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Ericson 34X For Sale in Oregon

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
a still-somewhat-dangerous old war horse

Those winches look large enough that some would benefit from the self-tailing kits from that machinist guy in the Bay area.
Appears to be equipped for racing, back in the day. I wonder what the big pad eyes on the transom were for?

Heck, the cost of the winches alone equals the current asking price!

Given that EY only built a few full-on IOR designs, it would interesting to get some in-use commentary from Martin, Seth, or any of the other guys that worked at EY in those years.

Thanks for the link.

Loren
 

Steve Swann

Member III
If Only...

What a cool piece of Ericson history here! Wouldn't it be fun to see someone put out some real money for the old girl and modernize her? If we weren't healing up from a massive refit on our aluminum ocean one-off, I would be sorely, sorely tempted. And, as Loren suggests here, you might make her very competitive again - at least in some circles.
 

bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
Man, those pictures bring back memories.

I spent a ton of time racing on those - a half-season on hull #1 ("pizzazz") when it was first launched, debugged, and then relaunched, and then several seasons on hull #7 ("seduction").

Surprisingly competitive against custom/one-off 3/4-tonners back in the day. Biggest competition was a custom Chance 33 called Eclipse, a semi-custom CF-33 called Stargazer, and a very well-sailed E34 out of Long Beach called Junkyard Dog. We got our share of pickle-dishes, including overall wins in the "66 series", and a number of solid wins in the old "tri-island" series, as well as a bunch of level-rating IOR regattas (e.g., the old SDYC "Ton Cup").

The E34 rated 144 in PHRF in SoCal, and pretty competitive in that too. Great fun to sail in anything except a pole-on-the-headstay reach (small-ish rudder allowed it to spin out a bit if you let it heel too much), and DDW with spinnaker and blooper (had the propensity for "high speed wobbles", as pretty much all IOR-designs of that era were prone to have).

About the only issue we ever had once the hull-#1 bugs were worked out was that the chainplates needed some attention. Chainplates were a big aluminum knee structure bonded to inside of hull and underside of deck (you can just make out the portside knee at the far left of picture #7 in the CL ad). On at least two hulls (that I know of), the bonding to the inside of the hull was insufficient and had to be reinforced. Not a small job. Probably fixed in later hulls (and a different structure entirely was used for the 34T).

Somewhere in the dark recesses of my garage I have a bunch of drawings for the 34, including the lines, offsets and deck plan. Plus the drawings I did for the "custom" deck layout we used on Seduction (different placements for winches and stoppers on the cabin-top, mostly, after learning some things about crew placement on hull #1). Owner of the boat was kind enough to grant me an "ownership share" in the boat in return for all the rigging work. Which worked out well - it meant he could put me on his insurance for deliveries, and it got me a set of keys to the boat.

...which had a great stereo, plenty of room for cold beverages, and a bunch of bean-bag chairs, a perfect setup for...uh... teenage activities. (hey, it was the 70s!)

Yeah, fond memories ;-)
 
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bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
Afterthought

Somewhere out there is a photo of an Ericson-34 trucking downwind under spinnaker and blooper.

It's an aerial shot, from above/behind the leeward (port) quarter. Great photo, was used in a variety of promotional campaigns by various companies in Southern California (a travel agency, a local bank, etc). I think there was a mass-market poster of it too.

It's "Seduction", although the name was airbrushed out. A very young bgary is standing at the mast, looking almost like he knows what he's doing up there ;-)

If anyone knows where I might be able to find a digital copy of the shot... you'd be my hero.

Bruce
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Awfully tempting. Good thing I'm broke this year.

Are those winches really worth a lot? They look a lot like mine. (Hippy kids who sold the boat to me kept trying to claim the winches were worth a fortune, and they kept repeating, "Won five championships in Portland." But those kids obviously knew even less about the boat, or sailing, than I did.) I looked the winches up in the usual on-line marketplaces and they seem to be going for just a couple hundred each, these days. Anyhow, big winches means I almost never use the winch handles!
 

rattlebolter

New Member
Ericson 34X. NoName

I just took the plunge and purchased the boat you've been discussing here. It's a fine boat with a long but manageable deferred maintenance list. I'm thrilled with it. I'm reaching out here to make contact with other owners and share resources and experiences with the type. If there's anyone out there with builders papers, lines, schematics, anything at all, please email me.

I'm told the name of the vessel is NoName.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Welcome !

Welcome to the Viking ranks!
If those winches are the brand and model size to benefit, this is the company that makes the ST upgrade kit.
http://www.winchmate.com

Since the original CL ad is gone, along with the pix, you might want to post up some pix here. You can put them into an "album" of your own.

Cheers,
Loren
 

rattlebolter

New Member
Self tailing winches are not on the hot list at this stage. The boat is a long ways from "sail away". The steadfast Atomic Four ran well on the test sail, but it leaked copious electrons. There was a 2 amp drain on the batteries with the engine and the panel off. Replacing the isolator and the alternator has that reduced to .02 amps but it's still a leak. The engine ran well and started readily. But the seller was noticeably nervous about the batteries and the panel in general so I knew the job was dangerous when I took it. We ran the motor off of a small portable outboard tank. I'm now preparing to pressure test the boats main gas tank to determine if it will hold fuel. Funny thing is that I can't find the fuel pump anywhere! The Manual specifies a low pressure electric fuel pump but it's not on the fuel line anywhere. I'm wondering if it's inside the tank?
 
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Afrakes

Sustaining Member
A4 fuel pump

An originally configured A4 gas engine has a mechanical fuel pump mounted on the right side of the engine behind and below the carburetor. When I had the 73' E27 with an A4 I switched to an electric pump mounted on an adjacent bulkhead.
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I don't know how your boat is arranged, but in mine, the fuel tank is higher than the engine, so once a siphon gets started, no lift pump is needed. However, in this configuration that means that the seal for the carburetor float is the only thing preventing all of the fuel from draining into the bilge. I get pretty scrupulous about closing the fuel valve before I walk away.
 
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