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Ericson 39 specifics
The Ericson 39 was an early IOR race boat. They were designed as rule beaters under IOR I. These are the kind of boats that gave the IOR its bad name. These were skittish, big crew kinds of boats. They were purposely built as light as a boat could be in that period which is somewhat heavier weight-wise but some what less robust structurally than they would have been been built in a later period. I raced and sailed on an Ericson 39 based out of Hilton Head in the late 1970''s. This fellow had done pretty extensive cruising on his after taking his boat apart, beefed it up with a hand laid up internal framing system augmnenting the original system and then constructed a beautiful cruising interior in his. He really liked his boat for coastal cruising and club racing. But, even so, he was pretty disparaging about the behavior of his boat in heavy conditions and for short handed sailing. He also built a sturdier rudder and changed the post on his boat after damaging in a storm.
I believe that there were two 38 footers and the more expensive boat was a later design and both were more rounded designs than the 39.
Jeff
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