Looking for a 28+ or 30+ in the Pacific Northwest

I am interested in finding a sailboat for exploring the Pacific Northwest, as well as an occasional casual low-key Friday night beer can race. The 28+ and the 30+ have caught my eye. I would appreciate any advice, and any information regarding boats in my area that are in good condition and might be coming on the market would be especially helpful.

Thanks in advance!

More "targets"

Unless you just *gotta* ... have a fractional rig...
The best value for your $ might well be in a late model diesel Ericson 29 or E-30/2.
The Ericson Independence-31 and Olson 911LE would also be great yachts in that general displacement range, but both are extreme rarities in the used market.

Happy hunting!

Best,
Loren

I can't comment on anything but my 30+ but I love that boat and allready know I'll miss her. Everything about it is easy as compaired to my "new" boat. If you're ready for a big adventure, sail mine home from the Chesapeake! Seriously though, I really think they are a bargin 30'er and a great choice. Good luck.

I took a look for you on Yachtworld and did not see anything listed up there. A few in Southern California. It was good that you posted because someone might be considering selling in your area.

Would you be interested in buying in Southern California? I keep seeing a 30+ drop down in price and appears to be in good shape. It is a great buyers market because nothing is selling. His price I think is $16,500. Let me try and find link for you. He is selling on his own no broker.

It appears it finally sold. I didn't think it would last long at that price.
I will keep my eyes open for you.

E28+

Some thoughts

Wife and I are racers - we spent a year shopping for the 30ft and under mini cruiser. Ironically early on in our shopping we looked at a 1986 E28+. Liked it but kept looking.

Almost a year later we jumped on a local E28+ when it popped up on the local adds.

Here's my take on the boat so far. 1985 and below the E28's had a different backing plate system for the shroud plates, vs more direct and beefy looking solid rods attached to the backing plates. Thats the only big difference I really noticed between the early 80's and mid 80 to late 80's boats.

We are in San Francisco - summer winds the 100% jib is just right for the E28+ makes for some fun reaching across the bay doing max + hull speed.

As for sailing - ours is the full keel 5ft 6inch - it has a sizable amount of sail area and seems to do pretty well in the light stuff - though right now I only have a small 100 up front - guessing it would scoot along very well with a 140- 150% genoa in the light stuff. The rudder is fairly large for the era which is good - it drives quite well and is easy to manuver in tight spaces.

The "T" Cockpit with wheel works nicely with 3-4 adults going for a cruise. Very easy for the helms person to break the old sheet and trim the new sheet from the helm.

I've been told by a few people now that the e28+ can sail to its rating 184 in SF and has done pretty well at times in the PHRF racing.

I've had a few people tell me the 30+ wasn't as nice as the 28 and at some point along the way the 30+ hull shape was changed to help fix the "performance issues" - Not sure what was ment by that. Not sure if the 30 was a longer version of the 28 or if the hull was a totally different shape.

As for accomidations. So far my wife and I have done a few overnights on the 28+ the starboard sete slides out and makes a nice size bed, v-berth is long enough for your average 5'10" snoozer - though we use it as storage space. The 28+ has a molded in battery box under the fairly wide aft quarter berth - the battery box was designed for two group 24's which is a bit on the light side for juice these days if you have any electronic toys. We just had Ryan's Marine update the box with a minor modification and had two Group 31 batteries installed. We put in a digital meter on the stock power pannel and added a small 400watt inverter for things like laptops - cellphone chargers and our 15inch LCD flatscreen with built in DVD player. So far this has been a great upgrade no power worries with lights - anchor lights - watching movies etc. The group 24's were way to small and always left us wondering about the anchor light and waking up to a dead battery.

We have a asymetric cruising kite for it but I haven't messed with it yet. Hopfully in the next few weeks I'll do a little kite flying with it.

Overall - my wife loves the boat - she wants to drive it every time we go out. This is great since I would like her to drive our racing boat some day. Big + points if the wife loves spending time on the boat!!!! Friends that have gone out on day sails and even a couple of overnights love the boat. I think for the money the 28+ is a great value and a slick little package built with big boat care and construction. After a year of shopping and visting the East Coast I can say that the E28 is probably the best sub 28foot mini cruiser you can find on the west coast.