore in a gale (deep reefed main and storm jib) on a Hood 40 (Fin keel/Spade rudder) with relative ease, and the Westsail 32 we had shared the cove with was lost on the beach-it had a professional skipper on board, yet was not able to make any headway upwind, not even hold her own, and ended up on the beach.

We have talked about the rudder question endlessly here, so I will leave that alone.

His comments about hatches and tankage are right on of course, and he is certainly right that almost any production boat is not ready for world cruising until it has had some appropriate mods performed-some rigging upgrades, tanks, hatches, electrical, plumbing (incl drains), etc. But I do feel that if properly prepared, the newer E-boats are 100% capable and better than many other designs.

S

X2! More on the topic of keels and rudders, design choices, etc. can be had by reading some of Bob Perry's more recent musings.

Better let Dashew, Leonard, etc. know that their boats aren't "serious" blue water boats too......


RT
 
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JohnM

Inactive Member
New member, great posts!

;)I've been reading this thread with great interest. I'm strongly considering an Ericson of 70's vintage with an eye toward offshore sailing. I really like the E35, although I might have to go a bit smaller. I began by looking at full keel designs, but I've found that for a given size of the same period the Ercisons offer much nicer interiors and generally cost less than their full keel brethren. E boats are well proven with numerous blue water passages. Bruce King designed them with a strong eye toward cruising and Ericson built them to a high standard. Did you ever notice the fake wood formica interiors of the Alberg 30, Cape Dorys and Pearson 35?

As for suitablility for offshore sailing, Tristan Jones once said he would not go offshore in any boat that was not full keel, heavy displacement and made of wood. He later circumnavigated in a trimaran. I guess even experts can change their minds.

Thanks for all the info! - JohnM;)
 

mark reed

Member III
Reflections from a Gibsea in the Galapagos

We recently received this message from fellow Portland boaters who have been cruising on their 37' Gibsea (a similar design to an Ericson) for two years, and are now in the Galapagos:

"First thing I will mention is that you will find many people who think
your boat is wrong (too small, light, wrong keel, etc....) Don´t
listen to them. After you get PAST mexico you will notice that there
is just about every type of boat out there, and pointy and fast has
some serious advantages over the traditional full keel approach. We
have never been disappointed with that. Also, we notice smaller boats
go FARTHER... also simpler goes farther.

"The big secret is lots of those ¨traditional¨ cruising boats barely
ever sail... they motor way more then half of the time. Having a boat
that sails in light air is a huge advantage in Mexico (and never hurts
everywhere else.)"
 
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