Coming Back To Life

This is the story of Ericson 29, Hull Nº5.

She was designed by Bruce King and built in 1970 in Costa Mesa, CA.

She spent the early years of her life plying the waters of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers Delta. She then moved to Moss Landing, CA, sailing the waters of Monterey Bay. Gradually she was taken out sailing less frequently and eventually was trucked to the Central Valley for some hull work. After airing out in the dry valley air, some cosmetic blisters were repaired, and she got a seven-layer epoxy barrier coat and fresh bottom paint. The ol’ Atomic 4 got some attention, including a new hot section of exhaust. To top it all off she got new standing rigging. She splashed in the mid-Nineties, and motored to Disappointment Slough to hang on the hook near the Eden Isle Yacht Club and be a nice getaway spot for some Delta fun.

Over time she saw less and less attention and a series of unfortunate events befell upon her. Some vandals came by and slashed a bunch of halyards to get to the inflatable that was lashed to the foredeck, and stole the VHF and stereo. Apparently some time later she had been the home to a roost of some kind of bird, I don't remember which. The result of which was a trashed interior. I still find weird nesting material in deep nooks and crannies, and all the interior cushions were total write-offs. Bummer. Those are expensive.

The boat became available to me in 2006, and I was eager to take care of her and nurse her back to health. She had been my Dad’s boat and I had gone sailing on her when I was 10 days old, and many times after that. Sailing on Moor’ea were some of my fondest memories, and I couldn’t wait to create some more.

I had been warned that she was probably going to be very dirty, and I wasn’t let down. She was filthy. Outside she was covered with thick splotches of dark green moss that had a very tenacious grip, and general dirt and dust that had blown over the levee from the surrounding farmland. The probability of disturbing a wasp’s nest was very high when moving anything that could have a little crevice to hide one. Inside there was mold and mildew on just about every surface - great for the allergies. Spiders and wasp’s nests were everywhere, and a fair amount of farm dust had made it down below as well.

I brought with me an old car radio and plugged it in to the spot where the old one used to be. Gotta have tunes! Once I had the stereo installed I realized that the speakers were blown. Sweet. I had also brought with me a new VHF and plugged that in where the old one of those used to be. Check, Check, uh, Anybody copy, over? Cool. Communications, check


After I got the stereo installed, the next task was to clean her up. Some knuckle skin, lots of biodegradable boat soap, a healthy dose of bleach and we were on our way. Getting that green mossy stuff out of the waffle pattern in the nonskid was a real joy. Three days later and the boat was sparking clean (sort of).

Now to see about that engine. Let’s see… Spark? Negative. Compression? Negative. Fuel? Not really. And it looks like the mixing elbow was installed backwards and the water was channeled into the exhaust manifold. Buh. Good thing the Nissan 8 runs well.

Among the other gear I brought were an array of blocks, halyards, sheets, medical supplies, tools, personal gear, safety supplies, charts and other various goodies. I set about rigging up the boat in such a way that I could at least put the sails up and putt around. I knew that this would all be temporary as I wanted to lead a few more things back to the cockpit, and generally redesign the running rigging.

An inspection of the standing rigging was what I'd expected of 15 year old wire in the Delta. Some corrosion, but nothing totally bad. It'll do till I'm ready to replace the rig.

With all those details attended to, I was ready to cruise Moor’ea around the Delta for a tick before she settled down in Sausalito for a spell.

We went from Disappointment Slough down the San Joaquin River to Three Mile Slough, though to the Sacramento River, where I got to open my first bridge! It had been pretty much upwind for most of this, so we’d just been motoring. The outboard seemed to do an okay job of battling the wind and current, although when the current really hammered us we would only make about 1.5 kts over the ground. But with the right turn into the Sacramento the wind was now on our port quarter, so we put up the sails and turned the motor off. I didn't have to wait long before I had to hail the bridge operator in Rio Vista to open my second bridge! Then another right into the Old Sacramento River and went all the way up to Sacramento. I hung out there for a week, kicked it with friends, saw some of the Jazz Jubilee and had an all around good time (except when I dropped my phone in the water). Then back down the river all the way to Berkeley where I spent a couple of nights, then turned around and went back up to the San Joaquin to check out some more of that. Then I had to go back to work so we headed back to Sausalito and dropped the hook.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera for the whole trip, or for much of the early stuff for that matter. What I do have of that trip is here.

Anyway, I'll get to work on posting the engine overhaul!