Plastic Classic Forum

Hi Sean, I agree with Hirilonde that the most important issue is keeping the (lead acid) batteries charged over a long period (winter). If you use lithium-ion it's not as critical to keep them at 100 % charge. They are actually happier at a lower charge for storage. Electric propulsion for small (35...

Hi Doug,

Looks great. I really like how the galley modification turned out. Are you leaving the rubrail off? The boat looks clean without it.

Hi Doug,

She looks great. I think your waterline will be fine. I compared your photo with a photo of my Ericson 27 in the water and they are pretty close. As she sits on the hard the bow is high. I hate to bring it up but I think you put the dodger on backwards ;-).

Hi Billy,

Doug must be working on the boat ;-). He had Ballenger Spars http://www.ballengerspars.com/ make the spreaders and plates.

Hi Bob,

Doug wrote that he did round the corners, just didn't take a photo. Looks great Doug.

Hi Doug,

Progress looks great. The mast spreader modification is very nice! I need to address that area on my Ericson 27 one of theses days. You must be getting close to launching!?

Here in the Santa Cruz Harbor if you if you have a sailboat in the upper harbor you have to drop your mast to get out under a bridge. That requires disconnecting the aft lower shrouds. A lot of people use hardware from Ballengers Spars, I think Ballenger calls them cam levers http://www.ballengerspa...

Hey Doug,

Do you have any photos of the V-berth step?

Thanks, Mark F

Very cool. Thanks.

Hi David, Yes I have. I wasn't convinced that they would do much 25 years or so ago when I was first exposed to them. Try gluing a 1x4 to another 1x4 at 90 deg. with and without a biscuit. Clamp and let dry. Now brake them apart. Splines, mortise and tenon, butterflies and half lap joints are all st...

For me biscuits work great. I find them to significantly add to the strength of a joint. Here is a photo of a hatch I made for my Ericson 27. The top of the frame is biscuited and glued with epoxy to the bottom. It's been a stable joint, no failing varnish at the seam. The biscuits I use are pressed...

Hi Peter, I don't have a detailed web site for the electric repower. I do have a few photos here, http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/album.php?albumid=77 you might have to join ericsonyachts.org to view. Dan's advice is good, lots of information on the yahoo electricboats site. I'm very pleas...

Hi Rachel,

I'll be interested to see what you come up with regarding the 3" deck plate. I couldn't find one.

Thanks!

Mark

Hi Dan, The motor is a Mars brushless with a Sevcon controller. I bought it as a unit (SolidNav) with the reduction, mounting frame, forward/reverse switch, throttle and fuse. I do get some regeneration. I've seen s much as 4 amps (at 48 volts) sailing at 6 knots. I rarely watch the monitor because ...

Hi Dan, To give you some real life performance numbers - on my 1976 Ericson 27 with a 5kw brushless motor and 8 - 12 volt agm's (two 100 amp hour banks) I have gotten 7 hours running time at 4knots and used half of my available battery storage (never tapped into the second bank). That was with a goo...

Looking good Doug. I haven't had a chance to get down to Ballenger's again (reference from the Ericsonyachts site). Have you heard anything from them?

Mark

My Ericson 27 has a similar setup. You should be able to undo the screws holding the slides (try leaving the forward most screws on each side), then close the hatch, lift and slide it past the cabin-top "curb". This works if you do not have a seahood. Here is a photo of my companionway hat...

Hi Dan,

You should be able to use construction adhesive. I used polyurethane construction adhesive to glue 5/16" thick redwood to the interior gel coat sides of an Ericson 23. I first tested by gluing a small piece to a spot and left it for a day. It took a chisel to get it off.

I would guess the small bolt protrusion's are to provide some more "bite" for the glass to chainplate connection.

I used some 1/2" Corian left over from a household project for the head vanity on my Ericson 27. It makes a great surface and the ability to renew it with a Scotch pad makes it a nearly permanent install. Earlier in this thread there was some talk about "telegraphing" of rough substra...

This is a photo of the spinnaker deployed on the bowsprit before I had the furling setup.

I just posted a response with photos and it disappeared, oh well. Here are the photos I'll explain later.

The subject line of this thread caught my attention, I've got one of those A4 replacement drop in electric inboards. It's a wonderful thing for my Ericson 27 and for my purposes I wouldn't use anything else. Anyway you segued into something I have done on an Ericson 23 and now on my E27, a furling a...

If anyone is interested, I hear Svendsens Boat Works is going to have SolidNav motors on display at the Strictly Sail Boat Show in Oakland CA this year.

Hi Tim, thanks for renaming the thread. To the questions about my system; I have 8-12volt AGM batteries. They are setup as two separate 48 volt banks; one set are group 27’s and the other group 31’s. They are installed under the port and starboard settees. The motor I bought is a permanent magnet (b...

In the above discussion there was some talk about electric auxiliary. I have a 1976 Ericson 27 that had an Atomic 4. It died before I bought "Lotus Flower" and I repowered with an electric inboard. The unit is designed as an A 4 drop-in replacement. It's a wonderful thing, clean, quiet, st...