Commander #155 'Mephisto Cat'

[mbd]

S-W-E-E-T!!!!!!

Of course we'll be expecting lots of pictures of C-155 showing off all her shiny bling...

[Tony G]

Sweet indeed! WOW!!

That dinghy looks simply fine. Have you had it in the water yet? If so, did you like the stability? Looks like it should get you to the beach and back, haul groceries and a little fuel/petro....maybe some spirits if you so desired. The ability to sail it would be a big plus. Add the rub-rail without a doubt.

Yeah, an inflatable would sure be nice. An eight footer would be about as large as you would want to tow don't you think? And if you were to deflate for stowing on deck I'm not sure if there is a 'big' difference between eight or ten footers rolled up but there isn't a whole lot of room up front anyway. Wait a minute...you have that king-sized cockpit.

Then there's locomotion to thnk about. If I recall correctly, hard bottom dinks with a little chine/keel row better. If you want to carry a smaller outboard the inflatables (with rigid bottom) plane better. I think someone here once proposed using the mothership's outboard for the dinghy. That might be practical with a 6hp, but, anything bigger somedays the back sez, "no you don't, fool!"

That's just my two cents, Rico.

P.s. I really like the shiney stuff! Send more pics.

[CapnK]

Oh, wow.

Rico is winning the picture contest, hands down.

[Rico]

The Mast before:
Note globs of silicone...
And the corrosion on the sheave plates. They were not too bad off considering, but I decided to clean them up and paint them.






The mast After:

Acid-etched, Primed (2 coats), and painted with Interlux "Perfection" 2-part Polyurethane (3 Coats) -This stuff is Very Shiny & HARD!

I had some one-part polyurethane paint in red that allowed for further procrastination... Now this commander will be recognized from a distance...

I also painted the propeller red, but then I put all the paint away before I got carried away!

- Note the nicely cleaned rigging and new topping lift block & windvane (the old windex was reduced to the rear end of the arrow and some twisted bits of metal - it was very sad.)

I also replaced the Jib Halyard block as the one in place had a sheave for a wire halyard. It is a nice block and is in great shape. This is now to be the muilti-use spare block on board.

The windvane & my handheld VHF are the highest 'tech' pieces of equipment on this Commander!

The nicely finished Teak coambings are now installed and I plan on installing my new traveler base & tuning the rig this weekend.






Yes... the mast is on!

[Commander227]

Thats it, I'm taking my mast down today and copying you!

[ebb]

You may have started something there!!!!

For instance I have a little bird outline that would fit perfectly on A-338

[ebb]

In case anyone missed what I found on 338's mast -

That fitting that attaches the jib halyard block to the mast over the big wire sheave was badly corroded. Dangerously corroded.
(post 23 - on the underside in the before shot
and on the top of the spar in the after shot.)

The tang was held on with 4 #12 machine screws. On my mast the aluminum was just about completely reduced to white powder under the fitting.

I think it's worth taking a look under this tang.

[Rico]

Ebb; I saw the same type of isolating material underneath this tang as I found underneath the sailtrack on the mast... I am puzzled by the apparent switch in production tactics by the pearson factory... e.g. Aluminum vs SS spreader bases; Al Rivets, vs SS screws for the mast track, etc.???
Perhaps a previous owner's solution for the fastening of your mast's tang??

I think that the little bird outline will look great on 'Little Gull's' mast. I knew I wanted to do something there... but it took me a while to figure out what to do. Then the obvious came to me!

It is amazing how hard it is to spot familiar boats out in the bay... I figure this would be a great help. Maybe this way I can actually get some pictures of the 'Mephisto Cat' actually sailing!

C-227: Feel free to copy... but royalties may be in order!



The Mephisto Cat is now wet, the mast is stepped, and it is ready for a bit of sailing to tune the rig...

But we are NOT there yet... I'll first post a bit about the improvements in the lazarette...

The middle picture is the 'before' condition.
I'd not yet taken the mast down from the carrier and we'd already started to dig into the demo scope. (This picture was taken about 8 months ago!!) The first step was the famed weak point: The Backstay chainplate in the lazarette...

But in getting to this and since I'd had my eye on this bit of a moist spot on the floor of the lazarette we got a bit distracted; A bit of poking around resulted in what you see... Water had found its way into the void under the lazarette floor and the foam filling was pretty soaked on the starboard side.

This was cleaned out, to find everything else in good order. The floor of the lazarette was replaced with new plywood & glass and then new foam was injected.


This brings us to the initial issue - the backstay chainplate:
Note the small Brass screws in the 2nd Picture. These are the standard fasteners to the small knee /brace. There are 3 of these bolts, but I had already removed one before I remembered to take a pic....

You can also see the top edge of the knee... Not the strongest design. There was not really any sign of stress or fatigue to indicate an issue, but this element always seemed to be a bit undersized... A jolt could break this structure and I can imagine the whole thing pulled apart...

Note the original Pearson finish in this pic. - I wish I knew the history of this Commander, but it seems to have been pretty well taken care of considering its 40+ year history.

The new design is seen in the 3rd picture. Some strategically placed plywood and fiberglass. All covered with a bit of mat for good measure.

This was taken before we decided to fill the small gap between the rear edge/lip of the well and the transom. This area is /was always hard to reach and tended to collect muck... It is no longer accessible... Now the rear 'lip' of the well continues aft where it meets the transom.

I feel much better about this configuration. Likely overbuilt for a production run, but we only have one backstay!
Now I will have many other things to worry about, and will likely need to abandon ship before even starting to worry about this chainplate failing... -Knocking on wood...

[Rico]

The old and the new...

The original chainplate is 1/8" SS plate. I used 3/16" 316 SS plate for the new one. This was mostly because I wanted some increased torsional rigidity as I thought that this was the original design's biggest weakness. A sudden jolt that pulls in a direction that is out of line with the axis of the thin plate would make it twist and fail... Unlikely, but this is how this would fail...

In the picture, you can see the 6 little chainplates to replace the original bronze ones, and the original backstay chainplate lying between two copies of the new design. (Which I'll .pdf and post for reference.) Missing is the top plate. The one that covers-up the opening as the chainplate comes through the deck. This ia also a bit larger than the original which is only there for looks...

There are two new chainplates in the picture. I still only have one backstay, but I ended up with two copies of the new design due to an order mishap...

I cleaned & polished the tips so that they are shiny-er on top...

In the next picture you can see the finished reinforced lazarette. (Note the covered area behind the OB Well).

You can see how I ground off a portion of the lateral reinforcing in order to fit the new chainplate. In the end I covered the exposed wood with fiberglass and made up the difference by grinding a small curve into the back of the chainplate. This worked quite well...

I drilled the new holes and used SS bolts to complete the assembly.

Lastly, you can see the final results...

(See Post #37 for the files containing the template for this bigger backstay chainplate)

[mbowman]

Hey man ... great stuff.... can't wait to see it in action with all the sails up....!
mike

[Rico]

The dissasembly of the mast was one of the most daunting projects... But looking back, it was not too bad...

Painting / Sailtrack

The etching / priming / process semmed complicated as it was my first time doing it... And the instructions are not as clear as they could be...

I did scratch my head at the prospect of pulling the sailtrack off, but looking at the state of the old (presumably original) aluminum rivets made the decision easier. Taking the track off made the painting process MUCH easier too looking back on it.

I described the painting process above briefly, but in summary, it goes something like this:
1.- Clean mast to bare aluminum
2.- Apply etching primer (diluted)
3.- Let dry for more than an hour, but under no circumstances more than 24 hrs. Failing to adhere to this requires going back to step 1. I never found out why... maybe the mast will turn into a pumkin... (?)
4.- Apply 1st coat of Primer, let dry.
5.- Sand & clean & apply second coat of Primer.
6.- Let dry for 24 hrs.
7.- Apply 2-part perfection. Do not forget to paint spreaders, boom, or new aluminum mast base (Check!). I should have also painted the propeller. I forgot that.
Now it is red...
8.- Stop applying paint and leave the area altogether... lest you screw-up your beautiful work.

#8 is likely the most important step. I managed to comply with it and only managed to forget to paint the propeller... Not too bad.

The materials I used are pictured.


The sailtrack attachment.

This was a bit tricky. The hardest part is to determine which darn rivets to use...
-I decided to go with SS rivets. Alternate arrangements on other A-Cs are Aluminum rivets (what I had originally), and SS sheetmetal Screws). But picking a material and type of fastener was the easy part...

The hard part is that Rivets are not very flexible in terms of suitability of use. Their grip range and allowable hole diameter is limited to each size, so for proper fastening, JUST the right size rivet has to be used. AND unfortunately, no one seems to have a trial kit so that you can do a bit of testing /looking/feeling.

I was lucky to find:

a) A supplier that had a good supply of rivets in terms of Materials, size & selection (Diameters, head sizes, grip range, etc.) (mandrel material is also an issue as you can have a mess if you get SS Rivets with a plain steel mandrel, for example...)
b) A supplier that let me grab a couple of each of the potential correct sizes and did not require me to buy a minimum of 100 of each (as seems commom practice).

I believe that the total number of fasteners on the mast (for the sailtrack) was close to 105 each. Buy at least a handful of extra rivets...

I had to account for the thickness of the mast wall, the vinyl isolating material, and the sailtrack. The mast is Aluminum, the sail track is SS... I went with SS Rivets because of the durability and fastening strenght... If the Aluminum rivets held fine even in their old age and corroded state. (some of my original rivets were at the point where most of the head had corroded off!... )

The key is to isolate these materials. I used a nice thick coat of paint and a vinyl material on top of that to isolate the sail track from the mast, and then I used the same coat of paint and a nice glob of Lanocote to isolate the rivets from the surrounding material as well as the sailtrack itself...

Pictured are the rivets I ended up using. I used a hand riveter. (Yes my hands were quite tired!) I am very happy with the instalation. The sailtrack is quite solidly attached.

[Rico]

I managed to paint the stars only a few hours before taking the whole thing to the boatyard! Painting these on the bosun's chair would have been a bit tougher!

This is my 15 min assembly of the mast... (Which took a full day - by the way!) This is just prior to stepping.
The detailed eye will note that I still managed to leave one part of the halyards on the wrong side of the spreader! What can I say... The pressure was on!


AND here is a Sneak peek at the Mephisto Cat as it sat in mid-July...

It is now almost done... (Genoa track remains to be installed, and the tools & rags & random stuff replaced witht he proper interior furnishings). But it has logged about 6 hours of sailing so far!

-Hint on the picture below: the Mephisto cat is the smaller boat with its eyes covered!

The antifouling was refreshed around the edges and where little repairs took place. The difference in color is due to most of the antifouling having been underwarter for a season, but now that the boat is wet, the color difference has disappeared completely...

In the next pictures you'll find proof of this Commander's identity and that it is in the water awaiting an upcoming passage (300 Miles) Ensenada Mexico, to Marina del Rey California...

I already bought my little courtesy flag!

[ebb]

Rico, GREAT stuff on the mast! Thanks.

Commanders look real sexy stripped of nearly all the usual geegaws and bling. Even forehatches.....

But are you going to reinstall the wood seat backs?

[Rico]

Yeah... They are on. I left them off until I stepped the mast. See picture below.

Here is a pic during the first 'test' sail a few weeks ago!

I've already completed the first leg of the passage. (Picts on that soon... )

C-155 is currently at Newport Beach Harbor in Orange County. We head up to Marina del Rey tomorrow.



Backstay Chainplate From post #28
I had no more room above so I posted the template for the backstay chainplate attachments here. If you print at 1:1 scale you will have it in full scale.

[mbd]

RE: Pic no. 2 above - it's interesting how even Commanders with their small cabins look sort of "top heavy" in the profile view without the coamings. Nice coamings make such a difference on these boats.

I don't suppose you'd mind posting a full blown glamor layout of Mephisto all rigged and assembled? She must look absolutely gorgeous!

Did you paint the topsides as well?