1972 E27-Fixing Everything

[sastanley]

Cajun, not as original or nautical, but I bought four 48"-ish (two for each side) power boat stainless hand rails from eBay I think, probably off a salvage boat. I have not installed them yet, but my inspiration was that newer Catalinas had 90"-ish long stainless handrails to replace the teak ones in later models than my own up on the cabin similar to the ones you and Neil were discussing. I was too cheap to shell out the $$ for those long one piece ones, so I bought shorter versions that I plan to install if I ever get around to other deck maintenance.

[CajunSpike]

Time to go back to the boat has been iffy due to bad weather that just so happens to hit on the weekend. Weather clear blue during week, but bad on weekend. Go figure.

Did remove one of the teak rails.
Filled the open cabin roof holes with silicone till I could get back to it.

3 of the 7 connector bolts holding the outer rail to the inner rail had rusted thru and thru.

I figured if I could cut the head off the remaining 4 bolts, I could lift the rail off in one piece.

I was wrong.

First picture is one of the rail supports that cracked off, with an attachment bolt thru it.
You can see how I drilled a hole straight thru the rail then inserted a jigsaw to cut the bolt head. Should come off easy right?


After pulling hard trying to lift the rail off, the wood split.
This pic is what the bottom of the rail looked like that I could not see.


The thru bolt is so rusted it expanded in the wood hole and never would come out.
No progress on rails other than listed here.

Currently working on sewing together a Sail Rite main sailcover kit. Its never as easy as they say it is.
My ancient sewing machine died on me so went found a nice all metal Kenmore sewing machine on craigslist for $60.

Paid somebody else to cut the sunbrella material with a hot knife. Both halves of the cover are constructed. Just need to attach the throat collar and tail collar.
After that, put on the clasp attachments, and I'm in business.

Bought a new marine battery to replace bat2 that was just an old auto battery.
Didn't install it yet.

[ndutton]

The result of hardware store steel fasteners in the marine environment. May as well have used 16 penny nails.

[alcodiesel]

Really like the VW bus in the pics. Is that a '66?

[CajunSpike]

Really like the VW bus in the pics. Is that a '66?

The local Walgreen store has an end row display where they sell toy cars.
According to the writing on the bottom of that model, its a 62. Good job knowing the year though!

I probably have a 4 of that type in different colors. Several 67 beetles as well. The company name on them is Kinsmart.
Not really a collector but I thought it was cute enough to buy for a whole $6.
Well made too.

These are sitting on my desk at work.


When I first saw the engine of this Ericson, knowing NOTHING about it, the fact it had points like my bug does, gave me hope that I could do SOMETHING to get it running. Was sorely lacking confidence. Then when I ran into you people...that was the icing on the cake. Ya'll really helped me get from a position of being scared to touch anything, to understanding it was just a basic 4 banger with a simple system. :-)

Current dubs are an 08 GTi turbo, 73 Convertible Super Beetle, 91 Cabriolet(rabbit convertible).

[romantic comedy]

67 bus and a Tartan 34.

Sold bus, kept Tartan. Had too many toys.

The 67 was the first year of the back up lights and 12 volts, and the last year of the split window and reduction boxes.

I miss that bus but it was too scary driving with all the wonderful drivers out there.

[alcodiesel]

That's a beautiful job of making the running rust look real.

[CajunSpike]

Was beautiful today but didn't get out to the boat till late. Installed new sail cover. Fit better than a glove.
Edit: Went back to boat sunday 4/29. New photo here.


The old cover was worse than swiss cheese and will be donated to the garbage fund.
For comparison, clip of the old sail cover with a temp patch piece in place.



As usual, cranked the engine. Started right up. All interior 12v lights work. All interior 120v lights work. Hull rear white light works. Nose left side green works but red right side doesn't. Also light on mast does not work. That one scares me to try to fix.

[tenders]

I guess we’ll have to take your word on the quality of the fit but your photo is convincing that you were there late.

My mast and spreader lights have had issues due much more often to connecting problems at the foot of the mast than anything in the mast. Rule out the easy, accessible stuff before assuming the nasty. And even replacing a mast light bulb may not be as bad as you think. My spreader light bulbs can be fixed with a ladder.

[sailr]

Hey Cajunspike

Glad to see another guy from Louisiana. I see you are from New Orleans area. I've a few friends in Hawaii that owned Ericksons and they loved the boats. All were older boats 27 and 30 something footers. This was in 1993 to 1997. The boats were all early 70's and needed lots of TLC. They were all tough thick hulled boats and sailed well. Good luck on refitting yours. As you know I have an '68 Redwing 30 C&C. Poor boat had been abused and needs a lot of TLC. There was no bilge pump or blower for engine room evacuation of fumes, wiring in a real rats nest. There was no anchor light, steaming light or port and starboard lights. I got the boat on E-bay for $709.00 plus $300.00 handling fee by boat angel. I still consider it a good buy though. I've got all the lights and wiring done on the mast and the port and starboard light. Got the bilge pump installed except from the drain port. The old guy who donated the boat gave me a lot of spare equipment including a blower so that and rewiring is my next project. I have been doing leak location and sealing them during the time I was messing with the engine not starting. So you see I understand your problems and like you enjoy the work of bringing them back to good health.

sailr

[CajunSpike]

Today was too nice to pass up. Went down to marina and untied the lines. Did a single handed trip just a few miles past the breakwater. Wind was too light to really sail but it was good enough to prove engine and front sail works as intended.
Didn't bother putting up main sail since wind was so light and the front genoa was so huge. Its actually bigger than the main sail if you ask me.

All of these are just random pics taken out on Lake Pontchartain.
I can shrink them down more if its a problem, but then you would lose some of the clarity.






Engine was stopped/started several times with no incident. Started with the flick of the key when needed.
I'm pleasantly surprised how decently quick the boat moves thru the water with the engine at dead idle
or just a bit more.
I was thinking the engine would have to rev up a bit to get the hull moving, but it slides thru the waves like butter with not much rpm.

Total trip time was about 1.5 hours covering a little over 4 miles.
Didn't think to start the track till I was already out of the harbor.

All in all, had no issues with the boat.


sailr, not sure how much I can help but I will if I can.
Have already learned lots in a few months.

Still trying to decide what I will do with the handrails......

[sastanley]

Nice! Another boat on the water out sailing!

Looking good CSpike!

[alcodiesel]

Anchors Aweigh!

Bill, what app are you using for nav?

[CajunSpike]

Except for a vhf radio and 3 wind instruments that don't even power on, there aren't any electronics on the boat. So when I was figuring what to do about that, spending a lot of money just wasn't possible. I have a motorola z2 play(5.5" screen) with an add on extended life battery. I also hooked up a 12v power outlet that can reach the steering station.

I started with a free app called iNavx(still have it) but after reading reviews online switched to Navionics with a $9.95 annual subscription for the maps you can download.


Both work, but Navionics seems to be simpler to use to me.
That track came from Navionics on my cell.

See what ya'll helped me do? Boat went from a hole in the water to being a usable vessel!

Found the genoa has small 2" slice/cut/tear in a non stress area.
Whats a good way to patch that up?
Sew or tape?

[sailr]

Lookin Good

Way to go Cajunspike

I haven't had the chance to get mine out. I'm glad you got to do a little sailing.
You are right about the atomic 4 the 30 HP really moves the ole boat along just with a little above idle. Course clean hull always helps too.

I'm in a yacht club at Lake Charles and since the lake isn't real deep and the tides haven't really been too high I've spent a good part of the time locked in my slip. I have a 5 foot keel even though all the literature says four and a half.

As soon as the tides are right I'm going to move to a deeper slip and see how she sails.

I have a problem with the handrails on the starboard side on my boat. When the boatyard was raising my mast back onto the boat they broke part of it. I fund some good sources of teak on Amazon Prime and instead of paying a couple hundred dollars for a replacement I am going to try to rebuild the handhold using epoxy and plenty of clamping pressure. I've read that if you clean the wood ends to be glues with acetone to remove the oil from the wood that you can get a good bond.

Anyway good luck
Sailr