5 Attachment(s)
Sea Sprite 23 #670 "Heritage"
Hello all,
I know, I know, It's not a great Commander or an Ariel, but it's still a classic Alberg design that I now find myself steward of. So..., based on a few folks on this wonderful forum who have expressed an interest in my latest vessel endeavors, here's her debut:
Her lines were orinally drawn in 1959 by Carl Alberg and she was marketed as the "ALBERG 23", later changed to Sea Sprite 23. This vessel is hull # 760, built in 1982 by C. E. Ryder.
She has not been in the water in over 10 years and I have addressed about all the issues that come with unknowing previous owners, deferred maintenance and a slight bit of neglect. With that being said however, she was not in bad shape by any means, just needed some of the classic TLC and a caring new steward.
It is my hope that I'll still be welcomed here on this wonderful forum. In my humble opinion there is no other forum that comes close in quality, detailed activity and caring, tallented and professional stewards of our Alberg designs.
Thank you,
Chance Smith
Camden, NC
5 Attachment(s)
Closer look at thru hull upgrades
My focus on "Heritage" has been to go over her inch by inch in my efforts to re-commission her. As I have mentioned, she has not been splashed in about 10 years.
Here's more of the thru hull replacement phase that is now complete.
4 Attachment(s)
New cockpit drain scuppers
Here's the new cockpit drains I installed. They are Forespar Marelon, 1-1/2" drains.
1 Attachment(s)
Here's the shot I forgot to post
Sorry, Here's the exterior shot of the pumps access.
How to refurbish a cabin sole - SeaSprite23#670 "HERITAGE"
Chance,
Great you're back.
Love your eyecandy shots of the work. No kidding, a real pleasure!
Your series here on what to do with a cabin sole is classic
and should NOT be buried (poor choice of word) under the SeaSprite23 rubric which
in itself gives no clue to poor souls who want inspiration and instruction on cabin soles.
:cool:Great tip on how to create pressure on the sole boards - and getting them all flat - who doesn't need to know ? ? ?
I wish vbulletin had a better way to access, for example, cabin soles on a search
that aren't buried in dozens of threads - and in a thread, if what you want is even there, is hidden in its bowels.
PHOTO POSTS # 13, 14, 15
Your photo series is a perfect example of why we are here - at this very moment.
But if we wanted to be here at some other time, so much the better on a cold search if we could have immediate access.
I wouldn't mind a line by line list on this site, like a plain list on a page or two, that could be scanned by eye until we came to the subject:
"cabin sole renovation", that gave specific bluelines that dropped us DIRECTLY into the subject, including all the photos. Even archival stuff.
For the love of sailing - absolutely!
But also for the the love of working on these boats - absolutely!
Sorry for the rant.
After years of combing the net, can say that 95% of people out there need to know how to do things.
So we got to make it easy for them, as easy as we can!
It'll keep interest alive in these old Alberg gems.
And given Chance, better boats in the long run.
5 Attachment(s)
Comanionway hatch refurbishment
As in this design, the hatch slides on teak runners. Over time the fiberglass bearing surfaces wear thin and the structural integrity is deminished. After removal, I cleaned up the worn bearing surfaces and laid 30 ounces of cloth (3 applications of 10 ounce) to the bearing surfaces and up the veritcal port and starboard sides of the hatch. After which I filled the weave with thickened epoxy and graphite. The graphite was added to the mixture to enhance this bearing surface wearability (thats the black you see in the photos). Last, was two coats of one part poly, and of course a perfect opportunity for some bright work as well.
A338 cockpit deck and rudder tube forensics
My feeling is that the cousins Pearson knew pretty much what they could get away with getting a boat to market. Glass boats had been around for ten years by 1965.
I saw and corrected (but certainly not with your verve and craftsmanship) some amazing
short cuts and lousey joinery.
The factory got away with a lot of sloppy work in places where the customer would never look. At least not at first.
Ariel's cockpit is molded as part of the lid to the hull.
It is reinforced underneath the cockpit deck with widely spaced stiffeners of 1/2" plywood that are matted onto the woven roving laminate mold that is, from the molding standpoint, the top of the boat, stem to stern, side to side. Can't say that 1/2" ply strips pasted onto a flat surface really stiffens anything. But it does solve oil canning.
Crawling around under a stripped out hull I realized that on this Ariel the cockpit floated, wasn't supported anywhere from the deck down. Of course it is supported by its shell-like structure, but essentially the box of the cockpit and the seats and bridge are not attached to anything. It all hangs there. That's a bunch of unsupported flat, non curved, 'flexible' panels.
The seats are massive. The locker lids on the Ariel are almost 3/8" thick, more in places. NO flex allowed there! There is lot of glass and wood pasted in around the rim of the cockpit where the coamings get attached. It's pretty massive there, but except for the seats it's - how to describe it? -FLEXIBLE everywhere else. Found, for instance, that the ply bulkhead under the bridge isn't attached anywhere to the well. There is/was a variable 1/2" or so unaccessable mould & bug real estate hidden in there. Likewise the aft bulkhead was not attached to the cockpit!
Also noticed at the time that the fiberglass pipe rudder tube went STRAIGHT THRU the cockpit deck without a howdoyoudo of fillet or caulking that you could see from underneath. Or the top. You'd think there must have been something there to sell the boat, caulk, something to at least dress it up.... missing 45 years later.
I think Pearson was fully aware that the tube hole thru the cockpit couldn't be
built up and supported like the tube was at the other end coming into the hull.
The rudder tube in A-338 was well built up in a mass of stalagmite tabbing to the hull, but lacked any similar build up where it entered the cockpit deck. Why?
Can't believe they just forgot to caulk....
Maybe, that given the builtin flex of the cockpit structure, they didn't build it up under the cockpit because any movement of the cockpit as a whole could crack off the rudder tube at the hull!
That's a weak assumption I'll agree - but there has to be some explanation why these boats all have the same construt for a leaky deck rudder tube.
Can't second-guess the cousins.:eek:
5 Attachment(s)
New teak for companionway hatch slide
Another area I found needed some attention, so off with the old, worn, and excessively sanded down teak and in with a makeover.
Here's a closer look:
1 Attachment(s)
30 foot mast on a 23 footer
Here's a broad view of the 30 foot spar stepped that also shows her jumper struts / stays.
5 Attachment(s)
Foredeck hatch replacement
Based on the condition of the original foredeck hatch, I elected to replace it. In the process I had mill out a bit of fiberglass from both the deck and the cabin liner so that the corner radias would match the new hatch. Following the corner radias modifications, I wanted to clean up the opening before bedding the new hatch. Here's a look:
3 Attachment(s)
New companionway weather boards
Another area that I wanted to address was the badly weathered original teak veneered weather boards. Instead of refinishing them, I wanted to do away with the teak veneer ply and instead went off to the wood shop and found a nice teak board in which I was able to mill these. The original configuration had only two large veneered plywood boards that secured the companionway entry. Here you can see that I choose to make three. I like the look of and find it easier to manage three smaller ones than staying with the orginal configuration.
4 Attachment(s)
Bright work on weather boards
Here's a closer look at the bright work on the new weather boards. When selecting the teak stock, I was specific about using only vertical grain (quarter sawn) and that the board I had was large enough to get all three pieces from it. This ensured that there would be grain and color continuity between the three weather boards. The splines you see are also vertical grain teak, but from another tree, hence the color difference.
5 Attachment(s)
The evolution of a hatch cover
"Heritage" was missing her original motor well hatch cover when I assumed stewardship of her. After much thought, I came up with my own version and have been slowly developing her from scratch.
In my humble opinion, my creation is better than the original in both appearance, strength, fitment and integrity.
The design, although not overly complicated, took into account that the shape as viewed from the top is actually trapazoidal and not rectangular as I originally thought. I also wanted to match the decks camber on the top of the hatch and found it necessary to duplicate the camber to the lower sides (bottom edges) of the hatch cover so that it would seat properly.
I also wanted to ensure that it would achieve the following: look right, like it belonged, be strong enough for an adult to stand upon it and enhance the overall appearance and integrity of her refit.
As many of you may know, attention to detail, not swiftness in accomplishment seem to be more my style. Make no mistake, the photos of progress do not depict the time invested in this one project, now nearing completion.
Here's some of the earlier stages of the process: