I bought another sailboat!

 I recently bought a new (to me) boat! Its another Ericson, but this time it is an Ericso 32, instead of a 27. So that's 5 whole feet of extra room, which actually makes a huge difference. I think its about twice the size of my dear little Altair. The outside of the boat is pretty similar to Altair, but larger. It has one jib, on a furler, and one mainsail, on the mast, and then also has a spinnaker that I can put up if I choose. It has wheel steering. The little diesel engine inside is 3 cylinders, and 20 hp, and sounds good when running, but is kind of difficult to start (maybe the glow plugs are bad?).

Inside the boat there is lots of space (at least compared to what I am used to). In the front there is a V berth that is easily big enough for two, and there is a quarter berth in the back under the port side of the cockpit where two could fit, but its large for one. Additional sleeping can be made by dropping the table down and fitting the cushion.

The head is sensible and simple, and also clean.

There are these nice drop down hatches that have storage behind them, and you can set stuff on the hatch temporarily.

It has a propane stove and oven, and pressure hot and cold water, and put in my Orca cooler as a fridge.

Sailing, its similar to Altair in a lot of respects, quick and fairly tender. It heels over and goes! I flew the spinnaker to test it out; it is a big and powerful sail, but also in great shape and with a sock.

The jib is not huge, but a good size for sailing and also for being able to see forward, since it has a higher cut than a bigger sail would. The mainsail is in good shape also.

When I bought the boat there were a few projects to work on, and I'm pleased to say that I've conquered a lot of them already (after one week). I got the diesel heater working, and that is a wonderful thing. I am sitting in the boat and toasty warm, basking in the glorious heat. It might be 80 degrees inside right now! It burns Diesel, so it doesn't need to be plugged in to work, but it makes a bit of fan noise. Speaking of being plugged in, I also installed a solar panel, and am just about ready to add a second, for 200W of solar capacity. I hope that this will keep the batteries happy without having to run the engine ever.

My plan is to anchor in Fairhaven and spend the spring and summer there, or until work starts. If work doesn't start, then maybe I will see if I can take the boat up to Alaska or Canada.