The Great Houdini

No Kiddin'--- who knows what you might be liable to bring up...:D

Watch out Ebb, the moderator might give you a stern warning.

George, Share with us (me) your criteria for a successful dodger. I see a real conflict between what looks good, a low dodger, and one that is taller and easy to get below in. Seems like it's easier to get out from below than get down from the cockpit under a fixed dodger with just enough headroom when seated in the corner.

The dodger on an Ariel can't intrude into the cockpit area too much. But the dodger I've just experienced had strong handholds on side and back that made standing very safe and getting up to go forward easy. Anybody standing 'at the bar' made steering a little difficult with the tiller. Is a shorter tiller necessary?

The vinyl windows you have to see through while seated is to me a big problem, as they scratch, are wavey to see thru, even worse with water on them.

The truck cab dodger (squarish top and squarish sides) and not being able to see around the thing while seated at the tiller, makes me wonder if there are other configurations. Maybe even taller cushions in the cockpit.

I'm going to make a story frame soon to get a shape and a way, I guess, to factor in a glass center window.

How do you know you will be happy with what the dodger maker comes up with? Thanks!

There is a cheaper alternative to a dodger that will not block visibility, clutter the deck, or obscure the feel of the wind for your built-in telltales (your skin). There is also a lot more windage there (a dodger) than you'd like to think there is.

Grundens make incredibly durable and dry foul-weather gear that is a bazillion times better than anything from the WM-type outfits. A visit to your local fishboat chandelry with a 100.00 bill will solve it real well. Hey...it's a wet boat by design.

If you sail someplace you are worried about getting cold, Mustang make a tremendous worksuit/flotation coverall, which is about 400.00 new but can be had for half that used at a seajunk store near you or on E-bay. They are not 100% waterproof but you won't care...these are like a sleeping bag you put on and walk around in. I always have to take off my trousers and sweater when I put mine on so I don't die of overheating, unless it is January and/or there's a Nor-Easter piping.

If you are worried about the comfort of guests or whatnot...well, if they are going to have a real issue with the conditions, they may be the wrong guests for the boat you have. The boat has guaranteed good taste and can be a good filter for keeping you out of social interaction with people who are not particularly good for you! <<This very feature saved me from much grief and eliminated the influence of a counter-productive girlfriend, in fact...which cleared the way for me to eventually get a-wed to Mary...who, while shivering in my spare foul-weather gear (which had been my granddad's and was guite old and leaky) refused my offer to go back in despite pouring rain and commented that HAVING a certain anatomical element was a far different thing than BEING one, thank you much! (Yep, I almost proposed on the spot!)>>

You work and slave hard for the boat, and wherever she can she'll pay you back for it...if you let her. Who knows, Ebb---that dodger could be tantamount to having a muzzle on a guard dog! Ha!

Besides the aesthetics, I don't care for cluttering the boat with things that impede her function as what she is...a sailboat. Inside, covered steering stations (which, to me, a dodger sort of aspires to wish to be) are for powerboats and Hunte-Bene-Linas that are really just your basic motorsailor with some racy bodywork. Not the Ariel...she's a sailboat, and a fine one at that...and should just be embraced as such.

OK...off of my soapbox...which, I will readily admit, is not an antique soapbox but rather a milk crate I stole from behind the 7-11! LOL!

Dave

Dave,

I may not fully agree with you (I have not decided yet),
but I have got to tell you that was one fine post.

Thanks. :D

think I would prefer to be huddled in the lee of the dodger with a cup of hot tea.
than braced to the nines and velcroed into my Type V one man life raft, with the ocean and the rain blasting down the companionway,

The dodger for the ever-so-comely Houdini has a fairly low profile. From the bottom of the boom (which is still at the height prescribed by the Nordic icon, Alberg) the top of the dodger sits about 2 inches. The problems you might expect in getting in and out of the cabin are alleviated by the center portion of the windscreen: like most of them down here, it is a zippered affair that you simply roll up and snap under the forward dodger frame. The resulting hole allows me (I'm 6'1'') to move in and out of the companion way with minimal contortions. The visibility problems are minimal: I have one of those carry-on, folding seats from Boat US (about 99.00) which makes viewing around the outside of the dodger comfortable enough, especially since the side-frames for the dodger are angled inboard about 10 degrees. The bimini zips to the following edge of the dodger. As for the whole question of whether to dodger or not to dodger...well, the Texas heat will solve that question for you soon enough. If you don't have boat canvas you are one ripe candidate for heat stroke or hard-boiling from July to October. You will simmer in your own juices quite nicely. If we didn't have such hellish summers here, I would probably not have any canvas, simply because keeping it clean and repaired, etc, is just one more element of the constant work attached to owning my beloved boat. And, overall, I suspect not having these admitted obstacles would improve boat safety to some degree. I'll post some photos of the new dodger and bimini tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Hi, George--

I wasn't assailing your dodger head-on, I hope you understand...just the things in general...and of course like I say it is just one man's opinion.

And Ebb...
I just want a pic of how you drink the tea whilst huddling in the aforementioned spot and steer the boat at the same time...

If it's wet and/or rough and/or raining, and if you have either done a seahood or gotten creative with the 3M Super Weatherstrip Adhesive and closed-cell foam...nothing will find its' way down. Even if it is just raining pretty good, it stays good and dry below with the boards in and hatch shut...and you only have to slide the hatch back a teeny bit (and briefly!) to get at that thermos bottle in its' bracket or better still that sweet hissing SeaSwing for the bevvy.

I only wear the Mustang suit when it is COLD out or particularly snotty, and then it is sheer luxury. Most of the time, the Grundens (bibs and jacket) with the neoprene cuffs that seal to the wrists, and maybe topped off with one of their good sou'wester hats...along with my trusty cheap-o kneehigh Gill boots keep me nice and dry except for my hands and face...and a good 'Wooly Pully' sweater from Brigade Quartermasters, pair of old BDU trousers (they dry fast) and some Carhartt longjohns keep me pretty warm. Like I said, if it gets too cold for my taste like that I have to strip to be able to stand the Mustang suit. The only time I can ever remember wearing a sweater under that thing was in January in a NE blow at a steady 20 kt...aboard the Dragon. Brrr!

Growing up we always had cheapy foul gear, no heat in the boat, etc...and so we never used the boat after Sept, Oct. at the latest. Later, I sailed my little Ranger 23 in a lot of conditions at a lot of times of year with no heat and the same kind of crappy foul gear. It was an adventure, I was young, but it was an excercise in endurance to be sure!

Discovering things like Grundens, Mustang suits, SeaSwings, Woodstoves and Kerosene Bulkhead Heaters (around here the propane variety tend to create rain from the overhead) about 5 years ago was a revelation to be sure! While I never managed to fit all of them into the budget on the Commander, I got the Mustang and the Grundens, and "WoW!". What a great thing, to be able to use the boat year 'round! As long as you are fairly dry, you'll be warm. If I genuinely couldn't maintain a level of comfort, I'd consider the other stuff.

The bestest hand-warmer I can think of is a cup of hot raspberry tea in one of those good old heavy china mugs that the Navy supplies so readily. <GGG> Actually, I think mine have worn-off Power Squadron logos...at least some of 'em!

I'd also go to the length of saying that as far as sloppy weather is concerned...if we took away ALL of the discomfort, well, the space belowdecks--regardless of treatment might seem confining and dreary to retire to instead of warm, cheery and nurturing like we want it to...dunno.

I do have a boom tent that has spreader bars and can work as a sun cover as well, and that is indeed a must if it is sunny and hot...of course, it only does any good if the boat is at dock/anchor/mooring...but a good GTH-hat and an old longsleeve white dress shirt a size too big do a nice job at keeping a guy fairly cool as long as the boat is moving and I have a little air moving back over the deckhouse. If I got no wind, I'm anchored wherever that may happen to be...and then I got that cover.

There are just so many crappy boats out there, you know, that can't do what a good little boat can...people with those boats can never have the full experience that people with the 'little boats that could' have available...it just seems a shame to waste the opportunity, especially if we can do it without suffering.

Oh Boy...I may have run over my nickel's worth.

Dave

No offense taken. It is easy to take the nautical accoutrements one step too far and find yourself in a water-borne girly house instead of a manly seagoing vessel. And yes, ye briny feminists, I am a chauvenist--and by all reports a well accomplished one: just ask The Nearly Perfect Wife. By the way, I had her tending a short in the starboard running light this weekend. Photos as I get them loaded. She's a great XO and a first rate Engineering Officer, too. Always shows up for muster, too. She's downright famous around the marina. Aaaarrrr.

Dave, you is a regular fashion statement! And Dave, watch that raspbreey tea, unless you is pregnant again. Does taste a little like black tea, tho

I sure hope someday to have my own Breathable Mustang Immersion Worksuit. Coarse I'm 6'4 and about as wide and heavy, how will I get below? Can't get thru the companionway as it is!. Will haveta change under the DODGER! Out of doors for life. And who's steering while you get the bloody suit on? And whose gonna love ya after you spend even a few hours cooking inside? Hmmmmm?

Capt. George, I'm unfamiliar with the whole center section, including the center window, being unzipperable. Looking forward to some fotos.
There still is a structural frame bar going across. right? whicch you duck under and then up in the zippered part?

In my dreams I see on 338 a hard windscreen brought back on the sides to at least the cabin edge. The rest is articulkated pipe and canvas, so that when going below or coming up one could pull the dodger toward the front amd get out gracefully. Otherwise, if one had a rigid dodger all round, the center could lift and be folded, hinged, forward to accomplish the task. Across ship handholds would still be welded in, perhaps in sections. I have a feeling that the use of the boat with a dodger is directly proportional to the ease of egress from and ingress below. And ease of maintenance of the addition is the same factor.

I definitely see the dodger adding another room to the cruising Ariel. On the Commander. I guess the addition would be nothing short of spectacular! Definitely each skipper has his own contribution in this department. And this ole wannabe salt wants it to be as sweet as it can be! Here's to the well designed vomitorium.

Balancing any cup of tea in a moon suit UNDER the dodger is the way to go.

Ebb, thou shouldst not fret over your 6'4'' frame in connection to your travel into and out of the cabin in proximity to the well-conceived dodger. I say this from bitter experience with my brother-in-law. The Nearly Perfect Wife and I invited him and my too-tall sister aboard two weekends back, and I noticed that Rob had no trouble getting below on his many trips up and down the companion-way ladder to retrieve his many beers. Though the dodger gave him no trouble, his equilibrium was less accomodating, as my settee cushions (which, incidentally, match exactly my khaki and navy blue motif) will attest. He was a matchless work of grace and stability coming out of the companion-way in one to two foot swells, but was a blundering oaf while seated on the sette. He spilled beer--so much beer-- with such profligate and random enthusiasm that I thought he might have been trying to marinate a cat in it. To punctuate the evening, he leaned his 250 lb frame upon one elbow and sent it through the dodger at a seam--which is why I find myself replacing the canvas at this late date. All this said, one might find hope for the utility in a dodger, but it makes a sad excuse for a pallet for the local drunk. As a vomitorium, though, it might do.

Sitting for hours in soggy underwear is miserable.

I learned that when I was a baby.

The S2T (Sheet-to-Tiller) steering gear does that pretty good (steering while I change clothes). Easy-Cheap-Effective. Well detailed in John S. Letcher Jr.'s old book 'Self Steering for Sailing Craft', Jay Fitzgerald's book 'Wind and Tide' and in an article in the OarClub site's archives.

If it's just cold but not raining, tho, I am more likely to just keep driving and get as nekked as needed in the cockpit.

Once the excess clothing is gone, there's not much excessive cooking in that suit...but you know, Mary has one too...so it's like the garlic/onion rule that says it's OK if both of you eat it!
:D
Dave

Here you go, Ebb. A nice cool corner for you.

Bimini and dodger up on the mighty Houdini