gabriel
Live free or die hard
Decided to take the wife and kids to Catalina over the weekend and despite cloudy weather, we all had a great time. The highlight for the girls was swimming, the playground and seeing a whale.
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For my wife and I it was the sail home, we practically sailed to the dock! few things are as satisfying as doing a whole trip without using an engine.
we basically reached the whole way, at one point hitting 6.5 knots in the surf.
as we got closer to home the reach turned into a run. The Ericson will sail ear on ear surprisingly well without a pole.
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The following morning the tide was lower than I had ever seen and I grounded the boat near the launch ramp dock. The rudder never touched bottom and the only indication of grounding was the slight thud of the centerboard slamming into the centerboard trunk. I was surprised the boat was still floating in less than knee deep water! Upon retrieval of the boat I inspected the centerboard and fortunately the bottom was muddy and there weren’t even scratches.
As I was taking the rigging down I noticed that a strand on the port inner shroud had frayed. Using camera footage I was able to determine the shroud frayed about 30 min after the wind picked up. These inner shrouds and the back stay are the last of the standing rigging that I haven’t replaced. They will be replaced immediately.
overall, I’m very happy with this little boat, she’s very comfortable and performs very well for what she is. My only problem now is that she’s becoming too small for the five of us!
Whale spotted in Catalina channel
youtube.com
For my wife and I it was the sail home, we practically sailed to the dock! few things are as satisfying as doing a whole trip without using an engine.
we basically reached the whole way, at one point hitting 6.5 knots in the surf.
as we got closer to home the reach turned into a run. The Ericson will sail ear on ear surprisingly well without a pole.
Sailing wing on wing Ericson 25. No pole
youtube.com
The following morning the tide was lower than I had ever seen and I grounded the boat near the launch ramp dock. The rudder never touched bottom and the only indication of grounding was the slight thud of the centerboard slamming into the centerboard trunk. I was surprised the boat was still floating in less than knee deep water! Upon retrieval of the boat I inspected the centerboard and fortunately the bottom was muddy and there weren’t even scratches.
As I was taking the rigging down I noticed that a strand on the port inner shroud had frayed. Using camera footage I was able to determine the shroud frayed about 30 min after the wind picked up. These inner shrouds and the back stay are the last of the standing rigging that I haven’t replaced. They will be replaced immediately.
overall, I’m very happy with this little boat, she’s very comfortable and performs very well for what she is. My only problem now is that she’s becoming too small for the five of us!
