Thanks for doing the Olson 30. I own one myself and agree with most of what had to say about them. There are a couple of modifications which I think have been seen as "must haves" that I don't necessarily agree with. One has to do with the double spreader mast. Maybe for San Francisco Bay with 8 guys on the rail it is a must-have however I and many others have been sailing single spreader rigs forever and if the rig is well-tuned and the boat is sailed in less than force 8 conditions, the rig has never posed a problem. Some owners swear the single spreader rig is more tune-able and of course is lighter weight. The other has to do with rudders. Granted the stock rudder can be a handful in challenging conditions but again if the boat is balanced and trimmed well it will handle most conditions. The upside is less wetted area in the light stuff which prevails in my area. Offshore or San Fran Bay I would go with the elliptical. BTW, I have been racing my boat single-handed under whites and with the right sails and sailed as flat as possible the Olson can be surprisingly quick. Thanks again for a great video.
Great to see this video as I owned hull #1 Mas Rapido in the 90's and raced her double-handed in the '94 Pacific Cup amongst many other coastal races. Such a great boat to sail single-handed. Saw 22 kts several times and I miss owning her. Cheers!
I sail O30 #123 on San Francisco Bay usually double handed in daysail mode. Equipped with Ballenger double spreader rig and dacron sails. It sails fastest when flat so I seldom put up any more sail than #3 up front and reef the main often in the summer season. Lots of controls to maximize sail shape. For what "Norma Jean" cost me, it's surprising how well she keeps up with the SF fleet...blown sails and all. Really enjoy this series on Retro sailboats. Dreaming my O30 grows up to be Express 37.
I owned and raced an Olson 30 through the 1990's and will always have a warm spot in heart for them. Most boats feel dull compared to them. Features of the stock Olson 30: spots for small Igloo coolers behind each bench seat on both sides of the boat. There's a spot for a two burner alcohol stove under the port bench seat. You can see the track on the video on the port seat. The stove might be on the featured boat. The spot in the gallery where they have a bucket had a stainless steel bowl which sat in the opening. There is also a spot for a porta-potty under the port V-berth. Some Olson 30's used a large Igloo cooler for a step into the cabin, others had teak stairs.
brings back the fun times raeing mine LIS , and even did the ALIR a couple times on it, Loved the bow wave as high as the lifelines and the mast had a wake , The bow man would me at the companion way with the hatch boards in , Did a death roll at the Manhasset fall series and broke the spin pole in half, with one crew going over board , but we got him back thanx's
Id love to see a video like this for Columbia 43's! Awesome video! I sail on an Olson 30 from time to time and its inspiring to see one in such good condition! Cheers!
As a partner in an Olsen 911 I can attest to the quality of the original Olsen boats. After Ericson took over there were some significant changes, so even though there are five of these 911s in our marina, when we race we don’t all rate the same. Just a bit of a distraction, but having enough 911s around to race as a “one design” fleet makes the racing more entertaining
I absolutely love this series. The Olson 30 I race is featured at 4:50 when you’re talking about the keel! Really cool to see Weatherly in one of you’re videos even if its not the one you’re showing off. Keep it up I live for this stuff.
I love this #retroboat series. Very entertaining and informative with a (low BS) / (high truth) ratio. I own and race a Hobie 33 (stock config fixed keel) and found your thoughts spot-on. Keep these coming. Some ideas: Aphrodite 101, Soverel 33, Bianca 414...Thanks
Love the retro boat series, I found a clothing company recently that do retro sailing clothes called Pitchpoleapparel. Reasonably priced for and surprisingly good quality for old clothes the jacket I got works better than my 500 dollar zhik one. Proves you cant beat the old stuff
Sailed on one in the late 90’s early 2000’s where there was still a Bay Area fleet. We had a full hoist #4 to keep it on its feet in the San Francisco summers. We sailed at the class max weight I think 1250pounds ( 8 people). Fun times and the submarine downwind was real. We would have 4 guys aft of the driver and only a small bow guy forward of the primary winch to gybe.
Love this boat! What I learned on; one out of SWYC called Cheap Thrills (my picture actually). Almost always double handed. Owner had the O-30 and a O-911. Such a great boat!
My dad and I had an Olson 30 in Narragansett Bay RI from ~ '86 to '89. I second all the points Scott made about the boat's idiosyncrasies. We'd had a Santa Cruz 27, then went (back) to a Star, then got the O30. Ours was (I think) Hull # 112 (I'll check on that). It was a single-spreader rig with the orginal rudder. At the end of its last season it was sunk by a lightning strike at its own mooring in Bristol RI. The lightning delaminated a lot of the hull and (literally) burned quite a bit of the balsa core. The insurance co. called it a total loss. But after we pulled it we saw a few other problems. The mast had begin to crush the mast step so we would have needed to fix that and put in the reinforcement Scott showed ("Beam of Destiny"). Also the rudder had a bit of delamination so we may have had to go for a new probably elliiptical rudder. In hindsight I think it could have used a better rudder bearing. Are those roller-bearing Jefa bearings class-legal? Sad to lose it because it was a good boat and I think I was just starting to learn how to sail it right. Last I heard it was in Florida on the Gulf Coast.
Scot, I didn't hear you comment on the windows. Usually you do that. Also, noticed a couple of things at the aft end of the cockpit, right under the tiller (~3:16 in the video): 1) line exiting a single cam is an under-deck backstay adjuster? 2) what's the instrument display right under that cam cleat?
Olson 40...please. I owned Olson 40 "Aquila" from 2005 - 2008 when she had to be abandonded 1700 miles from Cabo and 1000 miles from Hawaii in Hurricane Hernan cat 2..Olsons are outstanding boats.
Its advertised weight is 3600 lb with a 1800 lb keel but its one design weight with a specified list of equipment is 3750 lb. At that weight you can dry sail it if your club has a 2 ton hoist and with its permanent keel it is much quicker to put in and go sailing than the retractable keel boats My big Covid project was getting couple hundred pounds out of mine to get it down to the one design minimum weight. It seems noticeably faster but I won't make it any lighter. A big advantage to limiting performance improvements to class legal that is you don't get punished in PHRF for sailing too well.
Scot: also agree with your comments about the O30 versus the SC27; the O30 being more "finicky" and "high-strung". I thought the SC27 was a more forgiving boat and easier to sail well.
Those lines winded diagonally around the lifelines,, Anyone has any opinion as to wether they do a good job? a, keeping genoa dry, b, stopping me from slipping of the bow between the lifelines, Thinking bout putting some on my boat,, don't really want a full web tho, looks so ugly XD
@@SailingAnarchyUSA What!! Why the neglect! I am co-owner of an Olson 40 up in Duluth MN. Long way from California but if you are ever in the area come out for a rip! Ps. Love these videos.
Your previous intro song was the hottest, sexiest intro on all of RUclips. You gotta bring it back, resurrect it like you're resurrecting these sailboats!
I had an Olson 30 and did some cruising, but rather limited, over a couple of nights type of thing. Yes you can cruise but I would say not much more than over a weekend. Ours did have a "head" - a port-a-potty. And we had one of those one-burner butane stoves on a gymbal mount. So you can cruise an Olson 30 but it's more like camping. I'd say for the money you save buying an Olson 30 instead of a Catalina/Beneteau/whatever, you could sail fast to wherever you're going and book yourself into a nice B&B.
We cruised Double D (hull#38) from Ketchikan AK to Haida Gwaii BC then down to Vancouver BC for the delivery home from R2AK with 4 people for ~4 weeks. It was tight but it was awesome! Also cruised Dazed and Confused (hull#?) home from R2AK, Ketchikan to Vancouver via Inside Passage with 2 people in ~2 weeks. Sure, a head and a heater would've been an improvement, but it was an amazing experience.
Hi Scott, It is time you give the little brother "Olson 25" a little attention. They have a cult following. I would love to see it featured in your channel. @sailing anarchy
You put me in boats that I would never have a chance to stand on. Nobody does it better! Thanks.
Thank you glad you like it!
I'll never forget the O30 Nationals in Santa Cruz and the distance race up to Davenport and back....whatta ride that was!
Thanks for doing the Olson 30. I own one myself and agree with most of what had to say about them. There are a couple of modifications which I think have been seen as "must haves" that I don't necessarily agree with. One has to do with the double spreader mast. Maybe for San Francisco Bay with 8 guys on the rail it is a must-have however I and many others have been sailing single spreader rigs forever and if the rig is well-tuned and the boat is sailed in less than force 8 conditions, the rig has never posed a problem. Some owners swear the single spreader rig is more tune-able and of course is lighter weight. The other has to do with rudders. Granted the stock rudder can be a handful in challenging conditions but again if the boat is balanced and trimmed well it will handle most conditions. The upside is less wetted area in the light stuff which prevails in my area. Offshore or San Fran Bay I would go with the elliptical. BTW, I have been racing my boat single-handed under whites and with the right sails and sailed as flat as possible the Olson can be surprisingly quick. Thanks again for a great video.
It’s cool to hear from the owners! Hats off to another great vid and boat.
Great to see this video as I owned hull #1 Mas Rapido in the 90's and raced her double-handed in the '94 Pacific Cup amongst many other coastal races. Such a great boat to sail single-handed. Saw 22 kts several times and I miss owning her. Cheers!
Watching this again. Love these. Thank you.
I sail O30 #123 on San Francisco Bay usually double handed in daysail mode. Equipped with Ballenger double spreader rig and dacron sails. It sails fastest when flat so I seldom put up any more sail than #3 up front and reef the main often in the summer season. Lots of controls to maximize sail shape. For what "Norma Jean" cost me, it's surprising how well she keeps up with the SF fleet...blown sails and all. Really enjoy this series on Retro sailboats. Dreaming my O30 grows up to be Express 37.
I owned and raced an Olson 30 through the 1990's and will always have a warm spot in heart for them. Most boats feel dull compared to them.
Features of the stock Olson 30: spots for small Igloo coolers behind each bench seat on both sides of the boat. There's a spot for a two burner alcohol stove under the port bench seat. You can see the track on the video on the port seat. The stove might be on the featured boat. The spot in the gallery where they have a bucket had a stainless steel bowl which sat in the opening. There is also a spot for a porta-potty under the port V-berth. Some Olson 30's used a large Igloo cooler for a step into the cabin, others had teak stairs.
Great video - Thanks Scot and Justin!
thanks for letting trample all over your boat!
Don't forget the Olson 29 when mentioning the other Olsons... it was a rocket ship but I don't think they made many. (Former Olson 25 owner).
Thanks for doing the Olson 30 Scot! I loved mine and it had a prod. Drew Woods installed it for the Bermuda 1-2 when he owned the boat.
brings back the fun times raeing mine LIS , and even did the ALIR a couple times on it, Loved the bow wave as high as the lifelines and the mast had a wake , The bow man would me at the companion way with the hatch boards in , Did a death roll at the Manhasset fall series and broke the spin pole in half, with one crew going over board , but we got him back thanx's
The mighty Garuda! Good times!!
ALIR on a Olson, that's a hate mission.
Id love to see a video like this for Columbia 43's! Awesome video! I sail on an Olson 30 from time to time and its inspiring to see one in such good condition! Cheers!
As a partner in an Olsen 911 I can attest to the quality of the original Olsen boats. After Ericson took over there were some significant changes, so even though there are five of these 911s in our marina, when we race we don’t all rate the same. Just a bit of a distraction, but having enough 911s around to race as a “one design” fleet makes the racing more entertaining
I remember sailing an Olson-built O25, then got to sail an Ericson-built O25. I could really tell the difference.
Owner of hull 214 currently and used to own hull 130.....they are fantastic!!!
I absolutely love this series. The Olson 30 I race is featured at 4:50 when you’re talking about the keel! Really cool to see Weatherly in one of you’re videos even if its not the one you’re showing off. Keep it up I live for this stuff.
I love this #retroboat series. Very entertaining and informative with a (low BS) / (high truth) ratio. I own and race a Hobie 33 (stock config fixed keel) and found your thoughts spot-on. Keep these coming. Some ideas: Aphrodite 101, Soverel 33, Bianca 414...Thanks
You are really doing a great job, love these videos
Thank you!
Love the retro boat series, I found a clothing company recently that do retro sailing clothes called Pitchpoleapparel. Reasonably priced for and surprisingly good quality for old clothes the jacket I got works better than my 500 dollar zhik one. Proves you cant beat the old stuff
Sailed on one in the late 90’s early 2000’s where there was still a Bay Area fleet. We had a full hoist #4 to keep it on its feet in the San Francisco summers. We sailed at the class max weight I think 1250pounds ( 8 people). Fun times and the submarine downwind was real. We would have 4 guys aft of the driver and only a small bow guy forward of the primary winch to gybe.
Cool, just sold my Olsen for a Wilderness 30. Would love a video on her.
Love this boat! What I learned on; one out of SWYC called Cheap Thrills (my picture actually). Almost always double handed. Owner had the O-30 and a O-911. Such a great boat!
there’s a j/24 named cheap thrills at oyc, any association?
@@igenesisvt8818 I don't believe so, but I could be wrong!
Let us know when it is the Olson 40’s turn. Several Olson 30 sail out of Duluth/Superior but just one Olson 40!
I know Gary in vta in the 80's crazy. C.i.y.c. and Todd D.
Hey Brett, looking good!
My dad and I had an Olson 30 in Narragansett Bay RI from ~ '86 to '89. I second all the points Scott made about the boat's idiosyncrasies. We'd had a Santa Cruz 27, then went (back) to a Star, then got the O30. Ours was (I think) Hull # 112 (I'll check on that). It was a single-spreader rig with the orginal rudder. At the end of its last season it was sunk by a lightning strike at its own mooring in Bristol RI. The lightning delaminated a lot of the hull and (literally) burned quite a bit of the balsa core. The insurance co. called it a total loss. But after we pulled it we saw a few other problems. The mast had begin to crush the mast step so we would have needed to fix that and put in the reinforcement Scott showed ("Beam of Destiny"). Also the rudder had a bit of delamination so we may have had to go for a new probably elliiptical rudder. In hindsight I think it could have used a better rudder bearing. Are those roller-bearing Jefa bearings class-legal?
Sad to lose it because it was a good boat and I think I was just starting to learn how to sail it right.
Last I heard it was in Florida on the Gulf Coast.
It was hull #112, last known as Roulette III
Scot, I didn't hear you comment on the windows. Usually you do that. Also, noticed a couple of things at the aft end of the cockpit, right under the tiller (~3:16 in the video): 1) line exiting a single cam is an under-deck backstay adjuster? 2) what's the instrument display right under that cam cleat?
Olson 40...please. I owned Olson 40 "Aquila" from 2005 - 2008 when she had to be abandonded 1700 miles from Cabo and 1000 miles from Hawaii in Hurricane Hernan cat 2..Olsons are outstanding boats.
Owned a SC27 and an Olson 29. Both were fun to race. The 29 is more stable than the O30. Great boats fast boats.
Its advertised weight is 3600 lb with a 1800 lb keel but its one design weight with a specified list of equipment is 3750 lb. At that weight you can dry sail it if your club has a 2 ton hoist and with its permanent keel it is much quicker to put in and go sailing than the retractable keel boats My big Covid project was getting couple hundred pounds out of mine to get it down to the one design minimum weight. It seems noticeably faster but I won't make it any lighter. A big advantage to limiting performance improvements to class legal that is you don't get punished in PHRF for sailing too well.
Scot: also agree with your comments about the O30 versus the SC27; the O30 being more "finicky" and "high-strung". I thought the SC27 was a more forgiving boat and easier to sail well.
Sweet vid and great boats but someone screwed up the inset Santa Cruz 27 pic
Been waiting for this comment
I think to make amends for having forgotten about the Olson 40 you need to tour one and post the video.
Olson 29. The sexier younger brother? There’s one in Michigan if you want to fly out?
Who stuck a photo of a Santa Cruz 37 in the corner when Scot mentioned the SC 27?
😆
Those lines winded diagonally around the lifelines,, Anyone has any opinion as to wether they do a good job?
a, keeping genoa dry,
b, stopping me from slipping of the bow between the lifelines,
Thinking bout putting some on my boat,, don't really want a full web tho, looks so ugly XD
Wow no mention of the improved version the Olson 29? Bummer....
the 29 is most certainly not an improved version!
@@SailingAnarchyUSA Sure ok, you’re the expert..
@@Feelgoodracing god damn right i am.
Didn’t they make Olson 40s?
And 29's!
Yes they did. My dream boat back then. We also had a 29 docked next to us in SF. What a cool looking boat in the day.
no, they never made a 40....hahaha.
@@SailingAnarchyUSA What!! Why the neglect! I am co-owner of an Olson 40 up in Duluth MN. Long way from California but if you are ever in the area come out for a rip! Ps. Love these videos.
@@christianfraser4027 haha. there used to be at least one here, lemme check
Your previous intro song was the hottest, sexiest intro on all of RUclips. You gotta bring it back, resurrect it like you're resurrecting these sailboats!
Cruise on an Olsen 30? Scott you are a funny guy.
I had an Olson 30 and did some cruising, but rather limited, over a couple of nights type of thing. Yes you can cruise but I would say not much more than over a weekend. Ours did have a "head" - a port-a-potty. And we had one of those one-burner butane stoves on a gymbal mount. So you can cruise an Olson 30 but it's more like camping. I'd say for the money you save buying an Olson 30 instead of a Catalina/Beneteau/whatever, you could sail fast to wherever you're going and book yourself into a nice B&B.
We cruised Double D (hull#38) from Ketchikan AK to Haida Gwaii BC then down to Vancouver BC for the delivery home from R2AK with 4 people for ~4 weeks. It was tight but it was awesome! Also cruised Dazed and Confused (hull#?) home from R2AK, Ketchikan to Vancouver via Inside Passage with 2 people in ~2 weeks. Sure, a head and a heater would've been an improvement, but it was an amazing experience.
WHAT...No mention of the sexy windows??? Common Scot, you're slippin bro!
to me, they are unremarkable. i am picky!
Hi Scott, It is time you give the little brother "Olson 25" a little attention. They have a cult following. I would love to see it featured in your channel. @sailing anarchy
You should do a Beneteau First Class 10 if you can find one
What's up with the Danish flag?
slotted toe rail....or you hook your goddman halyards to the toe rail so they don't slap all night keeping me awake....