Looking at purchasing an Ericson 30+

[mesa797]

Hi everyone,

My sailing partner and I are making an offer on an Ericson 30+ that appears in good shape. One feature not included is any backstay adjustments. It"s two lines to fixed plates at the rear of the transom. Is this a liability. Also as we aren't really familier with this model are there any particulars we should consider. Most of the sailing will be on SF Bay.

thanks,

Doug Gower Mesa797

[Faster]

4 years ago we looked closely at one of these... liked the layout, the double spreader frac rig and the boat's reputation. In the end it was simply overpriced because the seller was trying to recoup the cost of a new engine.

With a split backstay it's easy to rig a tension adjustment, and it would be useful seeing as how it's a fractional rig. You can get a special plate with pulleys that go over the inverted "V", and as you pull it down with a multi-part tackle you shorten the V and effectively tension the backstay. Alternatively you can shackle three blocks to a ring and essentially do the same thing.

We quite liked the design, but the price was an issue, as was the fact that we were downsizing from 40', and couldn't quite see ourselves down to a 30 footer once we checked some of them out.