Opinions on Ericson sailboats

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Manateeman

If you like the Bruce King design Ericson 31 you will love the last one ever built, not by Ericson Yachts, but by me.
No stronger Bruce King design hull was ever built.
I’m lowering the price to $10,000.
I want to see this boat go to someone who will fix it and sail it.
Captain Mark

Wow! You are really making me want to move to Maine!

[frantzjoe]

So my wife and I had an Ericson 27, 1971 versionBiught in 1980 and sailed for 16 years in SoCal. Marina del Rey and then Channel Islands. Had a 9.9 Chrysler outboard with electric start, alcohol stove and porta potty.
We sailed the 34 miles to Catalina 50-100 times and probably 50 times to Santa Cruz Island which is a bigger test.
Our girls grew up on the boat, beginning when they were 6 weeks and 2 months old, respectively.
Once hit 11 knots surfing back from Santa Cruz. One of the few times we restricted the girls to below decks. Windy and choppy. Unfortunately, we had left the dinghy in the water and were towing it until it filled with water and painter broke. It leaked anyway.
The one time we were worried was headed to Smugglers on Santa Cruz when dense fog came in and we were off the west end of Anacapa. Didn’t want to hit Anacapa but no radar and loran but no gps then. Couldn’t head back to Oxnard because it would involve crossing the traffic lanes. Luckily a friend in front of us located us with his radar.
He suggested we just motor across Anacapa Passage like him. Well, with big seas the outboard prop wouldn’t stay in the water. When it got rough we had to sail.
Great times for 16 years. Strong boat. Hard to climb into v berth, porta potty, 20 gallons of water, sun showers. Loved it.

Few years after on an Islander 30, another strong boat.

Last 19 years a Spindrift 46 - like a Peterson 46. On the way to the boat now, just the 2 of us and 2 dogs. Then tonight or tomorrow morning out to Santa Cruz Island from Ventura.

But in the last 2 weeks we spent $3800 on a bottom paint job and several days on the bright work of which we have a lot. All else is good except, probably we need an alternator.

We’re going anyhow, though we might have to depend on the generator to anchor. It is a sailboat and we don’t motor much.

Loved the Ericson and lusted after a 35, 34 and 38.

I was thinking that at 73 I am getting old and the costs, like the bottom job and coming alternator, we’re getting high. I also don’t think fancy the idea of falling off the boat in the middle of the night. East fir her at only 67.

But we had long talks this week. My wife wants to give it 2 more years. So I guess will and I will hang on and watch the weather.

Get an Ericson. They are sailboats, it floating condos.

[Manateeman]

The boat is not in Maine, it’s in St. Mary’s GA. I built it in Rhode Island.
The manatee crew would never swim in Maine ice water. OH, did we forget to say hello to the black flies? Hell-O.
Captain Mark

[rmesfo]

I have a 303 in Alameda in the Bay. Love it, handles the SF Bay with ease and sleeps 3 comfortably.

[zeehag]

i had a 35 mII for 10 yrs..it was an awesome boat and sailed fast.. solid and sturdy. didnot sell for much but i loved her. bubba grew too big for a 35 so we got this formosa. also i wanted to cruise a ketch not sloop.

[Gregg927]

One of my dearest buddy boats was an Erickson 37. They had to replace the keel bolts. Had many wonderful miles and good times with that boat off my beam.

[Juststart]

We had an Ericson 30 in the late 90's. I found it easy to sail with it's fractional rig and it wasn't too difficult to single- handle. The only engineering issue I remember was doing something to some bracket on the engine to reduce vibration.I consider it to be a good coastal cruiser and day- sailer.

[Nicholson58]

I remember being in awe of the Ericsson 46 in the 70s. We were racing a Heritage One ton and the 46 cruised easily past the fleet on main alone. In those days anything over 39 feet was Ridiculously huge. Normal size in the Caribbean for cruising.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sstNWVSx6Ks

[captqrunch]

Lived aboard a 39 (trunk cabin model, not flush deck) for half a year. Can't comment on the boat's sailing characteristics, but as a liveaboard it was less than ideal. The V-berth requires vaulting skills or a stepstool to get up into, and once one is fully inserted, is pretty claustrophobic. The interior generally was tight for a boat that size. The 39's hull apparently suffered from a design flaw -- I'm aware of two voyagers that required repair/reinforcement of the hull/keel area after the hull cracked (see Webb Chiles). For those reasons, I'd avoid that particular model.

[Nicholson58]

46 is nice except for the antique CQR

[lo2jones]

I’m not a naval architect, just someone who has sailed on every Ericsson Model built after 1980…Even Rooster Cogburn! Good strong boats that don’t sail great. The one exception is the 1986 model E35. I sailed a Frers 41 back from Hawaii once, and the E35 1986 model compared favorably to it. In a puff, she heals over and accelerates!

[BBill]

I was in Ft Lauderdale in 1976 to sell my boat and ran into a couple who had a 32 or 35? for sale next to me. They sailed from CA to Fl and were selling because the boat racked so much during a storm they thought it was going to break up. It didn't but they were afraid to continue sailing with that model Erickson.

[NormanMartin]

Interesting question/topic. My daughter and I are looking at a couple of Ericsons. One is a 32 and the other a 28. Slip availability at her marina is key. He current slip allows a 28 but she'd prefer a 32. Day sailing with family now and then voyaging. I have always been satisfied with their build quality.

[NewOrca]

We owned a flush-deck 1971 Ericson 39 between 1999 and 2018. Loved the boat: sailed beautifully; easy to single hand with main and genoa; lots of room on flush deck for lounging, fishing, dinghy storage; huge unobstructed cockpit with wheel forward; functional galley; roomy v-berth with huge overhead hatch; cozy quarterberth (our daughter still talks about loving that berth); plenty of storage under and behind settees; cockpit lockers large enough to stow a 9-HP outboard, roll-up dinghy, etc, etc. And contrary to what you might expect in a flush deck, the saloon was light and airy, with a large overhead hatch and in-hull port lights.

Ours had a balsa cored hull and deck which require careful attention to fittings and through hulls, but ours has stayed dry to this day. Never a single blister! We sold her in 2018 for about what we paid in 1999, and she was a great value then and now. Her new owners have updated the electronics from the ones we installed and are enjoying a great cruising boat at a small fraction of the cost of a newer yacht.

Having said all the above, do not expect to find the living space you'd expect in today's 39-footer. The E-39 was designed during the IOR rules of the day, with a pinched stern and pronounced tumblehome, a look we loved, but which limited the space available in the stern. What space there was was devoted to those huge cockpit lockers rather than interior accommodations. Don't expect to back this vessel, especially in any breeze at all; it's a challenge! And flying a symmetric spinnaker downwind is wonderful, but you'll want to take it down before the apparent wind gets much above 10-12 knots--above that and it takes extreme care on the helm to prevent a rolling oscillation that can put the spinnaker pole in the water. Ask me how I know.

As mentioned earlier, there have been a very few reports of hull failures. The ones I'm aware of occurred in boats that were sailed hard on circumnavigations. I was aboard one of these after it was repaired and completed its circumnavigation. It's very hard to know all the factors that may contribute to any yacht's failure at sea, but if there was a design defect it should probably have led to more reports of problems than this. As always with any boat, especially an older one, it pays to be vigilant and carry out regular inspections. You can find Ericson yachts all over the world, sailed there on their own bottoms. A few years ago we were cruising (on another boat) in New Caledonia, and on a dinghy ride around a marina in Noumea I spotted an Ericson 39 and had a nice chat with its liveaboard owner.

My apologies for running on like this. You can tell we loved our Ericson!

[Pacifico]

Great Boats! I had a 1988 Ericson 34 for 15 years. Cruised Mexico's west coast for several seasons with my wife. Good boat, well made strong for it's era. Good joinery, great 3 cabin layout although I removed cabin doors and replaced with curtains, not enough room for wooden doors (not the head) which is aft starboard. I got lots of compliments on the boat. It sailed well, handled well and served us well as cruising live-a-boards. I did replace the chain plate backing plates (aluminum) system with new custom SS backing plates in Mazatlan. I was worried about them but in retrospect they would have lasted years longer no issues. I liked the interior design on the later model 34 far better then the 35. The 34 is the little sister to the 38. I built in lots of creature comforts and hardware up grades, made a fine cruising vessel even for it's size. FYI Catalina owners were envious, very strong build, great interior and joinery (cabinetry). Led keel soundly fastened with SS bolts. I re-powered with Beta 25, should have gotten a 30.