The Great Houdini

Yessirree, Bob, this is one fine and proud sailing vessel. Immaculate condition, well-found, too. Sails out of Clear Lake, Texas--under the command of George (Capt Bligh) Copeland and his XO and nearly-perfect-wife, Annette.:D

Here's Houdini coming out of the water for a bottom wash and new zinc. Got lots of attention from the yard owner--who happens to be rehabbing an old Ariel himself.

another trip across Galveston Bay, Bligh getting a fix as she approaches the Houston Ship Channel and the narrow cut to Trinity Bay--Arrggh.:D :D

Her she is.

That is an interesting audio listening devise stationary postioning station...

Yes, yes...the radio/tape player tied to the grab rail under the dodger is an eye-sore. The wife insists on her music. The remedy, of course, (and one now in place) is a West Marine stereo system properly installed. Of all the things about this boat that make me proud, French sees a radio. Hmm.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Still be proud...I thought is was cool!
... anyone with money can buy stuff...

Quote:

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Originally posted by george copeland
Of all the things about this boat that make me proud, French sees a radio. Hmm.:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

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Nice dad! Just so you know, I will be sharing these photos with the campus.

I thought this needed to be out there too. This was a GREAT sail!
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And that lovely Ariel stern....

George,
Great picture of your boat! You are so right that the Ariel's got the best looking stern in the business.
When I digest your photo I see quite a few frames; you must have both a dodger and bimini correct? Currently we are involved in fitting a new dodger and I positively do not like where Island Nautical planned for me to mount it: on top of the 1" coaming 13 1/4" aft of the cabin trunk. Yours appears to mount on deck, although it is hard for me to tell from the angle. Would you have a photo from the beam?
Great looking boat that Houdini!!
Thanks so much,
Jim Wiles
Mon ' Ke Ne, 391

Yessir--here is a photo that should help. We are having a new dodger and bimini manufactured right now. Due in shortly--will be tan with navy blue trim, just like the old one. Very sharp looking, I must say.

A VERY TRANSOM POSTERIOR INDEED

I see that Ebb strikes only at low tide in the conversation.:rolleyes:

best be glad they didn't name me 'wane' or 'reflux.'

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

closer look for you, Ebb

Here's where the guests hang on when they are getting on and off the boat.

George, what is the distance from the cabin top to the underside of the dodger?

George, I like your Sea Hood. Your making, your installing, store-bought, previous owner addition--????

HOUDINI has me baffled!

;)

Dave

Capt George,
The dodger's a humdinger, especially the color. The most non-military kahki I can imagine. Will copy it for 338. Including sail cover, seat covers, maybe even the cushions down below!

Would like to second Bill's question: height of dodger over the companionway - with this: what is the height off the cockpit deck at the companionway?

When Rob goes below does he grab the handles and swing over the bridge deck and go thru the opening with his feet in the sink facing forward? Yet, coming topside Rob must face aft. This must be a no brainer for you and Rob, but I'm wondering what the best direction is for descending into the salon?
For the past three years I've gone down a temporary 2X4 ladder facing forward. It's the psycological correct way for me and I get to see somewhat where my feet are going. But OSHA wouldn't like it a bit, and the ABYC one day soon will have us post a plaque on the hatch about the safe way to face.

Because of my size and knowing that ease of using the c'way relates directly to pleasure, it is something I've really thought about. This is not the thread but I think I'm going to have to permanently tilt the boom up over the cockpit - which will tend to keep my head on its shoulders, allow a slightly higher dodger, and a more erect 'gressing thru the hole.

Great photos! Great dodger!

Lots of queries to address here... I'll do some measurements and get back to you. About the sea-hood. That was a custom job done by one of the local fiberglass luminaries. He got the camber in the cabin-top perfectly. Held in place with 5200. Non-skid top.

Here-go, kids: Houdini's dodger clearances measure as follows: On the dodger itself, the clearance between the bridgedeck and the rear support is 44". Clearance between the forward support and the surfaces of the hatch cover slides/runners is 15 5/8"....as for the bimini: Clearance between the forward support and the cockpit deck is 64". Clearance between the cockpit deck and the aft support is 61". The bimini includes snaps along starboard, port and aft trim pieces just in case you get too hot one day--or need to block the view of others into this area of the boat for some reason--and to those snaps you attach other pieces of boat canvas. You can, in short, make a little sea-going patio or outright tent in the cockpit.

George,
I was anxious te get some hard numbers on a dodger. Just by chance, were you a contorsionist in a past life? It might just be too early in the morning for me to bend like that. I suppose if a solid frame is there to grab onto it would make if difference. I just tried it with some wire held in place 16" above the main hatch and it was tough. Hey! I'm still young!
I really like the idea of enclosing the cockpit to 'get away' from the neighbors or just to add another room. Do you already have the canvas or screening made-up for this purpose? (You know what's coming next) If you do, how 'bout some pics:D
I just looked through Sailrites cataloge and I didn't even know that there were dodgers offered with an aluminum frame. I'm assuming you used stainless but tell all.
Thanks, Tony G

Thank you, George,
the measures aren't a surprise, as my research suggests, for habitation on a small boat. Your meausrements are very helpfull for my purpose - which, as I said, may well be a self designed hard wind screen combined with a shop canvas and tube back much like yours. Only up a little in the rear. I'm salivating at the thought of sitting in the cockpit in a snug tent on a stormy day with a mug of raspberry tea (trans: Moylan's Kilt Lifter Ale) studying Letcher and Fitzgerald. With the Mustang in its bag!

Fitzgerald's book is well worth owning for us A/C skippers. It is mostly about tending your boat without the iron spinaker. Good stuff to know, like how to SAIL into your marina slip. HA! It's written in a refreshing rawbone no nonsense style with many insights and tips on small sailboat handling. The style is as if it was taken off a conversatioal forum with all the casual typos and put into book form. It is a classic and deserves a place on the short shelf.

Hope this is a compliment:
but when I look at your first photo
I hear Randy Newman's piano
and his song to a lady about
"keeping your hat on!"

That's a fine babe and a fine dodger!

Answering several questions: the trick to getting in and out of the companionway is to have the center panel unzipped and rolled up. Otherwise, might have to slide down there on your belly. And, of course, all the tubing is stainless steel. On that note, have been threatening to pull the cabin portlight frames and have them copied in polished stainless steel. How would that look?
As for Lecher and Fitzgerald---where might an avid reader of all topics sailboat find these worthy tomes?

"Wind and Tide" is in current print, and you can buy it from Amazon. Letcher's two excellent books "Self-Steering for Sailing Craft" and "Self-Contained Celestial Navigation with H.O. 208" are both out of print but available from used booksellers and the like...last I went looking for a hard-to-find used book, Amazon had a setup where you could order from any of a number of used booksellers that listed thru them. E-Bay also have a good number of booksellers to choose from as well.

Best.
Dave

On behalf of the dodger, and weather boards notwithstanding, there have been plenty of days when I was sailing my Ariel close hauled alone in the fog and was shipping a fair amount of water over the rail and some also up on the cabin top. I don't have a sea hood, but the water doesn't come into the companionway from under the hatch under these conditions. It runs aft wards beside the hatch and spills off the top of the trunk cabin into the cockpit. But since my boat is heeled to 40 degrees plus. The water spills 40 degrees off center directly onto either the galley or the chart table depending on the tack.

Under these conditions I am generally toasty, warm and dry in neoprene cuffed "Third Reef" foul weather jacket that I purchased from West Marine for $39.95 at a boat show, and my more or less waterproof bargain basement nylon trousers. But if I decide to go below to find out where in the fog I am, using my GPS at my hart table, I don't want to have to remove the weather boards.

Don't tell me to get a Garmin 76 GPS and carry it on my body in the handy-dandy Garmin carrying case, I have already experienced some grief at the hands of that less-that-rugged all weather unit. Garmin either needs to market a hard case for it or a flip down screen protector. A waterproof battery compartment would also be nice. I keep my slick little Garmin 76 below right next to my hopefully dry paper charts, which I endeavor to use if conditions permit me to do so.

So a wet cockpit is OK with me, so long as I am dry in my foul weather gear or in my Mustang coveralls, so long as the temperature is below 60 degrees, but a wet cabin is no fun. Sealing yourself off from the cabin in the wet room of the cockpit is no solution if you have a nav station below. So, I vote YES to dodgers, but NO to extra large wind-break dodgers that ruin the look for the boat. George please post a photo of yours with canvas on, so we can check it out.

I just want to keep my electrical panel, chart table, and settee cushions below dry and still have access to the cabin. By the way, I don't have a dodger and I probably never will, because I haven't met an Ariel dodger that I liked. My Father had a dodger on his 35-foot cutter rigged sloop, and when we were at sea, it was indispensable. Before he purchased the dodger, we spent a lot of time with the companionway hatch closed tea-less in the rain.

Finally as to Ebb drinking his tea and steering, one of my favorite places on my boat in cold weather or at night is sitting on the threshold of the companionway while leaning against the leeward side of the doorframe. Since my boat likes to drive, I only need to touch the tiller from time to time when close hauled. If it is too wet, I can't do that, because spray drains off of my body into the cabin. With a dodger, sitting on threshold in wet weather would be no problem. May I have my tea in one of those Navy mugs now?

Decided I'd post a photo or two of my Engineering Officer at work on the noble Houdini. The EO likes things electrical. Though she folds up nicely for stowing in the starboard cockpit locker, where she often tunes my A-4. Yes, life at sea is the life for me....

Yes, gents, every Ariel Captain needs a gifted EO and Nearly Perfect Wife---be careful when you introduce her as such, especially to any lurking Marina Amazons. They begin to hang around, then, looking for recruits to the darker goings-on in their fiberglassed Gomorrahs....

For security during these uncertain days, we have manned the quarterdeck with this foul-tempered and piratical beast. His name is Nick.:D

Here's proof. No Sasquawtch video here, boys--that's the Nearly Perfect Wife curled up below with points, condenser and rotor, getting intimate with Houdini's original A-4. Got to make you proud, doesn't it?

Hey Ebb, we finally got some numbers for you on Gene's dodger. Bridge deck to underside is 37 inches. Cabin top (next to hatch) to underside is 12 inches. It appears that Houdini has about 3-more inches of clearance all around (i.e., about 44 inches from the bridge deck and 15 from the cabin top). The three inches should make getting in and out of the companionway a bit easier, although the "vaulting" maneuver for entry still seems the best :D

Thanks Bill and Gene,
these are good to have. For all us who want a dodger. The lower the profile, like Gene's, the better it looks on an Ariel.

I'm going to make a mockup. Instead of the pickup cab look, I am pretty sure I'll be slanting the dodger more downward toward the front. This may allow me to cheat and raise the cockpit end up some. Still, more rapid movement thru the device (and perhaps a more stiffening old guy) may require a lid over a U-shaped opening in the dodger top. Re-inventing the wheel again? Somebody must have done it already?

On a cruising version of a dodger the windscreen has to be substantial. I see that part of the companionway cover being able to withstand green water - with the cockpit protection and maybe a folding part of the top being sunbrella or samoied(?) :)

EOs like that are very rare, very very rare!
Capt. George, take care, take care,
Bring her a flower every day, every day!
Never a screw driver, or a wrench.

Well said Ebb, well said...

But...maybe she LIKES to get a screwdriver or a wrench...maybe more than flowers.

I've known a number of gals who would be like that, some were straight but all were great!! ;)

Dave

Hey--anybody know what this is? I was sailing along minding my own business and letting Bob (the autohelm) do all the grunt work while I dug around among my Sea Dees for some music. Popped my head over the bridge deck to check things, and this had jumped on deck. Must be a sea monster or maybe a flying fish of some kind. Maybe mom will let me keep it.

It's an E O.
E - I - E - I - O

You can always count on Ebb.

Yes, yes. Ebb has been reading my mail. The Nearly Perfect Wife is constantly intimating that some kind of flower is in order. As for tools, her favorites are the rigging knife and a good pair of vise-grips. Glad to help her with that stuff; but when she gets on one of those flower jags I tell her to put in a request chit.

Been getting alot of side-long looks from the Alberg 30 captain one slip over lately. Then a couple of chicks show up to tell me how "cute" Houdini is..everybody says this stuff is to blame. :D

So--saved the companionway to the last. Here's the before--it'll be a week or so before I have the shiny "after"....

Hi George -

Looking good! :)

How about a pic or two of your stainless steel mast support system, and maybe some details on that? Is that a mod you made, or did someone else put it in? I don't recall seeing it before. Looks to be a fairly simple job - 2 90* pieces with support tubing welded between them - is that right? Thanks!

I like the caned locker doors - sweet. :)

Aye--that compression bracket is a custom job from a local fab shop. Simple enough. 2 pieces of 2" angle iron (stainless), with threaded collars at each end. Then you take 1" stainless tube, thread it, and insert. Holes at the center of each tube allow you to torque it into proper tension. Voila! No mast compression. Although it does a number on your noggin if you happen to forget it's there. :confused:

Don't know how many Ariels had the little modification that mine had--by way of an expanded step down into the cabin. But the previous owner's work on this was as sturdy and practical as it was homely. Had to take care of that, since it looked like a wart on a pretty woman's nose. Check this out. Very Japanese, no? Very Zen.

Now I gotta stain and varnish it. And inlay little stars where the dowels show along the outside slats.

Yes, Grasshopper.

Very nice, picture of more elegant simplicity! Only missing a wok on the counter. :)

Fellow Ariel Devotees and Luminaries--
I plan to replace the counter-top on Houdini. Wanted to use Silestone, custom cut to proper dimensions. Anybody done this in Silestone? Results?
Houdini, #407

Ok--so check this out. New covers for my obsessive and over-wrought varnish job on Houdini. Just couldn't stomach the ravages of Old Man Sun. Better to spend money than to agonize over a small spot where the varnish is starting to chafe.

But wait,there's more!.... :eek:

Those little crazes and divets and spots where a guest dropped a sledge hammer 25 years ago? They disappear this fall. Why? Because...take a deep breath, now, ye adherents to urethane--The Mighty Hoo gets RE-GELCOATED on the main deck and cabin top. Researched, researched and researched again--found technical docs at West Systems wherein the question long pondered was tested in a lab. To wit: will gelcoat adhere to epoxy? The answer, in short form, is yes (if properly prepared)--at least to the tune of 1000 to 1200 psi necessary to divorce the two.
And---here's the big reason my enthusiasm for the project went into cheerleading territory: my buddy (an old-boat restoration guy of local note) regelcoated his Westsail 32 a couple months ago: MAGNIFICENT! BRAVO!
Back with more pics when The Hoo is done... :D