Florida Offshore Multihull Association
An Owners Review of the Ericson 38
By Captain Ron
Jack Horner a
marine surveyor, has reviewed the Ericson 38 which you can read on the web at
the Southwinds magazine site http://www.southwindssailing.com/articles/0207/ericson38.htm
if you want a professional’s opinion. The
following is my opinion as an owner and thus biased perhaps somewhat in favor of
the boat. Take it for what it’s
worth. I’m a USCG licensed Master
(50t) with sail endorsement and a US Sailing Small Boat Instructor.
I’ve been sailing and messing about in boats my entire life.
I was even a Sea Scout as a teenager.
Currently I’m captain on the Cypress Belle a real stern paddle wheel
Mississippi River boat taking visitors to Cypress Gardens Adventure Park out for
day and dinner cruises on Lake Eloise in Winter Haven, Florida
…
Mr
Horner liked the boat’s conservative lines and the designer’s reputation.
The designer of course, was the legendary Bruce King who never designed a
slow boat in his life and the Ericson 38 is a prime example of his art.
It’s a strikingly beautiful design and was very popular over the entire
production run that extended for more than 20 years.
Originally
the E-38 was built by Ericson Yachts and sold in two models; the standard
version drawing 4’11” or an optional version drawing 6’6”. Pacific Seacraft subsequently bought out Ericson and modified
the boats slightly by adding a winged or bulbed keel that drew 5’ 3” …
Based on my
own boat, a 1983 ‘381’ model, the deeper draft models probably offer
somewhat greater stability. I know
of at least one friend who has added an 800lb
‘Mars Metals’ bulb to his 4’11” keel and claims to have improved
his boat’s stiffness. However, I
find that the standard 4’11” keel is just fine.
I don’t consider the boat to be tender at all and she seems to go to
weather very well in any breeze provided that you reduce sail according to
conditions. Our typical cruising
configuration is to carry a 130% genoa on the roller furler and a full batten
main. There are times when I would
wish for a smaller jib because the shape of the partially rolled 130 is out of
whack but we find those instances few and far between as we don’t often sail
to weather when cruising. There
was even a race around Stocking Island at the 2006 Georgetown regatta where a
155% genoa would have let us sail up to her rating although even with the light
air that day, we finished a respectable 4th in class.
Which brings
me to one of the primary reasons we bought our 38 … sailing performance.
This boat sails fast. Even
loaded with cruising gear, we’re typically faster than similar sized boats not
so encumbered. She goes upwind
higher and faster than comparable designs and ours would go higher yet if I had
a hydraulic backstay adjuster. Upwind,
our jib luff sags off too much.
We also liked
her construction. Ericson built her
in solid glass with some core in places where extra stiffness was required.
A grid of heavy fiberglass members built into the hull distributes loads
throughout although it reduces bilge volumes somewhat.
We also liked the fact that the toe rail was molded into the deck rather
than capped with teak as it is in some designs.
Further the deck is bonded to the hull with layers of glass making the
hull/deck an integrated whole that will never leak.
We also liked the minimal amount of teak used on the exterior of the
boat. We’ve had boats with
copious amounts of exterior teak and we’ve had our fill of varnishing. On our boat we even replaced the teak handrails with
stainless steel to even further reduce the maintenance workload.
Gel coat
blistering has been an issue with most boats built in the 80s and the E38 is no
exception. And as Mr Horner points
out, deck fittings, ports and chain plates can be the source of leaks.
On our own boat, we found that the main leak culprit is the mast with its
profusion of ports for internal halyards, wires, etc.
We replaced the mast partner shim system with Spartite but this only
partially solved the mast leak issue. The
E38 also has a few plastic thru-hull fittings below the waterline and we have
replaced one so far for cracks found during a bottom job.
Our boat has
all of the halyards, reefing lines, traveler controls and boom-vang led back to
the cockpit and stopped off in front of winches in the cabin top behind the
mid-boom traveler. I’m not
convinced that I like this arrangement.
I think I would prefer to have the reefing winches and halyards at the
mast. As it is currently set-up, in
order to reef, the halyard must be eased and then the crew must go forward to
secure the reef cringle to the reefing hook, then return to the cockpit to
tension the halyard and haul in the reefing tackle.
Then (with our bimini/dodger in place), exit the cockpit again to secure
the reefing stops. It would be
better to just leave the cockpit, accomplish all of the reefing functions at the
mast and return via the reefing tie-off function.
Of course, leading all these lines to the cockpit increases clutter in
the cockpit and requires deck hardware to fairlead them.
I have had to replace deck turning blocks because last year in hoisting
the main, the main halyard turning block exploded. Oh Well … it was a 20+ year old block … fortunately no
one was standing in front of it.
The cockpit is typical sailboat. The
bench design comes from the tiller era where one sat sideways in order to steer.
I don’t understand why this feature has not been rethought since most
boats over 30 feet or so invariably have steering wheels.
I have seen a couple of designs where they did consider this possibility.
The Amel Sharki has it’s smallish wheel up against the cockpit bulkhead
with the helm seat behind, however it’s a single wheel … why not one wheel
on each side? Maybe even gimbal the
seat? The other design was the
Beneteau 505 with twin wheels aft with primary winches inboard of the wheels
such that the helmsman could steer and trim in the shorthanded situation.
I like that layout a lot. Anyway,
the Ericson is traditional in this regard.
There is also an emergency tiller arrangement accessed via a port behind
the wheel. The aluminum pipe
components of this emergency tiller work ok but because the wheel and pedestal
are in the way, the tiller is oriented sideways which takes some getting used
to. I guess I’d rate it adequate.
We also found
the helmsman’s seating position to be too low and so we added a folding seat
offset slightly to port of the boarding ladder at coaming height.
This gives much better visibility especially for motoring the ditch.
The steering gear is Merriman Yacht Specialties on our boat. That means that parts are impossible to find except as used
or salvage parts. It works fine
however and the E38 is a delight to steer at any angle of heel; very light and
sensitive on the helm. She takes a
fine touch to steer her fast.
We have added
a Raymarine Type 2 linear drive below decks autopilot.
This is more autopilot than the boat really needs but we found that the
steering ram pivot on the steering quadrant, when correctly located, traverses
13.5 inches stop-to-stop. The type
1 drive unit from Raymarine only travels 12 inches.
Thus we chose the Type 2 drive that has 16” of travel.
Of course, the heavier drive unit also requires the heavier duty S3
computer and heavier duty wiring adding to the cost.
Our boat has
the open quarter berth aft of the chart table on the port side and traditional
long bench interior, which we prefer over the more modern semi-circular seating
and lounge chair layout. The
traditional interior means that the saloon benches are long enough and (with the
back cushions removed) wide enough to sleep on comfortably.
We also like the separate shower stall in the forward head.
We have a custom mattress in the V-berth where we sleep most of the time.
The V-berth is large and more than adequate for me (6ft 200lbs), my wife
(smaller) and our little dog Molly (6lbs).
Not my idea… by the way.
Kismet has
the standard Universal 32hp diesel engine under the cockpit with a straight
drive via the standard shaft log to a bronze strut.
We have a dripless shaft seal. We
also added a 3 bladed feathering prop although the boat powers just fine with
the original two blade. Our three
blade feathering prop is made by J-Prop and provides much improved reverse
performance. We back up straight
where the two blade fixed prop exhibits a marked tendency to walk. The J-Prop
also has the advantage of easily adjusting pitch, a task that I have
accomplished underwater without dive gear.
I think the
boat is underpowered with the M-40 Universal (Kubota) engine.
50hp is more like it for a boat this size.
While we move ok and fuel consumption is under 1 gallon per hour, we
don’t move at hull speed except in calm conditions at full throttle and then
the engine blows some smoke and the temperature climbs.
We have replaced all of the cooling system components and still we get
white smoke and climbing temps when we load her up.
The prop pitch is set to just come up about 100rpm short of maximum.
We’ve tried less pitch but all we accomplish is less speed.
More pitch just reduces max rpm without adding to boat speed.
Still at about 2000 rpm (2800 is max) we will make 6 to 6.5 knots in flat
calm conditions. I think cruising
boats should have an engine big enough to cruise at hull speed… meaning ¾
throttle which would be about 7.5 knots for the E38.
The other
drawback to the marinized Kubota is the engine oil capacity.
At 11.5 quarts, you’re talking major amounts of oil.
I have added a supplemental oil filtering system like those used on long
distance trucks that so far, has allowed me to extend our oil change interval
from 75 hours to 400 hours based on lab testing of our oil samples.
We still change filters every 75-100 hours and top off the oil but we
only change oil about once a year. Also
since our cruising ground is the Bahamas, we don’t have to carry around all
that new and used oil… there are no disposal facilities in the Bahamas.
I would also
complain about engine access although I’ve seen many boats of this size with
much less access. The cabinetry
around the front end of the engine all comes apart if you need major access and
there are ports under the galley sink and in the quarter-berth.
Otherwise access is through the starboard lazzarette.
This is somewhat painful since the locker must be unloaded to gain
egress. Also the water heater resides on a platform just behind the
engine and it can be in the way at times.
Our galley
and refrigeration systems work fine but I would wish for more insulation around
the fridge. Our system is a vintage
Adler-Barbour air-cooled unit. Provided you keep it full and open it sparingly, it is
sufficient for the two of us. We
have added a few small cabinets in the galley area to take advantage of some
dead space. There are two propane
tank lockers at the aft end of the cockpit.
We find that we get about 6 weeks of cooking out of a single tank. We don’t have an oven in ours… the PO obviously preferred
having a microwave, which sits where the oven should be.
One other
drawback we encountered is the stainless steel water tanks.
Both tanks leaked profusely. The tanks were made by a California company
to Ericson’s design. Of course they were 20 year old tanks.
After studying this issue a bit, I’ve come to the conclusion that
stainless steel and aluminum are not proper materials for water tanks.
The reason is that chlorine in the water attacks the welding materials
and will eat through it no matter how carefully the tanks were originally
constructed. If you want water safe
to drink, then you must add chlorine to the water.
Besides most municipal system already have substantial chlorine in the
water. Water tanks should be made
of chemically inert plastics or fiberglass.
In the old days, tanks were made of black iron.
Nothing wrong with that material either even though they’re heavy and
eventually rust out too. Monel
tanks are virtually unheard of these days due to the cost of the material.
I replaced the tank under the starboard settee with a bladder tank and
the V-berth tank, I replaced with a custom plastic tank that’s about 10
gallons larger than the original 60 gallon stainless tank.
I hope I
don’t sound like I’m complaining.
The Ericson 38 is a fine boat and meets our cruising needs very well.
We’ve now got her to the point where we shouldn’t need to change much
else to cruise her comfortably over the next several years.
Oh sure, we wish for a bigger boat at times but when we think about it,
Kismet is just our size.
