Ariel #24

Hi Ariel/Commander folks. I purchased A 24 last fall and have started giving her some TLC. I have removed the damaged core from the inside. The areas around the stanchions were quite wet and mushy.
Below is what came out, and below that is the largest area removed (around 1 1 1/2 feet by 1 foot on port side).
My (latest) plan is to;
1. Coat the dry and undamaged exposed balsa core with unthickened epoxy
2. Install new 3/8" divinycell with thickened epoxy and struts to hold it up while it cures.
3. Create a new inner skin with 4 layers of 6oz resin soaked cloth of increasing overlap to the soon to be sanded cabin ceiling.
4. Grind, sand, fair as needed then paint.
After all that the deck hardware would be re bedded using the overdrilling and epoxy fill method as per the Arial manual.

Words of wisdom most welcome. This is my first post so I can't guarantee it but I will try to add some more photos below. Alex

More areas removed at the bow and a relatively small area around port bulkhead.

The stanchions above the cabin liner were not leaking too badly and the core was wet but not apparently rotten (one bit of luck!) so I plan to use the drill, dry (note light on shelf) and fill method.

Topside (at least she is pointed in the right direction)

Greetings!
I purchased Ariel 24 last fall and trailered her from MA to NS (thats Nova Scotia). Here we are last Oct - plenty of headroom!

with photo!

New deadlights were installed this spring.
Note the original frames were drilled through and acorn nuts installed.

June and still on the trailer! Yikes...

Welcome to my nightmare.

Oh well, good thing I still have my day job.

A hearty welcome and "bonzai" to the owner of Tim's last boat!! Seems like you have things well in hand. Very nice last picture - Halifax looks really beautiful.

PS. Great first post - recore from below WITH pics... :p

This is surreal!

Looking good Alex, keep it up.

Hey Doc, good for you!
And good for the old girl!

Replacing deck core is a major restore and daunting in itself,
Do a recore from the inside is even more daunting.
Dauntest.

I can imagine it's an in-yer-face operation.

Any tips on procedure will be appreciated.
One thing I noticed: getting the tunafish out is easy enough but getting the inside laminate surface scrapped and prepped seems difficult - how did you proceed?
Also, I notice when opening up the deck under the mast, that where the balsa is in good shape but you still need to clean it out it was very very tenacious, very hard to remove. What did you do? Upsidedown?

OK, cutting, fitting, slathering is maybe easy enough BUT what technique did you use to press the core into place while setting? Did the core first and then did the fabric? Your results are particularly neat. What glass did you use for the inside layers? Whose epoxy, and was it easy to use?

Nice work!:cool:

Hey Alex, welcome aboard!

Sounds like a good plan on the recore.

I might suggest using precut fiberglass tape. When I cut the cloth myself I tend to get furballs of shmutz during layup and annoying loose strings which pull the work away

Thanks for the encouragement guys;

Yes I have been cutting and scraping a lot in the supine position. Helps to wear goggles and mask for sure.

Ebb, you asked about pressing the core into place while setting. That step is coming up! Any suggestions? I was thinking of pre cut sticks pushing against a plywood cut out the shape of the holes. Maybe with release agent.

Precut tape for the seams sounds wise, I have had the fuzzy furball problem when cutting cloth as well.

Shouldn't ask me anything because I tend to get wordy and boring.

My way: cut and fit the pvc foam and glue in with gelled epoxy. It would not be good if the stuff ran out leaving voids. But voids are not threatening in this case because it's all plastic no wood.

I usually wet out an area so that all nooks get epoxy in them. Then I 'dry' the area with a cloth. Reason is that the liquid will combine with the gel and couild drop out. Fumed silica and liquid epoxy mixed to beaten egg-white consistency is real easy to control. Make a toothed trowel out of those bendy green spreaders that everybody seems finally to have. Put gel on the piece and in the hole. Some squeeze out is good.

Use paper towels to wipe away gobs.
Paste seranwrap over the work, over lapping, Use blue tape if needed.

Often do things in stages with epoxy because it is a superior glue.
Can stop at a stage let it harden, then have an easy prep for the next
Fit a piece of 1/4" ply over the foam (You'll have cut it out beforhand.)
Over the seranwrap ofcourse.*
Spring some battens in place from the sole onto the ply with or without blocks
Even pressure overall.

After set prepare the perimeter. Taper the overlap to receive a couple layers of cloth or a layer of x-matt. If there's a hollow in your foam hole, figure how many layers of glass you need to finish flat. Have ready a bigger piece of ply that covers the glass.

I nearly always wetout glass on mylar or vinyl film. Then peel it off and stick it into place. You can wetout your whole number of layers befor putting them all up. Vinyl, being thick material, you could put under your wetout stack so you are ready to put it into place using the vinyl. I use a sharpie to write instructions dotted lines and arrows all over the xmatt and cloth. No guessing when the heat is on! Have the ply press/backer ready to go up. The vinyl is your peeler, so if you get epoxy hither and yon on the vinyl dry face or the ply it won't matter.

If you have some grooves that didn't fill in the foam stage, mix some gel up just before you are going to slap the glass sandwich to the overhead and push it into any imperfection that won't respond to the up-pressure of the ply.

Experiment with the spring battens and wood strips to get even pressure Before you wet out... got to have them ready.** Spring battens are great because you can apply or loosen pressure easily. Tarp the drip areas!

Hope some of this useful
Another smaller circumference piece of ply instead of wood blocks might be easier to apply pressure with with four or five battens. Trying to mimic the deck camber as close as possible.
__________________________________________________ ______________________________________________
*Had an 'idea' go bad: Put playsand into ZipLock bags for bendy weights on a small 3D lamination being done inplace on the boat. Not only wanted to apply pressure on top but on sides that turned down vertical. Came back to find that the bags had bonded themselves to the epoxy. Totally. I had thought of laying seranwrap on first but got lazy.
Every bag broke and sand spread everywhere on the decks.

Lesson is: seranwrap is polyehylene and epoxy will not stick to it. But not all wraps and bags are made from p.ethylene (SC Johnson). Hefty is made by Pactiv.

**Any port in a storm method. I'll bet there are some quick and dirty types out there that won't bother with sticks. They will drive grabbers through the ply. through the wet work and through the deck on top. Might be easier to finesse the pressure with as many screws as you need. Course you'd have to be careful to fill every hole after backing the screws out!

Alex

Welcome aboard and man, what a beautiful boat!

June and still on the trailer? Ha! How about 2008 and still on the trailer!

You have undertaken a daunting task with a recore from the inside.:eek: Standard convention of peeling off the topsides lends itself well to more comfortable working positions, better ventilation, more room, lots of experience from others to draw on. But you can say you don't have to worry about that wimpy inner skin wobbling all over the place and if you have to butress it against sagging why the heck not just do it from the inside? Plus, this way you get to add to the information pool;)

But on a more serious note, where can I get a pair of those swashbuckling boots? Any respectable Parrothead should have at least one pair.

I feel the need to dreadge up this thread and check on the ole' girl...

Are you there Alex?

Hi Tim
We had a great season last year but this spring, when investigating the one remaining leak in the cabin, I found the strongback was partially rotted from water infiltration through the mast step. So I made a new strongback and added a new hinged mast step. Have not had a chance to post pictures but I will. For now here is one from last summer at anchor near our home.

Wow, she looks great! A fitting backdrop for such a great boat. How much cruising did you do that summer? Also, I'm curious to know what you ended up doing for a rudder repair.