Ariel # 75, formerly named "Jubilee" and now renamed "Ad Astra."
She had a very worn surface with chips, scratches, spider lines, and surfaces worn down to bare fiberglass. The molded-in anti-skid surface was worn smooth in areas of heavy use, and no longer safe.
Inboard jib tracks had been installed and, judging by the multiple perforations into the cabin headliner, reinstalled several times. The through holes had contributed to leaks. I removed these tracks prior to painting.
I chose a one part polyurethane finish, on the advice of Interlux. Epoxy based paints are tougher, but less flexible and difficult to repair. I used Interlux white Pre-Kote (4279), Brightside white (Y4359) on the hull and cabin top. I retained the original lines between smooth surface and anti-skid, and used sand beige (YJG009) for the anti-skid areas. Once fully cured (which took weeks in the cold wet weather this spring), the paints are very tough.
The tiller was rotted to the extent that it came apart in my hands when I replaced it. I used a slightly longer tiller. The tiller attachment casting had two stress cracks (look closely for these on your boat - you could lose the ability to operate the rudder!) and was repaired by welding by Advanced Welding, Inc. in Mountain View, CA.
I've installed 100 watts of solar panels. The panels are very thin - only 3/16 inches thick, have a non-skid walkable surface, and perform as specified. They are made by Aurinco.
I have also added a class B AIS transponder. These have come down in price and give real peace of mind in reduced visibility. It's great to know that the Coast Guard and any vessel 300 gross tons and above can see me on their navigation display - and unlike radar - AIS can see around corners and bridges. I used a transponder from ACR. With AIS, you can see a plot of Ad Astra here: http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/dat...MMSI=367431840. I've heard of sailors carrying the SPOT transponder - but that's useless for traffic avoidance. You can't see the other ships around you, and no vessel or the Coast Guard is going to look you up on the web to find your boat to avoid a collision!
I also installed a Precision Aviation compass designed for aircraft. It doesn't suffer gimbal lock when the boat heels (it's accurate even upside-down) and swirl errors (pendular swinging after heading changes). It also gives a right-side-up non-reversed display of headings. With conventional bulkhead compasses, you are looking at the back side of the compass card and headings are consequently reversed. It cost about the same as a "boat" compass. We used the same type of "wet" compass in planes, but most pilots have happily replaced them since the 1980s.
I considered replacing the coaming boards, but they cleaned up and varnished nicely, and show wear that indicates the good use the boat has received. The only rigging change I made was to add a downhaul for the jib.
I replaced every incandescent with LEDs, which allows me to turn on every light on the boat (nav, bow, steaming, and cabin lights) while drawing less than one amp. I also installed 200 amp hours of cycling-type batteries (130 pounds added to the ballast) and a Schottky diode pair rated at 160 amps for load balancing.
By the way, I've seen the question come up a couple of times here: "can an Ariel be Coast Guard documented?" Yes, the USCG documented mine without batting an eye. My reason for documenting Ad Astra was my discovery that someone, somewhere in California, had another boat with "hull number 75" that had a lien recorded against it and so... it took 6 months for me to clear the title with the DMV by proving it wasn't MY boat that had the lien. Now, I can happily ignore the foibles of the California DMV! Plus, when I now take my Ariel down to Mexico, it is legally U.S. territory -- not just a California-registered car that floats.
The last photo is a view with some masking tape still in place.
Attachment 7538Attachment 7539Attachment 7540Attachment 7541Attachment 7542
