E28 offshore sailing - Capsize Risk Factor

I'm toying with the idea of sailing my E28 across the South Pacific (Asia to Panama). The plan is to beef her up over the next year and a half and go, but there is one niggle that I cannot find an answer to.

The published Capzise Risk Factor of the E28 (found at http://cruisingresources.com/Ericson_28) is 2.05 (which is, of course, above the holy grail of 2.0).

However, the E28 came in two versions, the standard draft at just over 4ft and the competition version at 5.6ft.

Does anyone know which version the 2.05 rating applies to? If this figure relates to the smaller keel, any ideas as to what the published Capsize Risk on the version with the competition keel is? Mine is the latter and I've googled to no avail.

Thanks in advance for any input and any feedback from owners of E28's who've made similar trips much appreciated. I'm aware of an E27 being sailed across the Pacific and an E29 circumnavigating but not aware of any E28 doing such a trip.

I love the boat, she suits the two of us just fine and she appears to take things in her stride having sailed South East Asia extensively. That said, I've never sailed her in very heavy weather. I'd rather not have to change boats but if she is simply proven to be incapable of a quick and safe righting after a capsize then I'll have to rethink.

Numbers and Salt Water

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=3906&referrerid=28
See reply #12 in this thread. Guy has written several perceptive and informative articles on this site based on his thousands of cruising miles. If you search on his name, there are several great "blue water" threads with his real-world based opinions here.

I have a fraction of his blue water mileage, but personally know the two guys that took a Soverel 33 to Hawaii about 20 years ago and last year won a race to HA in their Cascade 36. I know Dave King who has made about 20 trips there in his Westsail -- fast trips, at that.
There are links on this site to the chap that did the Pacific both ways in an Ericson 27 and later a circumnavigation in an E-30+.

As Guy might say it, "it's the sailor and not the boat"...
While I have personally never done a coastal passage in anything smaller than our former Niagara 26 (4K disp), I know sailors that have have done long passages in boats that size and smaller yet.

There's not much from the Ericson yard and the drawing board of Bruce King that would not be "safe" at sea.
I know that calculated numbers can be used to reassure (or unsettle) beginners, but I also know that those numbers are not that last word. I used to argue design (actually I mostly just listened...) with NA Robert Smith Sr, as we car pooled for 6 hours up to the annual PIYA meetings in Bellingham. He was on the safety committee and I was just a YC delegate. His own designs were ahead of their time in the 60's with their shallow hulls and fin keels, and some sailors to this day will disparage them for not being long-keel heavy boats with traditional slack bilges. (He designed the Cascade's and also boats like Magic Carpet.)

Speaking in general of Ericson Yachts, I personally attribute some part of the company demise to their insistence on producing honest sailing boats for real world sailing in open seas as well as speed in smooth water. I would prefer NOT to use terms like "racer" or "cruiser" since those terms have been co-opted by the marketers to sell boats to the uneducated for the last couple decades. (After all, any boat is a "racer" when it enters a race...)

While Ericson was producing strong and capable boats that cost more to build, they were selling into a shrinking niche market while being buffeted by a weakening economy on one side and a full-on marketing assault on the other by the builders of frail RV's-with-masts from HuntaCataBenalina. (Personal opinion only and NOT reflective of any policy or belief of this site or any other contributors!)
It's not just Ericson either... Tartan and C&C survive but struggle nowadays and Islander and Cal are long gone as well. Oddly enough, the Cascades are still available on a custom basis.

So, to return to the opening question, that E-28 should get across most any ocean. Theoretical design numbers are helpful, but not the final word.

Fair winds,
Loren

ps: Daniel, have you run across our EY subscriber with the Olson 34, in your sailing area?
pps: I note that your 28 has a higher B/D ratio than my O-34, while weighing 3K less than our boat. According to calculations you have more stability than I... but who's counting!

There are links on this site to the chap that did the Pacific both ways in an Ericson 27 and later a circumnavigation in an E-30+.

Click to expand...

Can you post those links? I can't seem to find them.

Dr. Urbanczyk

Check out reply 47 in this thread:
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=5251&highlight=blue+water&page=4
Some reference links may not hold up over time, but you might want to search on the name Andrew Urbanczyk, both here and on the www.

Loren

Wow, Loren, what can I say? Thanks so much for this, very inspiring stuff and I couldn't agree more. I've searched the forums on a number of sites over the years and see that there are two distinct camps - the "you must be insane, that boat'll never make it etc." side and the "just do it!" bunch. There are so many conflicting views on what's safe and what's practical etc. but then you see boats like 18 ft Shrimpy and numerous Albin Vega's out there doing it and going round the globe and you think, what the heck!!! I've hear it said many times that the best boat to go in is the one you already own and that adage certainly seems to work for many people. I could spend the next five years saving for, buying and preparing a bigger boat or I can just bite the bullet, spend the $$ on the boat I have and go. Watch this space

As for the Singapore Olsen 34, that'll be Simon Connor and Sapphire Star, she lives two berths up from WYSIWYG in the SAF Yacht Club in Changi. I've crewed on her a number of times, most recently from Langkawi to Singapore, 4 days sailing down the Strait of Malacca, she really flies