Late 80s Ericson Hulls Made in Mexico?

[ofshore74]

I thought I read somewhere that the late 80s Ericson hulls were made in Mexico and were prone to blisters, wonder if the quality around this time suffered at all considering Pacific Seacraft bought them in 1991.

 

[Loren Beach]

I thought I read somewhere that the late 80s Ericson hulls were made in Mexico and were prone to blisters, wonder if the quality around this time suffered at all considering Pacific Seacraft bought them in 1991.

I heard that rumor when we bought our '88 model, in 1994.
Other than a small patch of blisters on one part of the bottom - about 1 foot by 4 ft - nothing special to differentiate it from any other production hull of the era.
Nothing much to see on ours since then. FWIW I once saw a lot of little blisters on a mid-70's E-35-2. All were faired in by the yard.

Sidebar: Do not confuse resin application technology with overall quality of build. If the resin mixing and layup was not done just right you could have blisters on any hull. Matter of fact a friend of mine got a steal of a deal, back in the 90's, on a Baltic 38DP, with extensive blistering on the whole bottom. He dried, filled, and faired them, and it did take weeks. Ended up with a fantastic bargain in a high-end yacht. He did invest considerable sweat equity, tho.

Loren

 

[Slick470]

In contrast to Loren's experience, our boat is one of the last Ericson built. When we bought it, it had thousands of little dime sized blisters covering the entire bottom. We negotiated the purchase price accordingly and when we finally decided to take care of it, we ended up peeling the bottom, letting it dry for a summer, ground a bit deeper where needed, and then filled, faired, and added back layers of fiberglass in vinylester resin. Lots more filling, fairing, and sanding, and then epoxy barrier coat and finally bottom paint.

Paid for the peel and the glass work, but did the rest myself. Next time I'll probably pay someone else. Not hard work, but very time consuming and hard on the knees and shoulders.

For the most part, the blisters were cosmetic, and went away with the fairly shallow peel. There were a few deeper ones, but not deeper by much.

I wouldn't avoid a later Ericson built boat, but I'd take a long hard look a the bottom and negotiate the price accordingly if there is an existing problem.

 

[ofshore74]

I wouldn't avoid a later Ericson built boat, but I'd take a long hard look a the bottom and negotiate the price accordingly if there is an existing problem.

Very helpful thank you.

 

[Slick470]

Very helpful thank you.

To that point though, that wisdom applies to pretty much any used boat.

 

[ofshore74]

To that point though, that wisdom applies to pretty much any used boat.

Completely agree, I have no interest in spending my first season on the hard. A few blisters is one thing but beyond that it's another project to add to an already huge list. Maybe I should name my next boat "Lists"

 

[Slick470]

Believe me, I know all about lists.

We ended up sailing our boat for a few seasons before we did anything about our blisters. From the research that I had done, with the lots of small blisters problem we had, it wasn't going to get much worse in a few years and was most likely cosmetic. Yes, the boat was heavier due to the trapped moisture, but we weren't racing the boat, so it wasn't an immediate priority. We waited until it made sense in our schedules and then went ahead. I used the time on the hard to do a bunch of the other messy jobs like re-build the head, replace pretty much all of the hoses in the boat, upgrade the electronics (and rip out all of the random PO wiring, lamp cord!?! really?).

From what I've read, the only blisters that you really should worry about from a structural standpoint are usually found on older boats that have a few very large blisters that happen to be near a bulkhead or other major structural member.