Well, I'm out of the yard and back in the water. I trialed the boat on
Saturday and thought it felt pretty fast.
I had two coats of gray BottomKote sprayed on. I had used this paint before it had run afoul (no pun) of the California environmental laws. It's been reformulated and is once more legal. It's a nice light color so it's easy to see growth, it's hard enough to withstand repeated wiping by the diver and it seems as fast as anything I've tried. I ignored my blister problems.
I like my mast tip moved forward a bit. I set my rig up differently than the Olson built boats because my mast step isn't that easy to adjust. I left the mast butt where it was and chocked the mast all the way forward at the deck, inducing pre-bend. I've reduced some of the helm by retuning, and I think that will make me faster. I sail my boat frequently, sometimes as a single hander, sometimes with a crew of 8 when racing. I need something that works for me all the time. I found that with the rig too far aft I was having to depower too soon.
I had rudder damage, the cause of which hasn't been determined. Larry Tuttle made a carbon fiber rudder and shaft from Schumacher's design. The Ericson built boats have bushings instead of roller bearings, and Tuttle designed very close tolerance and rigid bushings. I think my boat works enough to bind the bushings, and that was causing delamination of the rudder where it met the shaft. I've changed the bushings to Delrin and added more tolerance in hopes that it will allow the rudder shaft a bit more play and lighten the helm. Even so, I know it's not as free as the Olson built boats. I saw IXXIS on the hard this weekend and moved the rudder back and forth. I was amazed at how much nicer the helm is with the roller bearings.
I'm off to Mexico on the Baja HaHa on a 45 foot catamaran starting Sunday. My first time on an extended ocean trip and am looking forward to it.
Bob Izmirian
Jane Doe
28555
From: owner-olson911@sailpix.com [mailto:owner-olson911@sailpix.com] On
Behalf Of Derek Reijnen
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 8:37 PM
To: 'Nick Barnhill'; Roger Craine
Cc: Jennifer Kolar; Robert Izmirian; olson911@sailpix.com
Subject: RE: Ericson built boats
I agree. The helm is only a problem when the boat is over canvassed and crew weight is insufficient. Blade out the main and feather up in the gusts if necessary, keep some back draft in the main and open the leach if possible, play the traveler constantly. I 'd like to get a flatter main specifically for these conditions, as I think in most conditions the boat likes a main with more draft. I hate reefing as it throws the balance off and I lose the ability to keep the main boarded out. The boat just feels bow down and heavy with a reef. It's been interesting to experience the difference between the O911 and my old O25, which was a George Olson design whereas the O911 is a Schumacher design. I wonder if the Express boats he designed in the same era share the same characteristics. I know my O25 was much, much stiffer in a blow than the O911. It took a hell of a blow to get the O25 to seriously round up, but the O911 will do it readily in the right conditions. I also seem to find racing conditions in the Spring and Fall here in the Northwest that really favor a #2, although I know the common wisdom is to shift directly from #1 to #3. I'm wondering if anyone's seriously invested in a medium #2 to see how well the boat will move in conditions that would otherwise require neutralizing the main to keep the boat on its feet.
I've had no blistering at all with my Pacific version. In fact, the boat seems virtually bullet proof even after all these years.
Derek Reijnen
The Reijnen Company
phone: 206-842-4409
email: derek@reijnenco.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Barnhill [mailto:SailRedux@comcast.net]
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2004 6:30 PM
To: Roger Craine
Cc: Jennifer Kolar; Robert Izmirian; olson911@sailpix.com
Subject: Re: Ericson built boats
I haven't had blister problems with the Olson buildt Redux, but weather
helm is always there to deal with. I don't think you can move the mast
enough to fix it. Just the usual fixes of 1. weight on the rail 2.
flatten the main with backstay, 3, carry a bubble in the main 4. feather
up if you have to.
Sorry, no magic that I know of.
Nick
Roger Craine wrote:
Bob
My answers are under your questions. My question--what do you use for jib halyards. One of mine broke and I need to replace it.
Roger
From: Jennifer Kolar <mailto:kolarjl@aol.com>
To: Robert <mailto:rizmirian@comcast.net> Izmirian
Cc: olson911@sailpix.com
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2004 8:28 AM
Subject: Re: Ericson built boats
On Sep 30, 2004, at 7:40 PM, Robert Izmirian wrote:
I've a couple of questions for those of you with Ericson built boats. Mine is an '88 hull.
Dreamtime is an 88 sold in 89. She had blisters along the water line, on the keel and rudder, when I bought her. She was out for a month or so in 2000. I popped the blisters. Let them dry, then sanded and covered with barrier coat and filler to smooth.
Since then I have a few recurr along the waterline--which I pop and ... But that's it.
Roger
So the ericson's apparently have a history of blisters- the standard
treatment is to sand down through the barrier coat, and put an all new
barrier coat on.. a lot of work..
this was done on our boat before we bought it.. although we recently redid
the barrier coat anyway since when we went to redo the pain we discovered
that the one the previous owner had put on was pretty thin.
We do still see occasional blistering at sharply curved areas- like near the
keel joint- but that is it. The other place they are common (due to sun
exposure) is the rudder.
2. I've been retuning the rig to try to get rid of some of the weather helm my boat has developed. I've moved the tip of the mast forward over an inch by loosening the backstay and tightening the forestay. I think I'm using much more powerful sails and that has contributed to the increased weather helm. Has anyone successfully tuned the weather helm out of these boats?
Not me.
Roger
Thanks for whatever help you can offer.
Bob Izmirian
Jane Doe Received on Mon Oct 11 19:01:18 2004