Ariel 387 -"Arthur"

[Westgate]

I hauled the boat last week and started to do some honest reno work so I figuered I'd start a new thread documenting the adventure. I have always enjoyed watching the threads of the various reno projects and hopefully others will find it useful. At the very least it's something to do while you eat your lunch! First a few shots of the haul out!
Always a nail biter!

[Westgate]

Well we spent this weekend getting the boat ready for new paint, seacocks, and various misc renos.

Getting all the old thru-hulls off was a royal PITA. I tried the trick Casey talked about using the bolt thru but didn't work. Ended up cutting them out with a sawsall and beating the snot out of them till they let go. Don't know what was holding them on but sure was a tenacious bond.

Removed some of the old hardware associated with the fact that 387 used to carry an inboard. Took the old well cover off. Pearson (I assume) glasssed in the well cover fair. Is this the case for all inboard Ariels? PO didnt remove the cover just cut a big ol hole in it. I am going to fair the hull around the well exit and fix the hole in the cover. Also the orignal head is no more,-bye bye!, along with the thru hulls. They will be glassed over.

We also have removed the rub rails. These will be reinstalled, after fixing the various holes and gaps, with new screws.

As a result a particularly bad grounding in the inlet in 4 foot seas we had a crack in the rudder tube ( I was in the marked channel but the water wasn't!!). Hopefully no more. Ground down the old tube to remove all that weird grey stuff. Laid on a coat of thickened epoxy followed by 4 wraps of cloth. Was a bit of the job working in those tight quarters and very difficult to see the back of the tube but overkill with epoxy will hopefully take care of that.

I added a build up of thickened at the base to "copy" the grey stuff that Pearson laid on. ( sorry Ebb I never got your email but i hope I didnt screw up to badly!).

Doesn't seem like much but that took two full days (Including some rudder work see rudder discusions thread). Seems I am always in my own way on the boat. Have to move things a million times and always dig to find the right tool. Promise myself to be better organised next round!

Andrew

[Westgate]

Planning the weekend boat projects. Would really like to get the hulls stripped. I am using a RO sander with 40 grit paper on both the topsides and bottom paint but both are coming off very slowly. What you see here is about 2-1/2 days work (there is a similar amount of bottom stripped on the other side)! I got so disheartened that I bought a small can of Interpox gelcoat safe stripper to trial. Didn't do jack on the bottom paint and barely moved the topsides. Yes I followed the rules thick coating keep it wet, wait wait etc etc. There are at least 10 layer of bottom paint and one primer before you reach the gel coat. The topsides are one coat of paint and one coat of primer but this stuff is on there. I really want to take it off so I can see the condition of the bare hull and start from scratch with my boat. As for the bottom it really needs stripping with about 1/4" of flaky buildup.

ON the upside I did get the old thru-hull repairs finished. Put 3 layers of cloth/epoxy on the inside. Then followed by a bit of thickened to contour the hole and 8 layers of concentric cloth on the outside. Still needs a final fairing but I will do this when a tackle the "stripped" hull.

I guess my work is cut out for me. Hope I can get my wife to help!

[Tim Mertinooke]

Looking good! This is a nice lesson in Zen for you.

[Westgate]

Posted a few updates on other threads of the work status on Arthur. Other jobs completed this w-end were shaping and coating the new sea-cock bases and building a base for the new transducer. It will just fit in the old transducer location but needed to be build it up on the inside a bit so it could sit on a flat surface. The new ducer is 2" wide vs. the old one which was 3/4".

I also took a few pics of the holes I drilled above the rudder shoe. These are weeping salty water. The upper most hole (upper right now shown filled) actually when right through into the bilge. The last shot shows the aft bilge area. The hole came out near the bottom under that clear tube. Is the void forward of these holes in that rise up in the right of the picture or is that the butt of the keel???

Andrew

[Tim Mertinooke]

The "step" in the aft section of your bilge is the end of the lead ballast. Pearson did a shoddy job fiberglassing this area on my former Ariel and I could see water leaking out of that "step" along the bottom of the bilge. I let it dry out completely and then coated it with thickened epoxy. This stopped the migration of water in and out. Your keel void/bilge looks great. It took me many nasty hours to remove all the gunk and two lead pigs to get it looking as good as yours.

I also coated the bottom section of the bilge with a lot of thin epoxy because I had water that was making it from the inside of the bilge out through the shoe. I have pictures on my old thread (Ariel #24) showing this. I don't know how it was doing it, but I did some experiments to prove it. Once I coated the bottom with about 1/4" of unthickened epoxy, I coated it with thickened. I never got around to fairing it and painting it with Bilgekote as I sold the boat, but that was the plan. My bilge was dry all summer on its mooring. Oh yeah, I also overdrilled the holes for the rudder shoe and strap, filled with epoxy and then re-drilled the original size. I also know for a fact that the original holes drilled by Pearson for the shoe and strap allowed water to enter the bilge. Lots of pictures on my old thread.

Keep up the good work!

[Westgate]

Well we worked through Easter and we are almost there. About 4 hours left of topside sanding and our little boat will be in its birthday suit. The botttom paint (all 10,000 layers!) have been removed (That's my wife Heather running that RO like a pro!). We both looked like smurfs this w-end! We are down to bare gel-coat. Hard to say what the original colour was. Looks like a blueish grey? Looks kinda fugly if you ask me (sorry in advance to all the blue/grey Ariel owners!).

Drilled a few more test holes and finally hit paydirt. The gusher drill hole position was forward in the glass encasement for the keel. You can see the two holes just to the left of the jack stand. That is where all the water came out. Interestingly the holes around the shoe have all but dried up now so I guess they were being 'fed' by the keel water reservior. I drilled a last hole more forward ( to right of jack stand) and blew air in to rid me of this aquatic intruder. We'll let 'er drip dry for the summer before sealing it up again.

Started to fare the motor well and also got the new 'ducer installed but forgot to take a picture.

The daily grind is nearing an end!

A.

[Westgate]

Well it's finished. Can't say how many hours it took but Arthur is as Pearson made her, less some gel coat. Wasn't able to spend much time working on the boat this w-end as I had to attend a meeting.

We plan to begin the fairing process next weekend.

[epiphany]

Nice work! And lots of it, apparently! :D

(I never get tired of seeing the full shape of an Ariel...)

[mbowman]

keep it up man! Its worth it when it splashes!

[Westgate]

Hey folks!

Work on Arthur is gearing up again. I have got the decks stripped of gear and I'm in the process of sanding/grinding. Tough going! I noted some core damage under the windows and around one pulpit base. I hope to tackle these over the next few weeks.

I am wondering what is the "best" material to use in a deck recore job. Balsa, Corecell, Plywood?

Also in a typical install on an Ariel what thickness would one use for the core?

I will try and remember to take the camera next weekend....

Many thanks!

Andrew

[mbd]

Andrew, here's a thread with all sorts of info. I'm very happy with corecell. If I recall, I used 9mm. It's in the following thread...

http://pearsonariel.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=43

[Westgate]

Thanks Mike!

Sometimes I'm thwarted not by forgetting to do a search but searching for the wrong wordshttp://www.pearsonariel.org/discussion/images/icons/icon11.gif.

I follow Tim's site pretty much everyday. Watched Sea Glass transform. Would sure love it if he could paint my boat once I'm done with the grunt work...

Andrew

[mbd]

Tim is great to work with and unbelievably efficient. He was very helpful even before I decided to hire him to finish up the recore and paint the decks. At the rate I was going, I think I just might be planning to prime and paint the decks this Summer - if I'd stuck with it! :o

I have nothing but admiration for you folks who have the tenacity and wherewithal to see these jobs through. So hang in there and post lots of pics. We're here to root you on! :D

[Westgate]

I had the mast dropped yesterday. I noticed that one of the "sockets" that holds the spreader is badly cracked:eek:. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Don't mind buying new since it is an important part of the rigging.

Thanks,

Andrew

[Bill]

Does anyone know where I can get a replacement?

Search on spreader base . . .

[Westgate]

I spent a few days at the boat this past w-end. I managed to get most of the decks sanded down to gel coat. I left the side decks since these are going to be tackled for a recore. Also started the icebox hatch removal...fun stuff! Started by cutting away the rim using a sawsall and my DA with 40 grit. I wish the paint would grind down as fast as that FRP did. Next I wedged a piece of mold release coated plywood up to the interior surface and then laid 4 layers of glass on top. While this was still pretty green I laid in a piece of "Core" (on a thin layer of thickened) which in this case was just a piece of 3/4" plywood. Prob should have waited for my new balsa core to show up from JD but I doubt this will ever see water so I wasn't too concerned about the material used. After that fully kicked I laid a heavy layer of thickened around both the perimeter of the old hatch as well as the plywood to seal things up (sorry no pic). I will grind this edge down to a nice taper before I lay down three layers of biaxal and do final fairing. I will also remove the ply from the interior and lay down (up?) a few layers of glass to really seal things up. I didn't get to this last stage because it was getting dark and "cold" after 6 PM on Sunday! I have attached a few pictures because everyone likes pictures.

Weather permitting I hope to finish the hatch work and start the recore this coming w-end. I have bad areas along both side decks between the forward berth windows and location of the winches. My windows were leaking before I replaced them last year so this was likely where the water came in. Even though there are some solid sounding areas along both sides I will prob just cut the whole side out and replace it. Then its done and it will be sealed and watertight and I will no longer have to worry about it. I will cut proud of the chainplates leaving the deck intact before digging out the core and filling with thickened (a la Tim Lackey). That way I don't have to be bothered with refitting the chain plate holes and they will never leak! Richard (PO/PO) replaced the foredeck back in 2004ish. It still looks very good. I have some dull sounding deck areas between the back of the forward hatch and the base of the mast. For some reason this troubles me more than the side deck job. I have read that this can be recored using just glass.
What is the collective wisdom about this approach over say a trad recore with balsa??
I also have some possible delaminations on the coachtop. I will investigate these with a drill before proceeding. I believe they are associated with where the bolts for the hand rails went thru the coachtop.

I will let you all know how things go. I know I am going to run into problems somewhere, that's just the way it is:confused:

Andrew

[ebb]

my 2 cents on the core goes like this:

If the Factory had minded their thru deck fastenings and holes the deck would more than likely still be a great shape after 45 years. All our rot was caused by rainwater entering all the nice holes Pearson provided.

Where I went into GOOD deck on A338 the balsa was married totally with the polyester and glass. It was not possible to separate the composite. It showed to me that Baltec (or whatever balsa core is available today) would be perfect with laminating epoxy. It might even be cheaper than pvc foam (Divinylcell) which is very expensive.
If your fastening holes are not sealed per textbook, balsa does 'wick' water - while pvc foam is closed cell.

That foam is marvelous stuff. It is non-friable - you can sand it down to a feather edge and it still holds together. Better than balsa core which is all endgrain. Epoxy sticks great to the foam. It could be useful for other projects besides deckcore.
For instance A338 is going to have an epoxy frp and pvc foam core rudder.
Under water, don't use balsa.

If you can afford the closed cell foam, go with that.
But the balsa (available from Defender) is pretty neat stuff too.
You'll be encapsulating, so it will be perfectly protected for another couple generations!

Have a feeling that the balsa will suck up more epoxy than the closed cell foam will, A consideration given how shocking all this fancy material costs these days.

[josh#74]

The price of epoxy is quite a bit. I would guess that using any core material instead of solid glass would save alot of money. I have very little core in my new decks. I am at 7gallons right now. And I will need three more to finish. All of a sudden the balsa looks pretty cheap.

[Westgate]

It's off to the boat I go!

This w-end wasn't what I would call productive. Between the rain, wind and cooler temps it was hard to get much done.

Anyway I did manage to take advantage of a warm spell on Sat to lay some fibreglass into the ice hatch. I used 1708 biaxal. I really like working with that stuff. Lays down nice but it does soak up alot of the juice. Anyway the basic box has 3 layers of biax and thena few more on the port side to bring up the level a bit. I also put a layer on the underside. I will prob put one more in there and call it quits (except for fairing).

I was forced inside for pretty much the rest of the time there. I sanded the forward anchor locker in prep fo rpainting w bilgecoat. Later I put down two coats. Nice paint covers well and goes on pretty easily. Next I focused on the strongback. It was really on eyesore. I supported the SB with a 2x4 and then removed the metal reinforcement plate. I then trimmed up the glass with the dremel making a nice clean edge. The glass had been just torn out to install the metal reinforcement plate. Next I sanded down the SB and its supports. This I did not only to rid myself of the paint but to enable me to have a good look at the SB itself to determine if replacement was necessary. Much to my surprise everything looked good. One issue....looks like Pearson's boys filled (well not actually filled!) the gaps between the SB and the supports on both sides with bondo after cutting both suports short. Maybe this was done for a reason but if so it was not apparant to me?? Anyway I will either dig out the bondo and re-glue with thickened or replace the supports with new oak timbers. The SB itself looks in good shape. I will replace the metal support once everything is cleaned and varished.

Spent a bit of time grinding but it was half hearted. I decided not to start the recore but wait for a better forecast.

Here are a few pictures to sweeten the deal!

Andrew

[Westgate]

Here are some pics of the SB assembly. Not finished with the sanding but got the majority of the old paint off. Very happy that it looks a bit more shippy..well on its way to looking more shippy. The oak actually looks much nicer than the photos show.

Now I have to do something about the rest of the forepeak:eek:

Andrew

[ebb]

Andrew,
SB looks well fitted and plenty strong!
You put a fair curve back into the roof...fantastic.

Dunno 1708bixal but it looks and sounds (thirsty) like x-mat.
Indeed, great fabric in many ways.
You obviously have fun with the stuff!!!

[Westgate]

Thanks Ebb!

Given your level of expertise with these matters why do you think they did not fit those supports better? Friday afternoon, too much wine with lunch?? Do you think that I should take care to flush those supports up. If so what would be the recommendation?

Andrew

[ebb]

Andrew,
I still think that after 45 years the Support structure in Ariels just shrunk.
And I would think that since no glue was used by Pearson on the plywood bulkhead, only screws were used, you know, the bracing and all just settled over time. Naturally the mast being pulled into the cabin by the rigging helped some.

Some thought should be put onto where the StrongBack forces are ending up in that part of the boat. If we were going to design this compression beam from scratch we would probably put a wide band of built-up material all around the edge of the bulkhead against the hull - across the top AND across the bilge. Totally spread the load. Whether we can do this is another thing.

The major beam support cross braces in 338 were terminated onto the V-berth lid. There was no extra bracing or cleats or whatever, except for some frp tabbing of the lid to the bulkhead (and the hull).
Of course the V-berth box structure does somewhat 'spread the load' of the mast compression to the hull. But the Pearson braces can easily deflect the V-berth tops. imco

Modern fiberglass boats are going to end up with prominent hard spots, or vertical ridges from any bulkhead if it bears on the hull with a huge load on it.
Ariels have thicker hulls generally and the overall tabbing of some interior ply structures have locked in support. I didn't notice this vertical inside bulkhead ridge phenomena on 338. Actually there were prominent horizontal hard spots along the hull made by the stringers that distracted my attention.

But we can visually check out where the downward force of the mast ends up inside the boat. Mental arrows.
That's why I added extra plywood on the inside of the V-berth glued to the existing bulkhead. Adding a large cleat. Got in there by jigsawing the top off. I believe this provides direct support for the struts holding the beam up that are terminated on top of the berths. I put on extra tabbing over extra wide fillets. Overbuilt everything in true amateur fashion. But I'm sure the hull shares the load now.

Also added a piece fitted into the bilge and across the step - a natural place because this is the step up into the forward stateroom. I think of it as closing the circle. Maybe it's Druid, or mystical?
Practical?.....no.
I believe everything under the mast should be immobilized and that the whole structure, ply and braces across the roof and in the bilge should be one piece as much as possible.

Thinking wasn't clear in the beginning. I added on. A little here, a little there. I really think now that the whole Pearson bulkhead thingy should have been pulled out in the beginning and a whole mo' better constructed support system put in from scratch. Next time.

Well, we have what we have. It looks like you've got it covered pretty good. Especially if you are epoxy gluing everything together.


Fiberglass boats are monoques - their strength comes from their skin rather than interior framing like wood boats. lobster vs salmon.
I feel any interior framing on my part should be part of this concept. Web frames and attachment points all seamlessly going from one to the other. Interconnected comparments, yea, liketh the inside of the mighty lobster.
The Support Beam is an exception because the mast is a point load. The beam is actually guaranteeing that the cabin roof keeps its arch.
[If the crustacean image is apt, it's funny that the Alberg/swede word for lobster is HUMMER!]

Epoxy and glass, with a little white oak thrown in, makes it, as you show, not a problem and fun to do.:rolleyes:

[Westgate]

Thanks for the thoughts Ebb! I like your exo/endo skeletal comparison. As long as our boats don't ever develop a hydrostatic skeleton :eek: we should all be fine (Bio-geek talk!).

I may dig around a bit and see if there are any easy to access points below that I could reinforce. My plan is NOT to rip out the bunk so we will have to see what presents itself.

I'll be sure to keep posting!

Andrew

[carl291]

I notice your bulkworks doesn't have the angled oak beams, Have they been removed? Or is it possible your vessel didn't have them. Installing them would give added support

[Westgate]

Yes I have noticed this too. There is no indications that they were ever there (scars, old screw or nail holes sloppy bondo). Arthur is 387 in the run. Do other boats around this have them?

Andrew

[mbd]

A-414 does not have them either.

PS. Looking good Andrew!

[carl291]

I didn't see any scar damage in your photos either.:eek: A-259 has them.
Carl

[ebb]

Just to be clearer - but maybe not apropos:
A338 did have those diagonals, which of course made textbook immovable triangular bracing.
Those white oak braces terminated on the v'berth, and imco the as-built v'berth provided little if any support, being 1/2" plywood with a little cleat under it. You know, they made great effort to immobilize the compression beam but the system was not grounded.

Ultimately the support beam is/was held up by the doorway posts alone.
Those posts terminate on the hull. But they are screwed to the plywood bulkhead. I would say that all together nothing moves that much in this original Pearson setup. But as we know over time it did move.

Might take a worklight to the boat outside if still in the jacks and shine it low angle along the hull where this bulkhead is and see if you have any bumps photographing through. Can also lay a long horizontal batten where you think the bulkhead is to see if there are apparent hollows on either side.


imco we have to think of the mast as a dynamic load on the interior support structure. It's always working, moving, changing, loads could get extreme on certain points of sail. That's why I think it's wise to look at where this load ends up inside the hull. That's all.....

[Westgate]

Faced with another rainy weekend which for me means inside work. (Really need to build a shelter!) Decided to grind the forepeak. As I'm sure others would confess who have done similar...not a fun job! Dirty, dusty, hard to reach, glass in your eyes, cramping arms...yes just plain hell!

Anyway the bulk of the hard grinding is done. I have some finish sanding, then plan to do some fairing then prime and paint.

Speaking of paint what have others used for forepeak paint application? Brands, types?

Well hope we get some drier days ahead....

[Commander227]

Thats one of the nastiest jobs you can find on a boat!
I've had good luck using two part epoxy paint for garage floors. it is bright, glossy & easy to keep clean. It doesn't yellow or mildew. It is also quite inexpensive compared to marine products, like $70.00 for the 2 gal. kit.

[epiphany]

I'd been dreading the sanding forever. Tried different things, to avoid it. Was almost convinced I was gonna have to get one of Ebb's fancy Fein sanders, when I tried "CitriStrip", an orange-colored stripper for about $10/quart at WallyWorld. It doesn't have any fumes, is non-toxic (so long as you don't drink it, I guess), and does a bang-up job on old latex. Below you'll see what I mean - that was an easy afternoon, no sanding whatsoever, used a little less than a quart per side of the v-berth. Probably woulda spent that much on paper, sanding...

That other bottle of stuff there is not paint stripper. At least, not when mixed properly with some ginger beer... :D

The whiter part of the hull (running diagonally up towards the bow) is a thicker layer of glass, & might even be a slightly different kind than the rest.

[Westgate]

I could have used a shot or many of the old Black Seal last w-end. ;)

Your strip job looks great. Of course you are not out of the woods yet if there is any fairing in your future. My forepeak looks like it was glassed by, well, Black Seal imbibers!:D

[epiphany]

My forepeak looks like it was glassed by, well, Black Seal imbibers!:D

One of 'em grabbed a side grinder and applied it with great abandon while they were down there, too, from the looks of mine... :D

I'll be tabbing in small bulkheads directly to the hull; so along the line of the glasswork I will be applying sandpaper, but more to get down to 'virgin' surface for bonding purposes than for cosmetics.

Once the bulkheads are in, then I will be encapsulating a layer of sheet foam direct against the hull inside the compartments created, topped with doorskin or luan ply and a layer of glass over that. The end result should be pretty even and paint-ready without needing much in the way of fairing, so I might be able to dodge that bullet also.

The overhead I am still trying to figure out. I would like to get at least a thin layer of foam applied there (for insulation purposes).

My work results tend to be more of a "workman-like finish" (I love that phrase, it covers defects better than Bondo), rather than the polish and perfection of Master Craftsmen here like Ebb, Tony, Geoff... One of the few trades I have never participated in as a way to reap a paycheck is carpentry, so there is a lot more of trial and error and "acceptable results" in what I am capable of than the beauty I see in others work around here. :)

[Westgate]

It was a fantastic w-end at the boat. Mid 70's, Carolina blue sky. That means outdoor work.

Putting off the recore job :confused:I figured I'd get started on the bottom. My plan here is to prep., fair, barrier coat and then bottom paint. Started by sanding everything down with 80 grit using the DA. Tried to get most of the sander marks out that were left when we stripped the 14 layers of bottom paint. The gel coat below the water line is not in great shape so I didn't mind sanding it down to smooth things out a bit. After a good cleaning with soap and LOTS of water I let it dry before hitting it with a 202 solvent wash. This was prob not necessary but I figured it was prob good to be careful. Next I rolled on a nice layer of epoxy using a 9" foam brush tipping with a foam paint applicator. This took about 26 pumps per side using West System (sorry Ebb:eek:). I did it in in 4 x 13 pump applications. This worked very well although the roller burned up pretty much 5 mins after I finished each side. Fuming epoxy is never pretty!

While this kicked I got to work finishing the hatch fairing job and the backstay reinforcement (yes that needed to get fixed too!).

Got a almost final layer of fairing gunk on the ice hatch cover after a detailed sanding job using a variety of tools. I was trying to be very careful not to spread epoxy tailings all over my wet hull so I enlisted the help of the shop vac. An aside... my boat sits right next to a VERY dusty road (8 feet away!). So the w-end was punctuated with manic spraydowns of said road at 30 min intervals. Aside number two... so 'ya see some hairbag working on his boat. Aforementioned hairbag is using a paint roller to apply something to the boat. Hmmmm interesting...Make sure you wave because this is Sneads Ferry and that's what people do BUT do 'ya slow down...no way! Dust city!!! Before the paint job I'm installing speed bumps!

So ice hatch cover is close to a memory. I will not miss it. On to the backstay. So PO had do a very nice job of replacing the chainplate to an external type. Very heavy duty, very overbuilt ( I like!). I wasn't happy with the plywood backing he built up on the transom so decided to reinforce it up a bit. Started with fillets to the sides of the existing plywood. Next layed down 3 layers of biax. Finished up with a bit of fairing and some external fillets. Looks much stronger now. Encapsulated the old fibreglass/ply with a serious fiberglass lamination. I think if this sucker parts it will take the whole transom with it:eek:

After I hit the hull with some fairing while the epoxy was still pretty green. Tomorrow (taking a day off) I will go over everything with a sand then start the barrier coat. I am looking forward to seeing how the Interlux 2002 seals/covers everything up. I have enough for at least 5 coats. Stand by for results on the 'morow!

The boat and I went through a serious rough patch during the blue days of Feb but we are back in LOVE now it's March and DST to boot!!

Here are a few pics in no particular order Backstay job then a few pics of the hull. If you look carefully you can see some gloss! Final pic of icebox hatch?......

Just realised the boat has been on the hard for just over a Year! Man that sure wasn't part of the original haulout plan:eek:

[commanderpete]

WOW...that's some hard work.

I think it helps when laying up the biax to add a layer of cloth on top. Makes fairing it smooth a bit easier

Love your work. It will all be worth it.

[Westgate]

I applied 5 coats of Interlux 2000 barrier coat. After an entire year of taking stuff off the boat it was sure nice to put something back on! Stuff went on without a hitch except at the get go when I tried to use a foam roller which promply dissolved:eek:. So traded for a traditional paint roller and everything was good. After sanding the bottom and cleaning with soap and water we rolled on 2 coats at a 2.5 hour interval (it was 80 yesterday:)). When back today and rolled on 3 more coats. They say that you need 10 mils but how do you determine paint thickness?

Also finished the ice hatch and Laz fairing/ sanding. I painted the laz with a coat of Bilgecoat. After painting the anchor locker with plain grey I decided that was too dark so this time I mixed it 50/50 with white. Created a much more pleasing colour! I left the motor well for now because am not sure what I'm going to do with it

I have read that you really need to get your boat in the water no later than 2 mths after applying Trinidad bottom paint. I am assuming that is because the Cu in the paint oxidizes in the air. I really need to get the bottom paint on the Interlux ASAP so I was thinking of hitting it with a single coat and then putting the second one on before splash. Any thoughts/suggestions here would be a great help!

Thanks for the tip C'pete. I have some glass mat that I will use as a top layer next time around.....like say during the recore!

Andrew

Hey you get action shots today thanks to my wife who was a great help this long weekend.

[Westgate]

Got out to the boat for a few hours the other day. Was able to dry fit the new sea-cocks. I first drilled holes in the backing plates that I previously had cut out of some 5/8" plywood. Next I used some old conduit that was lying out in the yard to align the backing plate with the old hole. I was worried about using the actual thru-hull for this because of epoxy squeeze out. The plastic I figured would pop right out. So the bit the bullet and mixed up some thickened and laid this on the backing plate and set them into place. I fussed with it for a bit but then walked away and waited for the epoxy to kick. Once things had set up I pulled out the plastic and things looked pretty good. I dry fitted the sea-cocks and thru hulls and got the positioning down. I ran out of time so didn't get the bolt holes drilled or the thru-hulls seated in but next time. I plan to use pipe dope on the threads and 4200 as the sealant. I need to order some sil-bronze 5/16" machine screws and hardware since nobody in town seems to carry those. I lost count as to how many times I was up and down the ladder during what should have been a very easy task but felt like 100's!

[ebb]

Things are charging right along there, Westgate
- and looking good!!!

Pvc can be glued by epoxy. It's not the best bond, but it sticks.
Seran Wrap film (polyehylene) works great as a barrier to epoxy.
When the epoxy sets up the film falls off.
That means you can wrap nearly anything in the plastic to get the shape or barrier ypu want.
You got lucky if that piece of pvc conduit didn't stick in the hole there.:eek:

[Tony G]

Nice work going on there! Are those the two cockpit scupper drains you are showing in the photos above? It appears they are. If so, it also appears you have added some or repaced some wood work in that area. Spill the beans, man.

We may need to see some photo work of the area just to get up to speed with any changes/mods in the area. While it has been balmy in your neck of the woods it's still way too cold to do boat work here. So if you would...indulge us in a little boat work voyeurism.:D

Thanks in advance.

[Westgate]

Work (real work not fun boat work!) has impeded progress on Arthur this past month. I am going to try and get out sometime in the next few days.

One development of note...was able to pick up a "new" Lewmar Ocean series hatch on Craigslist. It was manufactured back in 1999 but was never even taken out of the box. Smelled a bit musty but looks to be in perfect shape. The price was more than perfect:D. It is a flange model which I didn't necessarily want but couldn't past up the deal.
Our plan is to enlarge the existing forward hatch, trim it up with a wood base and screw it down. This is a 70 series which I believe is a few inches wider all round than the existing hole. Should make movement in out easier as well as stuffing sails. I am really looking forward to getting some light in our dark forepeak!:)

Oh yes Happy Easter/Passover

[Westgate]

Finally got back out to the boat today.
Started by test fitting the new forward hatch. Looked pretty good and should be very straight-forward to install. Too bad one couldn't just screw it down as is:eek:.

Finished the thru-hull installation. Was a simple job really but consisted of many steps and many trips up and down the ladder! Cross that one off the list!

The plug for the motor well had never been removed from the boat. The PO (after removing the A4) cut a hole thru the plug so he could use an outboard in the well. I removed the plug from the boat last year during the hull stripping. I wanted to rebuild the plug so I could use it for its intended purpose. Today I sanded it down as best I could and layed down three layers of biaxial over the hole. I will grind, fair and paint it in the near future.

Also test hung the newly rebuilt rudder. Naturally I had to first dig a trench to allow the rudder to be lowered down so the post could be fitted into the tube. This took some time! Once the trench was finished the rudder went on w/o a hitch. I wanted in ensure that the rudder fit after the expensive work that I did on it and also wanted to size up and fit the gungeon strap. Really the trench digging was the time consumer, the rest only took a few minutes.

I find after some time away from the boat it takes awhile to get a good head of steam up. Today was one of those days, productive of sort but lots of time spent looking and thinking:o.

I few pictures of course.

Andrew

[Westgate]

Has it really been 2 whole years! Very sad. We have made some headway but I must admit that the progress has been mimimal. We did end up buying a new trailer. Had it made by a shop outside Atlanta GA. Boat fits on it very well. We moved the boat from the marina (last July) to a "temp" storage facility. The plan is to get her home so I can at least putter at it. In sight in mind kind of thing!

Hopefully some new real updates soon. Still lots left to do. Be would like to splash by the fall but remember the original "haulout" was only going to be a few weeks. Where does the time go????

Hope everyone is well. It's feels good to be back!

Andrew