About two years ago I spoke to Carl Schumacher about my 911 made in Mexico.
He said that he designed the original for Olson and several were built
before the bankruptcy. These boats were, according to his design, balsa
cored and with many features made for racing. When Ericson got the molds and
sent them to Mexico they built boats which were similar in hull shape but
differed in many structural details. The "triaxial grid," for instance, was
advertised by Ericson in their 30+ and 38 models. Even small items such as
upholstery were cloth that graced the interior of the 30+ (I, unfortunately,
owned one in 1981. It was good looking but a terrible, hobby horsing
sailor.) The most notable differences between the original and the Mexican
version was the elimination of the Balsa core, (replaced with very thick,
solid fiberglass), a solid stern, more teak and last but not least, metal
foil rudder bushings instead of Harken roller bearings. In all, about 1800
lbs. was added.
When I bargained for the boat and had the boatyard put it up on a cradle we were shocked! The two halves of the hull were unevenly bonded together and due to poor resin curing formed a noticeable depression all along the centerline of the hull in addition to one half being above the other. Blisters abounded, primarily where the roving could be seen close to the surface and in a definite pattern following the roving. Needless to say, the prior owner greatly reduced his price and the boatyard (KKMI) did an extensive job fairing the hull with glass bubble epoxy, etc.
The rudder was so overbalanced (it behaved as if I was going backward) that control was very difficult. Its attachment to the rudder post was so far aft ward that reshaping was out of the question and a new rudder was necessary....also real rudder bearings.
For all this stuff I really like the boat. It behaves extremely well in heavy, ocean sailing conditions that send much larger boats to home port. It's a comfortable cruise boat but a bit slow for windward-leeward around the cans racing.
FYI, we put the roller-furler on and the cruising sails for a glorious trip on July 4th to the Delta. We gunk-holed all weekend and left the boat at Bruno's Island Harbor. We'll be going back up this Friday for another relaxing week-end and will bring the boat back the following week-end. On the trip up the wind is always dead astern. Coming home, with the wind on the nose is another matter. Last year we tacked all the way to the Benicia bridge (about 1000 tacks) before starting the engine. In any event, sail or engine it's a slog and very wet due to the square wave chop in Suisun Bay.
Have fun,
Dave Fain (Shanti)
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-olson911@sailpix.com [mailto:owner-olson911@sailpix.com]On
Behalf Of Nick Barnhill
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 11:45 AM
To: jkolar
Cc: olson 911 owners
Subject: Re: anyone have links to history of ericson and pacific boats?
I don't know where you would find a history of the companies. To clear up
one
thing, though, Pacific Boats (George Olson) went bankrupt in l987 primarily
because he had invested so much in gearing up for the Olson 34. Only one of
those was built by Olson (Ozone) The hull molds were owned by other
investors
which were leased to Ericson who set up a plant in Tijuana. When Ericson
also
went bankrupt, lots of suppliers tried to get their stuff out of Mexico. I
know of one Ericson Olson 34 that had its engine removed and shipped back to
the States to the supplier! Guess it depended on who you knew. Don't know
what happened to the molds.The Ericson boat was built differently from the
Olson (Pacific Boats) model.. The Olson was fully balsa cored in hull and
deck. The Ericson was not, but had what the they called a "tri-axial floor
grid" for stiffness. The Ericson has a different interior with more teak,
etc. Different mast.
Nick
jkolar wrote:
> I am curious if anyone has links to a detailed history of ericson, pacific
> and their relation to each other , esp as pertains to the olson 911..
>
> I know that Pacific aquired Ericson in 1990-- but it seems strange to
> me then that the "pacific" built models predate 90 while the
> "ericson" built models are the ones in the 90's...
>
> so in any case- would be curious to see that history..
> if anyone has good references.
>
> thanks!
> Jennifer
> jkolar@singingfish.com
Received on Thu Jul 11 13:06:49 2002