FREE 1989 Ericson 34-2 in Annapolis

[Drewm3i]

Hello all,

I have been tasked with finding a new owner for Silverleaf, a 1989 Ericson 34-2 in need of a major refit. She is a beautiful and solid vessel on the outside, but unfortunately the interior needs to be replace--well, the floorboards, some trim, and one bulkhead at least. My wife and I were going to take her, but we acquired a really nice and livable (we are going to live aboard) 1992 Hunter 37.5 up in Baltimore for basically free. And unlike Silverleaf, the Hunter did not need any real interior work besides a bit of cleaning; she is also much larger and has more creature comforts.

Nonetheless, I told Pat, the original owner, that I would assist in finding and vetting any potential inquirers. The boat has been sitting for over a decade due to health issues and is a mess below. The decks are solid, there is no rust, the hull/keel joint looks good, the hull has no blisters, and the rudder seems sound. The bottom has been stripped and is ready for paint. There is an outboard hoist and mount. The mast and rigging are all original but show well, as do the chainplates (I would plan on replacing the rigging). The boat has a brand new 135 head sail, the original (fully-battened?) mainsail in good shape, a newer wheel pilot--and a full dodger and bimini, all in fair to good condition. There is a telescopic whisker pole (aluminum) and The anchor locker hatch is solid and includes the OEM Bruce anchor/chain setup in good shape; there is no windlass as it is a simple boat overall. The helm also has a serviceable cover. The boat has a folding propeller I do believe.

I have inspected her pretty thoroughly and believe the grid to be in really good shape overall with one small area (about 3"x 1") of cracked fiberglass near a (oil-canned) jack stand; there are also some very small osmotic blisters in the bilge.

In all, both Pat (the owner) and I would like to see someone capable and dedicated save the boat--hence the price. A full refit would cost a lot, but this is a very nice hull and design we are talking about (and we all know there are almost no more boats like this being made anywhere in the world at present). Feel free to PM me for more info. In short, neither Pat nor I would want to see such a beautiful vessel scrapped so she is being offered complete for free to the right (probably young, dedicated, and energetic) person.

I don't have a lot of pictures, but will post what I have.















Cheers,
Drew

 

[ky ed]

Ill pass it on

 

[JP in Sandusky]

Shared with a couple of folks.

 

[Drewm3i]

Thanks guys! Want her to find a new home who will give her love!

 

[Dave G.]

Drew, Any info on engine & trans condition ?

 

[Loren Beach]

At this price (zero) , I would just assume installing a new Betamarine drivetrain. Resurrecting an engine that has sat for a decade probably would invoke a full rebuild, and for a few $ more, starting over makes more sense. (If I had realized how awesome it would be to have a modern technology diesel/trans/panel in our boat..... I would have done that upgrade a decade earlier!)
Mind you, nothing at all "wrong" with rebuilding an old engine, but for a bit more money and to save a ton of time, installing a new one just makes sense to me.
And then, the E-34-2 is large enough and fast enough to be a "last boat" for most of us, strictly IMHO.

 

[Drewm3i]

Drew, Any info on engine & trans condition ?

It's all in decent cosmetic condition (minus some of the damaged/rotted/delaminated wood, but I would bank on an overhaul at least. It is closed cooled and was properly winterized so I am pretty sure it would run, but definitely would need much maintenance (belts, impeller, fuel polishing, injector cleaning, fuel filters, etc.).

I did my best to describe what I saw when visiting in the original post, but it's been over a year since I was in that yard. Before leaving--since my wife and I were debating taking the boat at the time--we taped over all the port lights with plastic bags and duck tape so that the leaks wouldn't get worse!

 

[Drewm3i]

At this price (zero) , I would just assume installing a new Betamarine drivetrain. Resurrecting an engine that has sat for a decade probably would invoke a full rebuild, and for a few $ more, starting over makes more sense. (If I had realized how awesome it would be to have a modern technology diesel/trans/panel in our boat..... I would have done that upgrade a decade earlier!)
Mind you, nothing at all "wrong" with rebuilding an old engine, but for a bit more money and to save a ton of time, installing a new one just makes sense to me.
And then, the E-34-2 is large enough and fast enough to be a "last boat" for most of us, strictly IMHO.

I personally have brought a marine (gasoline GM small block) engine back to life that sat for years on end (11), and it really wasn't that hard: just needed new manifolds and risers, some hoses, a carb rebuild, thermostat, fuel pump, filters, oil change, cap and rotor, spark plugs, etc. I ran it for over 100 hours after that before selling the boat and it ran like a top with no oil leaks. IMO, this boat would probably be similar; it's not like the boat was flooded with water or anything--just lots of your usual port light leaks that never got mended in time due to an owner who was sick and distracted, which ruined caused mildew/mold to grow and ruined the wood bits specified in the original post. This boat was honestly very lightly used (never has left the Chesapeake) and babied before being laid up--sadly, it was not properly "mothballed," as they say.

My first step as a mechanic would be to get a big breaker bar on the balancer and see if the engine turns over smoothly--I never checked this as the engine was way down on my list of concerns when deciding to take the boat or not (engines are really easy to fix, rebuild, or replace for me).

 

[Loren Beach]

This boat was honestly very lightly used (never has left the Chesapeake) and babied before being laid up--sadly, it was not properly "mothballed," as they say.

You make some excellent points about the probable good condition of the engine.

 

[ky ed]

Ill pass it on

Nothing better than a free or a real cheap boat. Its a matter of luck and some time finding a free boat that is turn key or that has problems you can fix is rare. I found a 25' Duet Glen -L with in 75 miles of home. It had good tags, was clean. Slap a 9.9 Mercury and battery on it she good to go. She sat on a dual axle 6 ton decent home made trailer with new tires, bearings brakes plus lights that worked! Pottered around all winter them splashed her learnt alot about trailering around a large boat. To be continued...

 

[ky ed]

Ill pass it on

 

[Drewm3i]

You make some excellent points about the probable good condition of the engine.

In my experience, robust engines like this one are pretty easily brought back to life--it takes a lot to kill them! And the couple who owned this boat really loved her and cared for her until he suffered serious health problems. He has held on to the boat and continued to pay storage for going on 12-13 years now, but realizes it's time to let go.

I would be happy to meet anyone interested to show them the boat--I really want to see her saved!

 

[ky ed]

Nothing better than a free or a real cheap boat. Its a matter of luck and some time finding a free boat that is turn key or that has problems you can fix is rare. I found a 25' Duet Glen -L with in 75 miles of home. It had good tags, was clean. Slap a 9.9 Mercury and battery on it she good to go. She sat on a dual axle 6 ton decent home made trailer with new tires, bearings brakes plus lights that worked! Pottered around all winter them splashed her learnt alot about trailering around a large boat. To be continued...

Got some friends out sailing. Which was good. Then I got a family of 4 a free sailboat. A real beauty she was, a french made Dufor 29. Now this boat was up in UP of Michigan some old guy had sailed it across Atlantic 3 or 4 times and sold it to a young kid mid twenties. He was going to do loop. Started in Lake Erie and got to Saginaw strait and had a bit of a blow got spooked and headed to first port on lake michigan. Got hung up on a sandbar and sucked up some sand and plugged up raw water strainer and overheated and the block cracked. He dropped the anchor and took his personal stuff. Got in dinghy and motored to the beach drug it up on beach about a foot and went home. Be put up add for free boat and i was first to reply. I told my family of 4 about it and they jumped in van and drove up to claim it. They were so happy cause this boat was exactly what they needed. Because their 25 ODay got trashed while on the hard near Erie canal. The yard left hatch open and rain and snow got into it and split her in half from feezing. Now this family of 4 did the entire great loop in a 25 footer. Totally amazing story they have and now they can do another loop once they find a diesel they can put in it or hang an outboard on it and continue the life they all love. I would of kept the Dufor but her 6 foot draft would not work for me. So i knept on searching for a boat a bit bigger than my Glen L 25 Duet. Well mot a lot of suiti ble boats that fit my criteria. I had a few saved but they all were out of my price range. Season was about over in Great lakes so i contacted all the boats i had saved and made an offer of what i had saved. All turned down my offer of 1,200. Besides the last guy. He had a 1978 25 Ericson and he had a week till it had to be put into winter storage and he said come get it. I said hell yeah! So i tried giving my Gle L away but no takers so i had to take it to landfill and seeing it get smashed brought a tear to my eye. To be continued

 

[Drewm3i]

Bump

 

[Drewm3i]

Finally got around to taking some more pictures:

 

[Drewm3i]

 

[Drewm3i]

 

[Kenneth K]

Nothing better than a free or a real cheap boat.

Ahh, if only there were such a thing....

 

[Kapsail]

The engine is a Universal 3-cylinder diesel, probably an M25; it looks to be in good shape. I got my 1974 Ericson 37 for free as a project boat after the previous owner, who owned it and raced it for 25 years; for the last 15 years, he turned it into a project boat, apparently it had a problem with the gelcoat crazing, he moved 90 miles away and sold it to a retired guy for $6,000, who started to realize that he was in over his head, he was teaching part time and Covid struck and he texted me and a friend and said what if I sign the boat over to you. We got the boat, and shortly after, I had the physical sensation you get when a semi-truck just about runs you over, as I realized how much work I would be doing without my partner's help. In 1999, he had put a new 4-cylinder Universal diesel M35 30 horsepower engine, which only had a little over 300 hours, which meant that it sat without running for most of the 15 years in the slip in Long Beach, CA. It ran fine for about 3 years, then both the raw water pump and the coolant pump failed in short order; they both had bearing seal failures and froze the shafts. The raw water pump was expensive; the coolant pump was relatively cheap, as I bought a Kubota coolant water pump, the beauty of having a Kubota tractor engine that Universal marinizes. The exhaust riser corroded through right by the exhaust manifold and fell sideways; luckily, this happened while I was backing out of the slip. I heard the bilge pump come on, and when I shifted into forward and reved the engine up, I noticed it sounded funny and looked over the side and noticed that no water was coming out of the exhaust, so I put it back in the slip. I found a used aluminum riser, which will probably need to be replaced in a few years. New exhaust risers typically need to be replaced about every 5 to 10 years, some earlier. I will go to CatalinaDirect.com when I replace the riser; they have a custom-made 316 exhaust riser with a specifically made head jacket. They also passivate the 316 stainless steel to remove the ferous. Unlike the original equipment part, we have the stainless steel riser electropolished after welding. All additional stainless fittings (elbows, etc.) are also electropolished. Electropolishing (often described as the reverse of electroplating) passivates the metal by removing the ferrous metal from both the inside and outside surfaces of the tube. This is especially important at the welds, where the welding process disturbs the metal structure and makes it more susceptible to rust and corrosion. The sulfer in diesel can turn into sulfuric acid and start eating the metal. I found what I wanted under the Catalina 34. I replaced my neighbor's exhaust riser and added a silicone hump hose to absorb the vibration on his Catalina 34. He had custom thin-wall stainless steel tubing that had the weld fail all the way around just above the fairly rigid exhaust hose; the new system should last a very long time it is thick-walled

I fixed the cabin sides like this; if the plywood is rotted, one can scarf in some new pieces of plywood. I then went to Ganahl Lumber and got their veneer with a glue-back and cut and glued it up. The result was beautiful, and we sold the boat for a nice profit. I removed the leaking portlights before installing the veneer and then installed new portlights. The teak and holly plywood is available at a fairly reasonable price and shouldn't be too difficult to replace. I recommend coating all sides of the plywood to seal it before installation to keep water out.

Ericson are well-built boats; I have talked to people who cut them up to send to the landfill, and they say that they are about the toughest boats to cut up. They are also fairly fast and well behaved. Bruce King had the Ericson 37 tank tested as it was built as an IOR International Offshore Racer, One Ton Class. My boat makes very little wake and sails itself, sometimes for over an hour without me touching the wheel, even in 20 knots of wind with wind waves. I typically sail with just enough brake on the wheel so I can let go and it stays put.

Web Chiles sailed an Ericson 37, solo, around the world. He was the first American to singlehand in a monohull around Cape Horn; he started in 1975 and took 2002 days at sea ( 364 days altogether) to set a record. He ordered the boat from the factory with no lifelines and no engine and oversized rigging. Two different times in the Southern Ocean, he was knocked down with the mast at about 70 degrees down angle, with him on the overhead; he really appreciated the 8,000 pounds of lead ballast. When he turned up out of the Southern Ocean on the far side of Australia, he ran into a cyclone and the strongest winds that Australia had experienced in 150 years of existence and ended up pitch-poling down the face of a wave, essentially somersaulting. Miraculously, he survived and did lose the mast. He has written several books and magazine articles.

 

[RobotWizard]

Wondering what it would take to just get her back in the water safely sailing.
Minimum, doing cosmetic repairs later.
Any soft spots in the deck or major structural issues, and how many things are needing to be rebedded?