Blisters

I'm in the middle of a blister repair job and am curious as to where my E-34 hull was laid up. It was built in March 1987. Clayton said a few years ago that his boat from 1988 had a plaque saying it was proudly made in Mexico. Seth, I believe, said any boats made in Mexico were after his time at Ericson.

My hull has many starved spots and one area where there is a void in the lamination. There was a void in the deck which I filled in several years ago.

Does anyone actually know when boats were laid up in Mexico? Does anyone have a made in Mexico boat with a CG document that says Mexico, or do they all say Irvine, CA?

It's been a while and my memory's a little fuzzy but Ericsons were produced in Mexico (East Tijuana) from about '86 or '87 through '90 when the company shut down. However, not all boats were produced in Mexico; the 34's, 35's and 38/381/382's were always made in Irvine. Any boat made in Mexico had a plaque at the companionway indicating its origin, although a previous owner could have easily removed it.

-Roger

Thanx Roger. Good answer.

Happy to hear my starved spots and voids were home grown.

My '88 hull has no other builder plaques or evidence that one might have existed...
Irvine, CA is what it shows for manufacturer place.

I have heard that some hulls were indeed laid up in Mexico, but it's just hearsay.

Loren

Es posible que había layup en México, porque todas las clases de misterios abundan en el negocio del edificio del barco. Hay un individuo que conozco, Gonzales rápido, que es un amigo de mi hermana, que pudo haber estado implicado en él.

Very good Morgan.

My '88 hull has no other builder plaques or evidence that one might have existed...
Irvine, CA is what it shows for manufacturer place.

I have heard that some hulls were indeed laid up in Mexico, but it's just hearsay.

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Ah yes, the Olsons. They too were manufactured in Mexico for some period, at least the 911SE and the 34. Don't recall if the 25 was or not. I would think that your '88 O34 was "hecho en Mexico" Loren, but not sure.

Defining "Built"

Everyone who starts out to "build their own boat" in their driveway discovers, sooner or later, the truth of the old adage about the hull being only 20% of the total project. I actually know of someone that finished up a 37 footer and went sailing in it, BTW!

Which leads back to the question of where our Ericsons were "built."
Not to further spread a rumor: "I read on some Ericson owners' list that this was what really happened!"

No first hand knowledge, but what I have heard is that the hulls were laid up in Mexico (and I would imagine that the deck & interior moldings were, also) and the parts shipped back to the Ericson plant for assembly, workwork, rigging, and fitting out. Given the increasing legal restrictions on VOC's in California in the late 80's, doing layups with poly resin in the less-regulated border areas of Mexico was seen as a way around the new regulations.

I sometimes wonder if the company ever considered changing to epoxy construction? Epoxy resin layups take more time and the resin's more expensive. In marketing boats, costs (whether labor or materials) seems to trump all other considerations. It's always been that way -- sort of a manufacturing variant of Gresham's Law.

The good news is that there seems to be no particular good or evil associated with the glass work from Mexico, if indeed that's where it was done. Or, I am just lucky and have the boating version of a "Wednesday Car." When we bought out boat in '94 there was a small area, about one by three feet on one side of the bottom with some get coat blisters. The yard in Alameda faired and filled 'em and they have not returned. I have crawled thought most places in the out-of-sight areas and never found even a hint of a dry-layup or a bonding problem. (Sometime you can ask me, off line, about the large section of loose roving I found in the aft bilge of a Florida-built sailboat one time -- although not the large builder that still survives.

My .01 worth, with weekend rate reduction.

Loren

Next time I'm down to the boat, I'll get a photo of the little plaque, it's right at the top of the companionway steps. I'll also get some shots of some of the glasswork on the hull. I'm finding what I believe to be the cause/source of the blisters I deal with. It's the layer of chopper gun/chopped strand mat that is just inside the gelcoat. There are voids all through it where the fibers didn't get any resin. Whether or not this was Friday afternoon after tequila shots production run, or just poorly trained workers...several other owners of the '89 vintage (mine was built Dec 88 according to the HIN) have reported similar issues.
Clayton

Clayton,
Mine was molded out in August of '88, if I read the HIN correctly. As to the mat under the gelcoat, that is SOP for layups. That thin layer of mat is there to prevent or at least minimize "print through" of the roving layers that were rolled on next. I have seen some boats where you could really see the roving pattern when sighting down the shiny topsides on a day with the sun low in the sky. Not a deficiency, per se, perhaps even proof positive that a builder really tried to squeegee out all the extra resin.

Ironic, you having an Ericson that was likely being built near my boat. Double-ironic that when we were boat shopping we had an offer rejected on a 32-200 just before we found the Olson. Also, we almost bid on an early E-38 at the same time, but knew the price was out of our range.


Originally, we did not set out to own an Ericson, but somehow we were attracted to them the more we compared boats.

Regards,
Loren

Ours was a 1989, and where ever they laid up the hull, they sure botched the job. I loved the boat, but as some of you may recall from my earlier rants, we were totally unable to fix the blisters.

We even had the entire hull peeled - TWICE - and the blisters still came back. When the hull was peeled and you could see the mat layer it was pretty clear that it was NOT very well wetted out, and that there were lots of resin starved fibers. We even had the experts from West System (which was just down the road) look at the boat to see why our epoxy repairs kept failing.

The only solution anyone could suggest was to completely grind off the mat layer, and that desperate I wasn't.

My 1980 had some dry spots

Last spring and summer when my blister discovery and repair was going on, I found plenty of spots where cloth wasn't wetted out. There wasn't a cloth layer around the outside everywhere, either. Instead, there was what looked like chopped strand that had light colored straw in it. While I worked through the grinding, and I'm glad I did, I got a good look at areas all over the bottom. Here are a couple samples. The second one was a void area that was the deepest spot I found. The rest were generally just under the old epoxy barrier.

I got to the point on some where I just had to stop expanding the area I was grinding and "close the patient up."

Morgan Stinemetz said:

Es posible que había layup en México, porque todas las clases de misterios abundan en el negocio del edificio del barco. Hay un individuo que conozco, Gonzales rápido, que es un amigo de mi hermana, que pudo haber estado implicado en él.

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Buenos tardes capitan Morgan. Yo no sabia que usted tiene una hermana.

PS say hi to Speedy Gonzales for me.

Call me I'd like for us go go sailing together again some time soon. Without the wife or the dog.

Ed Gato