Introduction

[pbryant]

I am the proud new owner of Ariel #75: Jubilee.

I understand she has quite a history in the Bay, and I feel honored to have found my way to her.

-Patrick

[C38]

Congrats! I look forward to seeing many photos ;-)

Tons of great info here, dig in!

[commanderpete]

Welcome Patrick,

It seems that Don Morrison won the Class Championship Trophy 20 times in 30 years on Jubilee. Quite a record.

A fine boat that I'm sure will make you happy.

Cheers,

Peter

[Ariel 109]

Welcome aboard! Owning Jubilee must be sort of like owning Secretariat.

It would be great to know the history of the SF Ariel racing class. When did it start? If there were an Ariel / Commander hall of fame who would be in it? It's all kind of foggy for all us recent owners.

Were there other Ariel fleets?

[Bill]

Welcome aboard! Owning Jubilee must be sort of like owning Secretariat.

It would be great to know the history of the SF Ariel racing class. When did it start? If there were an Ariel / Commander hall of fame who would be in it? It's all kind of foggy for all us recent owners. Were there other Ariel fleets?

Some of that information is available on the ACYA home page. There were a couple of other fleets early on, but none had as long a run as the one here in the SF Bay Area. If not for it, there would be no ACYA discussion forum.

[pbryant]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome!

Yes, it is a bit like buying Secretariat, but I realize such an extraordinary racing record says more about the sailor than the specific vessel. The analogy to horses is an apt one. I am not an experienced horseman, but while I lived in Texas I had the opportunity to ride an exquisitely well-trained horse. After only a few minutes of instruction from its trainer, I sat in the saddle, hands off the reins and feet out of the stirrups, while I commanded the horse to walk sideways, backward, and forward through each of its gates - all by simply shifting my weight ever so slightly in the saddle. I was amazed and delighted at how this horse made me look good, while all the credit really belonged to its trainer.

I feel the same way about my Ariel. Its behavior is the designer's mind actualized in its motion. Having sailed many types of boats her size and larger, she has the touch and feel of thoroughbred racehorse, without any skittish temperamental issues. Docile, predictable, refined ... yet responsive.

Jubilee is in good condition, though her electrical system needed some work. The fuses were intermittent. I found that the springs in the fuse holders had fatigued after being compressed for 47 years, and corrosion had taken its toll on the contact surfaces. These were easy to replace with new holders of identical design. Beware of the fuse holders sold at West Marine: they are labeled as having a maximum "15 amp" capacity on the box, but are labeled by the manufacturer as being limited to 10 amps. The terminal holes will not accept a wire gauge larger than AWG 18 (which is fine for only 10 amps), while the panel wiring is a larger gauge. (Note: I don't trust any safety-critical connections that are only crimped in a salty marine environment - I solder or braze everything.) I hope no one's boat has gone up in smoke due to the mislabeling of this product. If one only crimped the slide-on wire connectors commonly used, they'd never notice the too-small diameters of the West Marine fuse holder contacts that are there for soldered connections.

The negative copper buss bar was badly corroded to the point that the slots in the screw heads could no longer be seen, and most of the crimped-on positive buss terminals didn't pass the wiggle test for intermittent continuity. The crimps had lost their compression after 47 years, the wires could be easily spun 360 degrees inside the crimp lugs, and the wires were green from corrosion. It's normal and harmless for copper to oxidize to a chocolate brown patina, but any green stuff on the terminals (copper sulfate) deserves inspection. While stripping the wires to install new lugs, I found that the corrosion had migrated several inches up underneath the wire insulation. That was easily cleaned with scotch-brite. The new "water proof" terminal lugs that have an integral heat shrink insulating shank are great for keeping salt air off the copper. If one doesn't feel like crimping and then soldering the lugs, at least "tin" the copper lead with solder before inserting it into the lug for crimping. Tin plated copper wire doesn't need tinning.

I work in communications (I'm a former broadcast engineer), and I couldn't resist installing an automatic radio position reporter. I used an inexpensive self-contained Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) transmitter that runs on AA cells. You can view the results here: http://aprs.fi/?call=n8qh-8&mt=roadmap&z=11&timerange=604800. The service is free, and I can send a few position reports (even short emails) per day from anywhere on earth via the International Space Station - which is great for cruising beyond sight of land (details here: http://www.issfanclub.com/node/28507). Within sight of land, reports are relayed to the Internet through a system of volunteer gateways. The position reports are plotted on Google Maps with my position, heading, and ground speed every half mile while under way, and it's great for critiquing my own sailing at the end of the day. (For any radio geeks here, you can see the raw packet traffic here: http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&call=N8QH-8. Packets showing a path through "[/URL]RS0ISS-4" where relayed through the [URL="http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station/reference/radio/"]Russian repeater (http://aprs.fi/?c=raw&limit=&call=RS0ISS-4) aboard ISS.) If anyone's interested in how all that stuff works, just let me know!

Thanks again everyone for the welcome!

-Patrick