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epic e-29 refit...

texlan

Member I
Blogs Author
I am in the process of a pretty extensive refit on a very early (hull #8) e-29. So far, with gutting and rebuilding the engine bay, filling in the back part of the keel with epoxy+sand, cutting out the cabin sole and rebuilding the area with floors and stringers, replacing the rotted mast-compression-post-step with laminated G-10, moving the head from starboard to port, adding a new bulkhead to support that, extending the galley (kind of like Toddster's refit, GREAT job by the way -- i am going to put double sinks there on mine), glassing over all the existing through-hulls and putting in new ones, switching to gray-water pump instead of drain thru-hulls, repowering with electric, and I dare say an adventurous plan to rebuild the transom as a walk-through (a-la the '27s with an outboard) I thought I had a pretty extensive refit going on. But I am always looking for ideas,

And then I saw this:

https://www.popyachts.com/sloop-sailboats-for-sale/ericson-yachts-29-in-chester-maryland-185341

This is the most epic '29 interior refit I have ever seen. I'm in Arizona and have nothing to do with this Maryland yacht, but wanted to share the link for ideas for other owners to contemplate. (I'm always looking for ideas to solve the space/usability problems myself...)

There are some what I think to be good ideas there, and some what I think to be terrible ideas there too, LOL, but all in all it's amazing food for thought. Sorry it's on POP yachts ( not a fan ) and the pictures' aspect ratio is wrong, but HOLY #@$@ that's an amazing transformation. I'm going to try to attach a couple photos to hopefully outlive the ad, if I fail, it's my first time I'm sorry.. ;)

I worry that the boat has been structurally compromised on the port side, as the "stringers" in '29s are the settees, and the settee is gone.. along with any semblance of a bulkhead ( i know later '29s had a half-as... err, partial bulkhead with the hanging locker to port, but still..

What are your thoughts?
--Sean

forward.jpg
portside.jpg
galley2.jpg
 
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Gary Holford

Member II
As you said, good ideas and bad ideas. Would be nice to see all the photos without signing your life away. Good luck with your refit.

Gare
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Oh. My. Heavens.

Some very odd contradictions there. Nice appearing woodwork, along with some questionable structure ideas. This person was no engineer, and I can picture Bruce King rolling his eyes and sighing.
Looking closely at some of the photos,some of the joinery shows some gaps in gluing up. Or I am not seeing it accurately.

No mainsheet rigged and the old winches show no attention to having "actually sailing" plans. Those replacement hatches may or may not keep spray out.
It really does not look like a functional interior when under way. So, to me, it's not a refit, but rather a Very Artistic re-imagining of the boat into something very different than its roots as a 'cruiser-racer'.

And then, there is the sheer added weight... maybe 1500# of interior furniture and upholstery bits added. Or more.

I betcha he enjoyed all of the creativity, misguided as certain parts were.
It will provide a cool live aboard for the next owner -- ideally a young single guy. Also a person that seldom goes sailing. Someone who has no idea who Hugh Hefner was, but might be slightly impressed if he found out.
:cool:

Love the name!

All of the pix on the site opened for my, BTW.

Thanks again for the post.
 

texlan

Member I
Blogs Author
Well of course the mainsheet isn't rigged to the traveler.. it would interfere with the BBQ clamped to the top of the pedestal guard.

:lol3:
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I think you guys said it: A mix of really nice and questionable work.

I think the structural loss in the port settee might be saved by glassing a short stringer under the table, where it's too steep to actually put your leg anyway. (Reminds me of those jetliners where only amputees can really fit into the window seat.) Though I like the concept, and even daydreamed about it briefly in the past. They could have shifted everything toward the centerline and borrowed a few inches from the salon floorspace. I think that's similar to what you find in a Catalina of similar size. But I opted for a chart table and bigger galley instead.

Extending the galley over the engine cover like that was the first option that I talked myself out of. As I suspected - it kind of turns the quarterberth into a dark cave, instead of a spacious double. Even though that bit under the cockpit floor will probably inevitably end up as cargo area, regardless.

I'm not sure, but it looks as if they've also carved away the "duct" on the port side, which I believe is a box-beam that is part of the deck assembly, and may be important.

A lot of those projects are done in the way that I started out - with big slabs of wood. (To be fair, some of the factory door faces were that way.) But not only is that (ever-increasingly) expensive, it is a lot heavier than framed panels, and as Loren says, it can really add up.

I see they did do the external chainplate conversion - though we can't see much detail.

The coaming storage bins are something I've had in mind for a while. (One of them will store the cockpit shower.) Though I worry about leakage - since everything has a curve to it, it could be tricky to fit a flat panel door that seals well. Not sure about those plastic hatches - might not be worse than the originals.

Finally, I am glad they included a pic of what appears to be a SailRite dodger kit. I've been wavering on pulling the trigger on one for months. It just seems to me that the shape of the frame is too square and ugly. And it's not really very "cheap" for a DIY project. Maybe increasing the forward rake would soften it a bit?
 
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Geoff W.

Makes Up For It With Enthusiasm
Blogs Author
Is that...velvet diamond plate flooring? What am I looking at here?
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I think it’s a self-adhesive vinyl product. I’ve seen it at Home Depot.

Oh look... no handrails either inside or out... :rolleyes_d:
 

texlan

Member I
Blogs Author
Good point on the stringer under the table, that might work, though if I were doing it i'd keep it inline/tie it in with the settee side. Honestly I'd probably build it out like a platform to the hull side, to keep a flat area to put your feet on, sort of like what is in the head.

When I realized how much i was going to have to tear out and rebuild (rotted wood, oil everywhere) on my boat, I made a conscious decision that I was going to rebuild it for single handing or a couple empty-nesters weekending with very occasional guests (the kids) or on 2-3 week trips. And in that vein the aft double feels superfluous -- it gives the sense of space to the boat when standing in the salon, but it's usability/access is cumbersome at best. On mine I will be extending the galley over the engine not only for the galley space, but also because I need to build the engine-bay-box forward about 4-5 inches to accommodate both an electric motor in the back and the 5kw diesel genset in the front of the bay. My boat is a tiller model and I also want to install a below-deck autopilot in the area below the cockpit footwell, which pretty much eliminates that area as a birth anyways -- so the area forward of the autopilot actuator will become the electrical 'equipment' area, victron inverter/charger, solar charge controller, main 48vdc bus, fuse block, 48vdc circuit breakers, etc. The companionway steps would consist of the counter top, one step inset into the engine bay 'box' (which may have the integral drawer storage deal, that seems like it would be a great place to put tools), and one foldout step at the bottom -- which can be kicked up against the bay to make more room when working in the galley area. And finally, boxing that area in and tying it into the cockpit footwell-sides should really increase the torsional rigidity of the boat -- which should allow me to safely cut out the walk-through transom flush with the cockpit footwell & footwell-sides tied to it. It should all box up nicely structurally speaking. And that solves the too-big-cockpit-with-one-tiny-scupper and-no-bridgedeck problem as well. (Which is how I got the boat... leaves plugged the scupper and a tropical storm filled the cockpit, then the boat, while it was on the hard and the owners were away) So I guess with all that said, for me it makes sense to turn the double into a single quarterbirth cave. :)

I like the storage in the coaming idea, but if I were doing it I'd make it out of GRP and glass it to the coaming such that it was sealed, and the cover wasn't there to keep water out, it was just there to keep whatever gear in. And in that line of thought, you could probably make acrylic covers by heating acrylic in an oven and pressing it to the hull side to take on the curve as it cooled.. of course, if you already went to the trouble of building a grp box, you could probably just as easy build a GRP cover for it...

And I actually think the acrylic hatches aren't a bad idea. Probably all up weigh a bit more than the originals but certainly maintenance free for substantially longer.

I agree the sailrite dodger is just ugly. :( I think if you try to extend the slope out further than commonly seen, it'll probably just wind up saggy. Nah it just needs more curve in the bows...which they probably can't do as a 'one size fits all' kit.

Sean
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
Sean, it will be interesting to see some of your projects underway.
A couple of notes on the dodger - I had thought to make the front panel at the same slope as the front of the house. That might land it about a third of the way down the hatch turtle, leaving room for an instrument pod inside. For a "SailRite" kit, I'd add a couple of struts along the sides of that panel, to prevent sag. And two more on the back edges. Upping the price of the kit even more. I had thought of doing a prototype in plywood, but my efforts along those lines with the hatch turtle were... less than pleasing. May give it another go this winter. (I had hoped to do it last winter, when the boat was in the yard. And nobody was watching...)
I drew a variety of dodgers, in 2D, on the boat drawings, and found a couple of ideas with pleasing proportions. However, when translating those ideas to the 3D stage with sticks and cardboard, an unhappy design constraint became evident. With the tiller helm position being forward under the dodger (Yeah for warm & dry!) on these narrow boats, the sides have to be pretty much vertical. Which seems hard to do in a non-fugly way.
Anyhow, we're getting to that time of year when the spray coming over the bow is just a little too "refreshing" on otherwise nice sailing days.
 

texlan

Member I
Blogs Author
Thanks Toddster. At some point (heck maybe it's time..) I'll start a thread or blog with pictures of the work-so-far.

" And nobody was watching..."

Hah! I am with you on that! (One of the reasons why I haven't posted pics yet..)

The dodger question is a difficult one. I'm not quite sure how to solve it in a reasonably cost effective DIY way. I think one well curved bow added to the front of the sailrite kit, then the support struts going down off of that, could fix the asthetic issue.

I wonder if one could develop a niche market business providing rolled stainless still tubing to accomodate the DIY boating market ;) A nice website, with various degrees of curve / standard lengths available.. oh well, one can dream.

Sean
 

toddster

Curator of Broken Parts
Blogs Author
I met someone who bought a tubing roller from Harbor Freight Tools just for that purpose. I think they were building a new pushpit and radar arch too. IDK how it came out. I guess one would have to count on some loss to wastage and the learning curve.
 

texlan

Member I
Blogs Author
I own the harbor freight tubing roller -- I used it on some of the schedule 40 anodized aluminum pipe that I built my MacGregor 26s's "solar panel arch" out of. LOT of work even with aluminum... and it gouged some of the anodization. Not a big deal as I don't expect the MacGregor to ever leave fresh water. I remember thinking it wouldn't work well with stainless, but I could be wrong. I should probably give it a go eh? I'll probably need to increase the lever arm on the crank-wheel but that wouldn't be difficult. I'll do some investigating and report back.
 
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Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Bending 1" stainless tubing is not easy, and it would be interesting to hear from someone who has successfully done it at home.

The reason my binnacle guard is two right angle bends is because it would have cost 3 times as much for Railmasters to build a custom mandrel for the usual U shape.

Seemed odd they didn't already have one for YS and Edson customers--but they didn't.
 
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