Windswept II

So this is fun. Madrigal's previous owner, Bill, lives at this marina again on another boat and we talked to him about a bit of Madrigal's history. Apparently her name used to be Windswept II until he changed it to Madrigal. He sent this picture along to us as well.

We are the fourth owners of her. Originally a woman from Marblehead had her as a race boat up there for a number of years. Then some guy outside of Boston bought her and let her sit in a yard uncovered for about 5 years while he failed to use her or take care of her. Bill stole her away for a very short money and put a lot of work into her... Reglassing things, reinforcing the mast step, rudder repair, mostly rebuilt the Atomic 4, new electrical and plumbing etc. Then he was forced to sell her due to illness with his wife. That's where we came in and bought her, then finished out the interior woodwork etc. This spring she'll be due for a haulout again for some new bottom paint etc. I've been working on the topdecks as well with the seahood and whatnot. All in all it is a fun story. Neat to see new life breathed into the old girl. :)

Oil!

Along with the winter season shrinkwrapping tasks comes the task of winterizing the engine.

Last year, I didn't bother with it. Our engine is under the port settee (as seen in one of the pics below) and it stays plenty warm there since we have to heat the boat for us and the pets all winter anyhow. Winterizing really just helps things not freeze when you will be away from the boat, but we are never gone for long enough to care. We just leave a small heater on and have a friend watch in case the power goes out.

However, our engine is seawater cooled and winterizing has the added bonus of clearing the corrosive seawater out and replacing it with fairly neutral engine coolant for 4 or 5 months. That little bonus makes winterizing worth it to me, so today I changed the oil (done every spring and fall), flushed the system with coolant, put some sta-bil in the fuel tanks, and put some preservation gunk in the spark plug holes (is there a better name for those? I'm sure there is)

In this picture you can also see the 120 amp alternator we put on this fall. Our old 40 amp motorola was dead and even when it was alive it could barely put any juice into our battery bank, so I replaced it with this monster. Works great, and it's so clean and shiny! Made specifically to fit the Atomic 4 :)

Willie is never quite sure what to think when the cover is off of the engine.

Madrigal - Our 1978 Ericson 35 Mk-II

This is a post written just to give some information on our boat. From time to time I hope to update this post with new stuff that I find out and I will add a permanent link off to the right of the blog with our other links.

Our boat is a 1978 Ericson Mk-II designed by Bruce King as a variation on the original Alberg Ericson.

Much good information on this boat can be found here: www.ericsonyachts.org

There is also a good article on the e35's in general here: http://www.boatus.com/jackhornor/sail/Ericson35.asp

Length Overall	34’ 8"
Waterline Length	27’ 10"
Maximum Beam	10’ 0"
Maximum Draft	4’ 11"
Displacement/Weight	11,600 lbs
Fuel Capacity	25 Gallons
Water Capacity	20 Gallons?
Bridge Clearance	48 ft.

Madrigal also has the original 30 hp Atomic 4 engine. Don Moyer may yet become my best friend :) http://moyermarine.com/

UPDATE 3/30/10:

http://aboardmadrigal.blogspot.com/2010/03/madrigal-photos.html

Jenny has been trying to collect a few of the better pictures of our boat (like when it is actually clean!) She put them together in the above link. :)