I recently bought a 1972 Ensenada 20 (sail number 70). It seems to have been altered and rebuilt a bit through the ages, so I'd love to get some info about what it originally looked like. Such as:
-Was the standing rigging originally 1/8"? -What kind of plumbing did she have? (In mine there is a rusty old sink but no outlet and no water tank.) -Did she have flotation material under the berths? (If so, someone removed it from mine.) -Was there a spinnaker option for her?
Now about the skipper, who is from Sweden. I bought a 19' trailer sailer, Albin 57, in 1985 - but without a trailer. Shorter but wider than the Ensenada 20, with a spinnaker she sailed beautifully. After just a couple of years I changed to a Havsfidra from Fisksätra Marin. It is a 20' long-keeled boat without transom, and it had a 7 hp inboard 2-stroke engine (Vire). It has the same sail area as the Ensenada 20, but weighs more than twice as much. It is extremely seaworthy, and one can sail with genoa and without reefs in hurricane force winds (yes I've tried). In fact, it needs at least 20 knot winds to sail decently. Many have crossed the Atlantic with it, but not me. I just sailed across the Baltic Sea (was the first Swedish boat since before WWII to visit the Lithuanian - then German, in between Soviet - town of Nida), and also crossed the Baltic in a gail in October, plus I sailed over the North Sea and further up to Trondheim in central Norway, which is the same latitude as the northern end of Hudson Bay.
It is so beautiful on the north-west coast of Norway, but cold, which is why I had the boat equipped for winter sailing; isolated hull, a 1.3 kW central heater with a radiator below each berth, ropes that repel water so the ice shakes off, and of course survival suits for the crew. In my work I was skipper on a 22' fishing-boat good for 30 knots, with a square cabin aft and an open space in the front intended for laying nets. But we used it for research, including we took it to Iceland and drove around on the North Atlantic with it. In up to 36 knot winds...
When I moved to Miami, Florida, I sold that boat, and after a few years with only a dingy I now started over with a trailer boat. I'm skeptical over the diminutive size of the standing rigging, the lack of strong attachment of the stays to the hull (don't know the English term for "röstjärn"), the poor strength of the midship region, and also the tiny size of the mooring hardware in general on all US boats. Guess boats here aren't built for hurricane force winds? Anyway, so far I have enforced the midship so the rig won't bend the deck, I've covered the stay attachment irons in epoxy and fiberglass, and I've made a new, stronger, attachment for the aft stay so that it can be tensioned properly in hard winds. But I am concerned that 1/8" wire has a very low breaking strength... Is that really standard?
-Was the standing rigging originally 1/8"? -What kind of plumbing did she have? (In mine there is a rusty old sink but no outlet and no water tank.) -Did she have flotation material under the berths? (If so, someone removed it from mine.) -Was there a spinnaker option for her?
Now about the skipper, who is from Sweden. I bought a 19' trailer sailer, Albin 57, in 1985 - but without a trailer. Shorter but wider than the Ensenada 20, with a spinnaker she sailed beautifully. After just a couple of years I changed to a Havsfidra from Fisksätra Marin. It is a 20' long-keeled boat without transom, and it had a 7 hp inboard 2-stroke engine (Vire). It has the same sail area as the Ensenada 20, but weighs more than twice as much. It is extremely seaworthy, and one can sail with genoa and without reefs in hurricane force winds (yes I've tried). In fact, it needs at least 20 knot winds to sail decently. Many have crossed the Atlantic with it, but not me. I just sailed across the Baltic Sea (was the first Swedish boat since before WWII to visit the Lithuanian - then German, in between Soviet - town of Nida), and also crossed the Baltic in a gail in October, plus I sailed over the North Sea and further up to Trondheim in central Norway, which is the same latitude as the northern end of Hudson Bay.
It is so beautiful on the north-west coast of Norway, but cold, which is why I had the boat equipped for winter sailing; isolated hull, a 1.3 kW central heater with a radiator below each berth, ropes that repel water so the ice shakes off, and of course survival suits for the crew. In my work I was skipper on a 22' fishing-boat good for 30 knots, with a square cabin aft and an open space in the front intended for laying nets. But we used it for research, including we took it to Iceland and drove around on the North Atlantic with it. In up to 36 knot winds...
When I moved to Miami, Florida, I sold that boat, and after a few years with only a dingy I now started over with a trailer boat. I'm skeptical over the diminutive size of the standing rigging, the lack of strong attachment of the stays to the hull (don't know the English term for "röstjärn"), the poor strength of the midship region, and also the tiny size of the mooring hardware in general on all US boats. Guess boats here aren't built for hurricane force winds? Anyway, so far I have enforced the midship so the rig won't bend the deck, I've covered the stay attachment irons in epoxy and fiberglass, and I've made a new, stronger, attachment for the aft stay so that it can be tensioned properly in hard winds. But I am concerned that 1/8" wire has a very low breaking strength... Is that really standard?