Seeking E-29 Offshore Cruising Upgrade Ideas

[Crazy Dane]

Hello all,


I'm presently in the process of upgrading my 1970 E-29 for a round the world cruise. I love the boat, but in many ways it's not exactly 'ideal' for this (not a full keel, large windows, limited tankage, tabernacle...), but I have a very limited budget (just out of college), so I'm going to make her work for me.

A few issues continue to plague me however, and any input on prior experiences would be golden.

Here's the list (although by no stretch is it complete!):


*Any horror stories regarding tabernacles?


*I can't tell how the chainplates are glassed into the hull, and this worries me. Will they be strong enough, or should I consider upgrading to ugly external through-bolted chainplates.

*The hull/deck joint looks good, but can't really see for sure without being too invasive.

*I need to add water tanks to increase capacity to ~100gal, any ideas/prior experiences?

-The boat does not yet have a holding tank. Under the vee berth to starboard seems the likely place, but to get any substantial tank in there (10+ gal) will require some major liner surgery.

-The interior is rife with un-optimized storage. I would love to see any interior pictures of other 29's if you have them, as it's always nice to see how other people solve the same problems

-Have any of you ever cut away the liner behind the interior seats and made storage (w/seat backs on hinges)? There's a lot of space back there!

-And lastly, does anyone have experience with windvanes on 29's? Or any advice on how to help them track better?


I would greatly appreciate any input/pics/links you have. Just a year to go, and oh so much to do... Also, if you're interested in pictures and/or visiting, I'm in Moss Landing, CA and would love to talk shop.


Thanks,

Dane

 

[soup1438]

Around the World in a 29?

While your concerns are all reasonable, some aren't. I'm only going to comment on a minority of your comments lack of confidence in being right elsewhere. I've *NO* experience off-shore so I'm at least as much of a newbie there as you are.

The lack of a holding tank is a PITA when doing coastal cruising in US waters and any NDZs ("No Discharge Zone") you may need to deal with, but you shouldn't need all that much capacity, so a large tank isn't going to be "as required" as long as you arrange to be able to pump it out yourself. A "Y" fitting out of the head allowing you to pump directly overboard or into the holding tank satisfies one requirement, but the ability to either have the holding tank suctioned at a marina or manually pumped over-board whilst at sea also works; assuming you don't hug every shore-line you will spend most of your time pumping directly overboard.

Water is, of course, another issue... but you'll need to compute provisioning based upon where you are and where you're going FOR THAT LEG. Realize that this is an issue w/ food as well-- there's no guarantee of fish (and some concern with bait, too) so it'll be a little hard to forage. Consider some kind of water-maker, even if it's only there to shave the peaks in water use. Figure out also how to capture rainwater in some place more usable than the bilges.

INSPECT AND REPLACE YOUR THRU-HULLS. Realize that anything that pierces the hull is a compromise in the security of the hull and so must be carefully managed. Make sure you have plugs the right sizes to pop into these should there be a failure.

UPDATE your Zincs and carry spares.

Replicate and protect your navigation tools. Extra radios, etc, should be in faraday cages. Ensure that you are providing a path for lightning to reach water w/o traversing your hull! The faraday cage will protect gear from the EMP of a hit as long as no antenna lead reaches into it.

Finally, and probably most over-looked, is documentation. You will need passport, driver's license, insurance, radio licenses... there's a lot of legal paperwork that must be in-place BEFORE departing.

Unless you have a fair amount of off-shore skills you will want to make shorter jaunts in order to work up to making such passages. I'm still slowly working my way up the competency ladder in useful passagemaking skills.

 

[gareth harris]

Crazy Dane -
There are just a couple of items I will comment on:

Most Ericsons of that vintage had the chainplates mounted to the main cabin bulkheads covered with panels, PULL THE PANELS OFF TO INSPECT THEM! They are notorious, the chainplates leak water into the bulkheads, the water can not escape, and the bulkheads may have major integrity problems which can bring the mast down. I would not think you need to mount the chainplates in another fashion, but if the bulkheads are rotten they may need some major carpentry.

The hull/deck joints that Ericson made are not considered the best part of their craftsmanship, but unless there are obvious problems most people leave them alone.

Most of your other questions are E29 specific so I will let others tackle them - good luck with the project, I am sure you have read many books on cruising so I will not go off on a tangent; you have chosen a boat that was not designed with offshore cruising as its purpose, which means your sailing skills will have to be very solid before heading into the blue.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[Davis Modlin]

Extended Cruising in a E29

Dane,
I have an E29 #226 down here in Ventura. I will be down at the boat the last week of Sept. begining of Oct. and I will be taking pictures thru-out the boat and would be happy to send you the ones that you want.

When I bought the boat it had the cut outs behind the cushions and you are right there is alot of unused storage space behind there. I use the starboard side for aluminum foil, ziplock bags and other misc. items. The Port side I use for bags of chips, beef jerky etc.

As for fresh water I have a 33gal tank and use 5gal bladders on top of the cabin for extended cruises (2weeks or more), This gives me 60gal. Up in the Vberth I use the Port side and the forward hold to store 1gal and sport bottles of water. This gives me quite a bit of water, With four people on board we can cruise for 2 weeks with no problem.(plenty left over)


The holding tank issue I have a 3 1/2gal on the staboard side and this seems to work out fine for when I'm in port or am in a no dump zone.

Davis Modlin
E26
#226
Holy Guacamole

 

[Seth]

Offshore in your 29

The replies you have made have been pretty on point-here are f ew more thoughts:

1). Lack of full keel? This a a GOOD thing, not a bad thing. You would never catch me going offshore in a full keeled boat if I had the option-speed and windward performance are central to seaworthiness, and full keeled boats suffer on both points...

2). The 2 areas of improvement not mentioned so far are cockpit drainage and main hatch integrity. You need to repalce the current cockpit drains,hoses and thru-hull with larger diameter. They are not sufficient for real offshore work, and a boat is never more vulnerable than when it has been "pooped" and the cockpit is full of water and the stern is dragging.
Also, reaplce the main hatch boards with a single piece of very heavy material (lexan or an aluminum sandwich), and reinforce the runners with alum. stock (3" wide) bolted through the cabin wall. This will keep the hatch board from blowing through when hit by a big wave.

The boat sails fine with a good windvane, and why would you ever want a holding tank for offshore sailing? You don't need one, and they take of space and add a level of complexity you don't need! Let me know if I can be of any other help, and good luck!