Hi All,
A little bit about myself. I have been crewing on race boats for over five years, working up from weekly beer-cans, to club races, local regatta, and eventually off-shore racing. At this point, I am now in the market for my own boat. The main objectives for my boat will be family sailing, teaching my kids how to sail, beer can and club phrf races, and overnight trips around the region. The ability to campaign the boat in more competitive races in the future would be preferred, but is not a core requirement. I would like to keep the boat on the smaller side (28-34') to make is easier to sail (smaller loads for the kids) an more affordable to trick out with a new sail inventory.
Having done research for a while, the Olson 911 seems to be at the top of my list, with a few other variants (Olson 25, Olson 34, Express 34) that are similar, but generally have some sort of trade-off compared to the Olson 911 (Olson 25 is pretty spartan, O/E 34's are on the upper end of my size range). While doing my research, I have been learning about the Ericson boats, mainly the 32-200 and 32-3, both which are intriguing on paper. However, most of the Ericson 32's that I have seen aren't set up to be raced, and aren't rigged with a spinnaker.
So, question is, has anyone seen any Ericson 32's tricked out for racing, and what types of modifications were made? How do you think a tricked out Ericson 32 would stack up as a race boat?
A little bit about myself. I have been crewing on race boats for over five years, working up from weekly beer-cans, to club races, local regatta, and eventually off-shore racing. At this point, I am now in the market for my own boat. The main objectives for my boat will be family sailing, teaching my kids how to sail, beer can and club phrf races, and overnight trips around the region. The ability to campaign the boat in more competitive races in the future would be preferred, but is not a core requirement. I would like to keep the boat on the smaller side (28-34') to make is easier to sail (smaller loads for the kids) an more affordable to trick out with a new sail inventory.
Having done research for a while, the Olson 911 seems to be at the top of my list, with a few other variants (Olson 25, Olson 34, Express 34) that are similar, but generally have some sort of trade-off compared to the Olson 911 (Olson 25 is pretty spartan, O/E 34's are on the upper end of my size range). While doing my research, I have been learning about the Ericson boats, mainly the 32-200 and 32-3, both which are intriguing on paper. However, most of the Ericson 32's that I have seen aren't set up to be raced, and aren't rigged with a spinnaker.
So, question is, has anyone seen any Ericson 32's tricked out for racing, and what types of modifications were made? How do you think a tricked out Ericson 32 would stack up as a race boat?