Ericson search ending with an Olson?

[bertboyer]

As many of you know, I have been searching for an Ericson for about a year now and recently became aware of a 1988 Olson 34 right here in my own backyard - Portland, Oregon! After talking to the owner about their vessel (Edgewalker), I bet you can guess the next person I contacted - you got it...Loren Beach!

I am posting some of the details at the end of this email, as well as a few pictures I took from our test sail with the owner and Loren yesterday afternoon. I was really impressed with our test sail in very light winds on the Columbia River. We have to delay the marine survey until December 2-3 because of my travel schedule, but I am hopeful all turns out well. The current owner enjoys racing her, while my interest is in coastal cruising here for a few years and eventually moving her to Port Townsend or the San Juan Islands to enjoy sailing in retirement

As always, I would very much appreciate any thoughts you may all have as this will give Loren a nice break from all the questions I asked him in the past couple weeks. THANK YOU Loren! I will be attending the survey and can follow up any thoughts you may have at that time. In the meantime, my fingers are crossed that there are no major issues.

Apologies in advance for no engine pics. I forgot to take them but will do so at the survey. Attached are a few pics while we were underway yesterday afternoon.

Thank you for your thoughts...and thank you for this wonderful forum! Also, let me know if I didn't upload the pics correctly. Not sure when to insert a thumbnail vs a full photo.

All the best,
Bert

Edgewalker
1988 Olson 34

A fun racer/cruiser located in Portland. Great light air boat. Designed by George Olson and manufactured by Ericson Yachts, it is a well-built and capable boat for both inland waterways and offshore sailing. Only 39 Olson 34s were built and it is one of five located in Portland.

The boat has been in the current owner’s possession since 2013, with three offshore trips and several months in the San Juan and Gulf Islands, as well as at least one cruise each year down the Columbia River – Portland to Astoria and back – along with year-round racing in the Portland area.

Edgewalker will cruise under power at 6.5 knots and has a hull speed of just over 7 knots.

The boat has two completely private staterooms with doors: an aft stateroom with large berth and hanging locker and a forward stateroom with large V-berth and hanging locker. The head and shower are just aft of the salon on the Port side.

An L-shaped galley with plenty of storage is on the Starboard side with an Origo non-pressurized alcohol stove and oven (excellent for the gourmet), a GE compact microwave, a double sink with pressurized hot and cold water and a large insulated ice box outboard of the sink. Stove and sink have cutting board covers for more preparation space.

A Nav-station is on the Port side forward of the head and the salon features settees on each side of the boat separated by a drop leaf table with a wine rack.

Sailing Equipment:

• Harken roller furling;
• Precision Sails Contender Main (laminate with taffeta) (2021);
• Pineapple Mainsail backup;
• Mainsail cover;
• Outhaul, lazy jacks, cunningham, solid boom vang, double reef points;
• Quantum Kevlar headsail with UV coating – 140%;
• Headsail sleeve protective cover;
• Dacron North Sails cruising headsail with blue UV protection – 135%;
• 2 North Sails spinnakers;
• New Garhauer mainsail sheet blocks with fine tuning (2024);
• Harken Traveler;
• 2 Jib tracks: New low lead Garhauer jib cars (2024) for larger headsails aft, Schaefer jib cars for smaller headsails forward;
• 2 spinnaker halyards;
• Spinnaker pole, pole lift, 2-side adjustable downhauls, heavy and light spinnaker sheets;
• 1 jib halyard;
• Most lines led back to cockpit;
• Navtech hydraulic backstay adjustor;
• Winches: Six 2-speed Lewmar winches, two winches (Lewmar 33) are on the cabin top and two self-tailing secondary winches (Lewmar 40) and two primary self-tailing winches (Lewmar 43) are on the cockpit coming. Winch covers. Two winch handles;
• Two snatch blocks.

Capacities

• Head with 15 gallon holding tank. Toilet is 3-year-old Raritan manual;
• Shower and shower sump;
• 6-gallon water heater, works both with AC and DC;
• 2 14-gallon water tanks. One under Starboard settee in Salon and one in lazarette;
• 14-gallon diesel tank.

Electrical

• Garman GPS Map 7400 Series Chart Plotter;
• KVH instrument, depth and speed (read out on Chart Plotter);
• Raymarine ST60 wind speed and direction;
• Raymarine Autopilot;
• Horizon VHS radio;
• Dual radio/CD/Bluetooth and Bose speakers in the salon and in the cockpit;
• Two Trojan 12-volt deep cycle batteries installed in engine compartment under the companionway. A third Trojan battery available;
• AC Pro Sport 12 battery charger;
• 50-foot 30-amp shore power cord;
• 120-volt outlets in salon and staterooms;
• 12-volt outlets at Chart Table;
• Electric automatic bilge pump (replaced 2023). Manual bilge pump in cockpit;
• Ritchie pedestal mount compass (not digital)

Propulsion (other than sails)

• Engine: Universal 25XP – 23 HP (rebuilt heat exchanger 2017). Access to engine through side, top and companionway steps;
• Hurth transmission;
• PYI Dripless Shaft Seal;
• Wheel steering, single lever shift and single lever throttle;
• Flexofold two-blade folding propeller (2019).

Other

• New Dodger, blue. High quality dodger made by Hayden Island Canvas (2021);
• Companionway door and cover made of smokey Lexan for more light in the salon;
• Teak batten boards for companionway (used when offshore);
• Blue companionway cover;
• Danforth anchor with 65 feet of chain and 150 feet of rode;
• New stainless-steel lifelines (2021);
• Large lazarette port side for storage, easy access to water heater, holding tank and aft freshwater tank;
• Large cockpit for entertaining, removable cockpit table attached to pedestal;
• Custom swim ladder;
• Lifesling;
• BBQ (small propane canaster) attached to stern rail;
• 8-foot West Marine inflatable dinghy and 3.5-hp 4-stroke Tohatsu outboard motor.

Dimensions

• LOA 34 feet
• LWL 28 feet
• Beam 8 feet
• Displacement 10,600 lbs
• Ballast 3,500 lbs
• Draft 6 feet

 

[Loren Beach]

Beam 8 feet

The CL ad had an error. Actual beam is 10' 10".

As for inserting photos here and distinguishing between "thumbnails" , that has puzzled me at times, also.

 

[bertboyer]

As for inserting photos here and distinguishing between "thumbnails" , that has puzzled me at times, also.

Apologies for the double picture posting. Please let me know how to avoid this in the future! Thanks again Loren!

 

[Pete the Cat]

I think it is probably the best performing boat Ericson ever made foot for foot. While most of the Ericsons seem to fall on the cruiser side of the racer/cruiser line, this one seems to fall on the racer side while maintaining a very nice and cruisable layout. The underbody is much more modern (flatter with more lateral keel) than any of the other Ericsons which accounts for its better PHRF rating--and I am going to guess it eliminates some of the squirrellyness in my 32-200 when not perfectly trimmed. I will probably be shamed for this, but Schumacher was a better hull designer than our boy Bruce. I honestly would have preferred this boat, but one was not available at the time. Good choice.

 

[G Kiba]

Ray, The 34 shares so much of its characteristics with the 911 with the extra length giving it more speed. I think George Olson takes credit for the 34 design or re-design. FWIW. More head room below also made the deck slope a bit more.

 

[Christian Williams]

But Bruce king of teak.

 

[Pete the Cat]

Ray, The 34 shares so much of its characteristics with the 911 with the extra length giving it more speed. I think George Olson takes credit for the 34 design or re-design. FWIW. More head room below also made the deck slope a bit more.

I stand corrected on the designer attribution and admit I have never sailed one.

 

[Slick470]

Ray, The 34 shares so much of its characteristics with the 911 with the extra length giving it more speed. I think George Olson takes credit for the 34 design or re-design. FWIW. More head room below also made the deck slope a bit more.

Yup, the very similar 34 that is a Schumacher design is the Express 34.

 

[O34-Poppy]

I have an Olson 34 and previously owned an Olson-built 911. The 34 is a good compromise boat. It frankly doesn't surf as well as the 911 did due to its weight, but it does have a bit more creature comfort (but watch your head going into the quarter berth !) I improved the performance of my 34 by lengthening the boom 14in (10%). That still has the boom ending well in front of the driver. I also went to asyms and added a ~3 ft on-deck sprit. I added some extra sail area, and we have to reach most of the time anyway due to the lighter air. My base rating in Long Island is New Jersey is 108 distance, and 114 around the buoys (without a furler). I sail the boat mainly in ~200 mile coastal races. ORC rating from 2021 was 636.7 (GPH)/CDL=8.706.

Good luck!

 

[Loren Beach]

Any discussion of what I would call the marketing influence of racing "design rules" is probably getting a bit further away from the question, but seems to be lurking in the background.

Comparisons to the Express.... While the hull profile IS very similar, the interior of the Olson 34 was totally different. With aft head & hanging locker and the toilet oriented fore n aft which works far better when under way, and the large aft cabin which enabled generous acces to the engine compartment the O-34 was/is a very "modern" interior design. The boat has 6'2" headroom in the main cabin also, and that was another reason to want it.

And while the "canoe" hull shape with a wider aft section was indeed kind of a Schumacher look, it was not unique to his design work. The Express/Olson hull owed much to the fast Cal 40 hull from Lapworth, and perhaps even more to *Robert Smith (Cascade 36). And, to the developed parameters of many of the MORC hulls. Like Schumacher, George Olson really seemed to intuitively capture the proportions of those boats.

IMHO, yacht design is only partly about calculations. It's about intuition and art also.
Notice how little the BK Ericson's resemble the extreme looks of the early IOR hulls. Other production designers and builders would really copy/promote those pinched sterns and fat round midsections, and Ericson did not. Mr. King designed only a few "total IOR" hulls, like the late-70's E-34R (and T).
(Interestingly, the popular J Boats only built a few outright-IOR boats. We used to have one, a J-33, racing locally: not slow but had a reputation for being quote fussy to keep in a groove. Not particularly fast, either.)

*When talking design and random other sailing stuff with Mr. Smith, I could always get a rise out of him by casually asking if his Cascade's were sort of styled after the Cal 40 hull. It never got old! Quick response: "I did Not copy that hull!" And no, he did not. Every NA looks at what "works" and then integrates those proportions into their designs.
Mr. Smith could be a tad crusty at times but was tremendously knowledgeable about design and boats in general, having apprenticed at S&S. All of us that knew him were saddened when he passed.