What kinda performance from E-29

[tlscott]

Hi

I am looking at purchasing an E-29 in Nova Scotia and I am wondering what the PHRF rating might be and how you other E-29 owner's fair out against other boats. We have a mixed fleet in Charlottetown of Ranger 26, Tanzer 22,s Catalina 27, and a bunch of J-29's.

thanks in advance for any information
Terry

 

[treilley]

I have never sailed one but I have raced against a few in my Pearson 28. My Pearson 28 is regarded as a very fast boat here in Portland and the E29s were about the same performance. Could have been skippers but I think the E29 does sail favorably to it's rating of 201 or 195TM. You will be very competitive against the ranger 27, Tanzer 22 and you should smoke(relative term) the Cat 27. The J29 is like a porsche compared to the E29. It will easily outpoint all of these boats.

 

[tlscott]

Thanks for the great information. Don't want to be the slowest boat around!

Terry

 

[Jim Mobley]

Ours is surprisingly fast

We don't race, but I think you should have no problem sailing to the rating. Two anecdotes:

1) Shortly after we bought the boat we were tacking back up San Diego bay just behind a Hunter 38. (Fat, ugly one with a "roll bar.") Wind was probably 6-10 knots and a bit fluky. My wife, Karen, was driving and I was mostly involved in a conversation with a friend, but after four (long) tacks or so darned if we didn't catch up and pass the Hunter. He looked as surprised as I was.

2) A few weeks later we were returning to San Diego from a short day sail out of the harbor. Coming back into the harbor we were broad reaching in about 5-6 knots of wind--just ghosting along at 4 kts. or so. There was a Catalina 270 sailing right with us, first in front and then behind as we passed. They would give us 6 seconds a mile--192 vs. 198.

Our boat has a clean bottom, the normal rig and mediocre sails. While we were working on the rig this summer, we sailed several times under 130% roller furler alone and were able to sail at 5.5 to 6 kts. (GPS speed) with 10-12 kts. of wind (Kestrel 2000).

We are fighting a weather helm problem, once the wind gets above 12 knots or so, the boat wants to round up very strongly. I think I need to have the main recut as it seems to be too long on the foot. It was probably made for a different boat and the P.O. got it used. The E-29 also has a pretty small rudder which doesn't help.

We do like the boat. Karen wishes that it was a lot less tender, heeling bothers her. Be aware that these are old boats and unless you get one that has been recently restored, you'll probably find lots of updating that needs to be done. I know my list is long.

 

[tlscott]

Wow

Certainly seems like the E-29 sails well. Hopefully I can sail this one as well as the rest of you seem to be.

thanks
Terry

 

[Seth]

Jim's weather helm issue

Before you go cutting valuable sail area away, check the logical suspects first:

1). Make sure you don't have too much aft rake! If the rig appears to be visibly raked aft of straight up and down (we have discussed this at length here), ease the backstay ansd tighten the headstay-try and move the rig fwd. so it is vertical.
2). Too much weight in the forward portions of the boat. If you have a lot of weight in the bow, move it aft-try and keep as much of the heavy stuff over the keel ideally, and in your case, try moving as much heavy stuff as you can to the aft storage areas.

Both aft rake and fwd weight will increase weather helm, so try these first, and then you could try reefing the mainsail a bit earlier than you had been used to to shift the CE in the sail plan more fwd of the CG-which should help.

This is preferable to cutting the sail down because in doing so you lose area in the conditions where you really want it; slowing the boat down before you even get to conditions where weather helm becomes an issue...

Anyway, try these moves first, and let us know!!!

 

[Jim Mobley]

Thanks Seth

Thanks for the input Seth. The reason I think the sail is mis-sized is because I can pull the clew of the sail all the way to the limit of the outhaul travel by hand and the foot still seems too loose. (Maybe I need a boom stretcher. ) The luff also seems a little short, as the headboard stops about a foot from the top of the mast.

The mast has very little rake. We don't normally carry an anchor on the bow, but there is 300 feet of nylon rode and 30 feet of chain in the bow locker. Nothing under the V-berth, though it does tend to collect all of the extra clothing and gear during a day sail.

The fabric of the main (a Banks) is still nice and crisp, the roller-furling Genoa (no label at all) is Downy soft.

After the rigging work we had done earlier this summer, we can now reef the main, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the boat sails with a reef in.

If only Karen didn't have to work all weekend ... Oh well.