Commander #155 'Mephisto Cat'

[Rico]

Kendall go it right Carl! Do you have one on your boat currently? (Other than the one you tossed?)
I had mine re-plated in the batch along with the screw & nut, but I did try to find another sort of fitting for this application and nothing turned up...

Commanderpete;
Thise are indeed lazyjacks... The PO had them made by a rigger - who did an excellent job of them. They have a nice plastic covered wire for the tops, and a single line for the jacks themselves. The little blocks even have little leather booties!

They are growing on me... I was not so convinced at first. They are a simple install. I will look through my pictures and post that.

The Pulpit nav lights are the handheld emergency LED set that I have mounted while I sort out the originals. They are ready to go, but I am stubbornly scheming to convert these to battery powered LED bulbs. The unit on the bow squeezes about 4-5 full nights out of a set of batteries and they are quite bright. This is the direction I'd like to go. Original nav light fixtures, but with an LED adapted into it...

Does anyone have any insight on this?

The old bulbs in the nav lights are adecuate enough, but they run down my battery. I am trying to get away from using the main battery for anything other than my future autopilot.

This idea will bring me to a conflict when I get to the nice original light fixtures... The little shades grip onto the actual light bulb... I hope I do not end-up putting an LED inside a light bulb in order to be able to keep these fixtures!

UPDATE: For a description of my solution on LEDs see posts further down this thread. For more details on the specific bulbs look at the 'Navegation lights' thread here:
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...read.php?t=913

[carl291]

I think I have one, I haven't been too concerned because the boat came with two new Bomar hatches.

[Rico]

I am slowly catching-up on posting the many little projects that I've undertaken. Here is one more:

I have noticed that some boats come with Spreader brackets that are made out of aluminum, or some sort of alloy.

My mast came with nicely stout Stainless Steel spreader brackets. I found it odd that there was no compression pipe spanning the gap inside the mast, but it is most likely that the design did not require these.

Pearson did build these little boats with a proportionally large mast that has a very strong section... I do not think that Alberg's drawings, or Pearson's production design included compression pipes in our masts, but I thought it prudent to install these as an upgrade...

The Spreader brackets are fastened by 2 bolts that go right through the mast. The lower bolt also secures the upper end plates of the forward & Stern lower stays. The role of these fasteners is not an unimportant one, so one would like these to be stoutly in place, but tightening excessively will weaken the mast at the mid-point (where the spreaders are located).
The idea behid the compression pipe is that this pipe will act as a strut and take the compression load that comes from tightening the bolts at the spreader brackets relieving the mast from this pressure & avoiding the risk of weakening the mast ...

The installation is quite easy. The hardest part is perhaps finding the correctly sized pipe, as your average hardware store does not carry stainless steel pipe - you'll need to look at a rig shop, or industrial supply shop.

- I went with stainless to match the material of the bolts that will go inside the pipe. I was lucky to find a 14" or so scrap piece in the stainless scrap pile which I got without charge from a friendly rigging shop. - If well isolated, I suppose aluminum pipe will work... but you have to take care to use plenty lanocote to isolate the different metals.

Picture #1
The pipe that tightly fit my fasteners came with an 0.75" OD (outside diameter) which gave me a nice thick pipe-wall as pictured. Pipe is sold by specification of the inside & outside Diameter.

I had a machine shop cut the pipe for me as it is important to have paralell cuts at the ends. I made the cut marks a bit generous as I needed a close fit. (Cannot make the pipe longer after it is cut!!) I used a grinder to fine-tune the length, and to achieve the appropriate bearing radius at each end.


Picture #2
It is important that the inside diameter of the pipe matches your fastener's diameter closely, the outside diameter dimension can vary more as long as you get a nice stout pipe... but not too big... I'd say the size pictured is about as big as you'd want to go... Half that thickness would be strong enough... Note that the pipe-end in this picture remains flat as I had not curved the end to match the mast extrusion curvature.

After painting the mast, I covered the base of the brackets with several layers of vinyl tape to avoid scratching the painted surface and to isolate the Aluminum from the stainless. I then cut the pipe to the appropriate length and added a curve to the ends to match the mast's profile.

I drilled the hole in the mast that is just big enough to insert the 0.75" pipe into the mast. Enlarging a hole can be tricky - you do not want to 'move' the hole - just enlarge it. I used one of those sheetmetal drill bits that have a number of stepped diameters and I found it to be the ideal tool to do this as it keeps you well centered when using a drill motor by hand.

Picture #3
You can see the old hole and a new hole with the pipe & bolt in it. (I did them both the same way) -It is hard to see, but the pipe end now matches the outside curve of the mast. See folowing post for a close-up of this.

(I used red paint to cover-up the bare aluminum as all the white paint I had was two-part - I did not loose any fingers on this project, I am happy to say!)

Picture #4
This is essentially how the whole thing fits together... (I took this picture at the time of testing for pipe length and you might notice that the end of the pipe is still flat at this point.) When complete, the pipe only extends out of the mast by only a bit and matched the mast's profile curve.

[Rico]

Picture #1
Shows the pipe with the appropriate end profile for final installation.

Picture #2
Final assembly of the mast in progress (that topic posted earlier in the thread); the Spreader brackets/spreaders are installed and include the lower stay plates and are now well torqued into place with a nylock nut and a bit of thread-lock for good measure.

[Rico]

We spent a beautiful weekend at Angel Island (mid 80's -at least- and bright blue skies...) and ran into TWO other Commanders. I've never seen so many Pearson Ariel/Commanders in one place at once...

Unfortunately, I spotted them as we were returning from a hike on the South side of the island and did not get to chat with the group, who'd apparently tied up at the dock for the afternoon and sailed off on a course in the general direction of Berkeley...

I do not know if I they even saw the Mephisto Cat tied-up out on one of the moorings at Ayala cove... (See Angel Island map on post a few posts up). It was a busy day and there were MANY boats out there, both at the dock AND on the moorings.

Picture #1 I think I see 3 crispy new sails among the two. Hopefully We'll see them out more often. Note the tripod style winch bases... I'd never seen this type of base on these boats before.

They are both early-ish Commanders as it appears they featured the full companionway opening. (I am sure about the blue one - 95% certain about the white one.)

Note the transom O/B mount...

- While Posting this I noticed the Pennants on both boats' rigging. On other pictures I can make out the letters 'CSC' and looking at the 'Cal sailing club', website, they do list the Commander in their fleet list... So I imagine that this is where they come from...

Picture #2
While we are at it, here are a few more pictures...
Here is the Mephisto Cat settled in for Sunday evening's rest. We stayed until Monday and we essentially had the whole mooring field to ourselves come late afternoon on Sunday... I took the picture from the trail looking towards Richmond.

Picture #3
A view from the 'perimeter road' looking towards the Golden Gate. I was REALLY HOT at this point... We may have been into the 90's - Rare for the bay...

Picture #4
View towards the west end of Racoon straits. Belvedere Is. and Sausalito in the back. The Angel Island Ferry from Tiburon is visible.

[Chance]

Rico,
Thank you for taking the time to post photos and great naratives of them. I, among many others I'm sure, really appreciate it. Plus you talent and love that you have and continue to bestow upon Mephisto Cat help keep me motivated.

[Rico]

Thank you Chance,
I am glad that you are enjoying reading about my little adventures... I am really enjoying being back in the bay and its great sailing environment. I really enjoy sailing these capable little yachts and working on them is part of the fun (most of the time anyway!). I only hope that more people get inspired to restore more of these great little yachts.


This was altogether an outstanding sailing weekend!

The highlight was definitely the Hoppe regatta on Saturday. It was a bunch of fun and look forward to participating again! It is not often that I get to sail with fellow A/Cs.

The weather was beautiful all weekend and the winds just like those that the SF bay is famous for...

I set off for the central bay on Friday and had a great singlehanded sail to Berkeley. I decided to take the sails down outside of the Berkeley marina... (Mistake!) It was blowing quite a bit and I got pummeled and soaked as I tried to get the sails down... Note to self: There is plenty of room INSIDE the protected marina. Next time WAIT to take the sails down until you are inside!

The Mephisto Cat participated in the Association's Hoppe Regatta on Saturday. You can read about the competition and see some more great pictures here:
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...ead.php?t=1989

I especially like the first picture taken as we headed off towards San Francisco. The other is at the crossing of the finish line (below): (Photos courtesy of our own Bill Phelon).

On Sunday we had a perfect warm, clear blue sky sail with with south westerly winds back to Vallejo. It was one of those sails that make the day go by too fast...

Just prior to our departure on Sunday, we had a chance run-in with Sean Faul. He is the former skipper of Commander 'Faith', (C-239), whose great voyage from Chicago to Berkeley - via the Panama Canal is documented at:

http://www.geocities.com/sjfaul/Sailing.html

His log is beautifully written and tells of a great adventure. When planning my trip from Ensenada headed North I looked at Sean's log for insight on that section of the passage. When finding the site to post the link here, I found myself reading it again! It is very detailed and entertaining - there are many exciting tales from their trip nicely woven & documented on the site such as:
Running from a hurricane, underwater repairs on the high seas, in addition to the typical Pirates, ports-of-call adventures, sea monsters, etc. (I made-up the sea monster bit ). In any case, I wish I could keep a log like that!

We spoke for a while about 'Faith' & the 'Mephisto Cat', and among other anecdotes he mentioned that he had just completed a beautiful refurbishment of 'Faith' and that he'd just sold to a friend up in the Pacific Northwest. He was doing the delivery and had so far had sailed 'Faith' up to Fort Bragg. - I saw pictures of the end result of his restoration, and Faith did indeed look beautiful.

Hopefully he'll chime in with some pictures of the nice work... And maybe the new owner will post pictures of some PNW scenery!

He also mentioned a few details having to do with Pearson's development of the Commander's bridge deck, but I'll let him share that story...

[Ed Ekers]

Rico, I thought you might enjoy this picture as well..........ed
http://www.latitude38.com/lectronic/...6-17&dayid=286 - scroll down

[Commander227]

Nice breeze, flat water, beautiful weather. All enjoyed from one of the prettiest boats on the planet. Count your blessings Rico...you're a fortunate man.

[Rico]

Ed - I do believe that the boat pictured in the link is a Bristol 27 (or similar) - not a Commander. But it is a good picture never-the-less...

C-227 Thanks! When I am out there, I wear a full-time grin!



The Sail Track

If you saw my query in the 'Jib Track placement' thread (http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...read.php?t=283) , you know what my most recent project was; I am happy to announce that I have installed the sailtrack. It seems like a simple enough task. -Just drill some holes and screw them in - as someone who should know better put it...


This is where I started:

I had more questions than answers and I was all over the place... - could come up with reasons for all sorts of angles for the track... (The only part I knew was the location of the Genoa track - the purple line on the rail - which remains un-installed! - not needed yet due to the Bay's consistent summer breezes...)



Having sought tons of advice from racers, members of this board, and pretty much anyone within earshot about these &^%$% tracks. - I SLOWLY learned what the important bits were AND most importantly whats bits to ignore. - At least enough to think that I did... which allowed me to start thinking about drilling holes.

I also learned a bit more about sail geometry and trim, and started to get information enough to proceed and determine the location for installing the jib track. - Credit must go to Ed Ekers for turning some key lightbulbs on, on the topic!

I am happy to report that it appears that I got it pretty darn close to correct... I am very happy with the results. I am using twin-sheet track cars on these tracks. My sail trim ability is much, much improved! (See pictures in post above with tell-tales pointing straight aft from top to bottom of sail...) And all sheets run free and clear of everything.

As I previously predicted I would, I've repeatedly told myself: I wish I'd done this sooner!!


I started by reinforcing the Winch bases - for good measure - as the loads experienced by the jib sheets with proper sail trim are expected to be greater than those seen to date with the use of the cabin-top tracks...

The winch reinforcement went something like this:
Session 1: Remove winch bases, Re-drill for oversize holes in deck, fill with dense epoxy resin, grind epoxy filler flush with deck, add matching gelcoat color-coat on top, redrill final holes.
Session 2: Install winches @ coambings, Find previously made aluminum backing plates that remained un-installed from before, set in bedding compound, Install winch bases, seal, re-fasten, wait a couple days and tighten.

After finally deciding on what should be the desired location for the 4' length of racing jib track, I proceeded in a similar manner as described above.


The track installation was essentially as follows:

Pre-work: Add Polysulfide to track sections as bedding compound/sealer, buy aluminum plate 3" x 3/16" x 10'. Sand, prime, & paint backing plates, Cut plate to size, add 'base' polysulfide bedding compound to backing plate accounting for noticeable peaks & valleys and let cure, find previously bought fasteners.

Session 3: Measure at least 20 times (accounting for adjustments for possible sail trim variations, track car locations, OTHER potential future sails, sheet routing, curvature of the interior's surface (where the backing plate goes), AND bulkhead location), Mark track fastener locations, ponder all of the above, then close eyes, cross fingers, and drill locator holes.

Session 4: Re-drill for oversize holes in the deck, clean out balsa core bits and prep holes, fill with dense epoxy resin, grind filler resin flush with deck, add gelcoat color-coat to match.

Session 5: Redrill final holes, cut backing plate again to fit/straddle bulkhead, drill holes in backing plates, paint backing plates - again, test plates for bedding compound profile & fit.

Session 6: Install track with additional (fresh) bedding compound, Find fasteners, loose the fasteners, fasten track to deck & install backing plate underneath with fresh polysulfide, pack tools laying everywhere, vaccumm bits of dust everywhere. Wait a few days for fresh polysulfide to cure, re-tighten fasteners,

By the time I finished on Session 6, it was late & quite dark... It was all fuzzy... Don't remember getting home... The next day I went to the marina to find a track on deck - (and there was another similar track on the other side of the boat!)

Picture 1: The oversize holes in the deck. I am happy to report that there was nothing but BONE dry balsa in all the holes... - You never really know what has been going on for the last 40 some years!

Picture 2: The backing plates with offset holes to better match the interior profile. -The Angle cut on one end of the plates is to match the angle of the bullkhead. Note the initial polysulfide application to compensate for peaks & valleys and as pre-cured bedding. I like to provide semi-cured bedding on initial installation of any load bearing surface underneath a fresh layer immediately before installation.

Picture 3: The final results.

Picture 4: Picture of the backing plate in its final location. (3 more bolts are beyond the bulkhead) Note that the little lampshades are now in place after being in a box for about 3 years. I'm told we look 'more civilized' now...

When doing the Gel-coat, I re-did the clear epoxy coating on the forward hatch. The stuff does not like the sun and although the Gel-coat still looks GREAT, the hatch is looking a bit dull in spots... I'm thinking I might gel-coat it gray or white.... Hmmm....

[Commander 147]

I want mine to look similar when I get done with it. (like I will ever get done with it, after all it is a boat).

Are you using a block at the aft end of the new tracks behind the track car to create a fair lead to the winches? It is hard to tell from the pictures but it looks like if the track car was forward to much it would cause the jib sheet to rub against the combing boards.

[Rico]

Thanks 147, (just had a 'Get Smart' flashback..!)

I am. - I measured everything and found what I thought was the right location for the track. - After debating whether to adjust the track location for the inboard tailing of the starboard winch in order to avoid rubbing, I decided to maintain a consistent track location and use an additional block to route the sheet and keep it off the coambing.

(I've sailed on a boat where the track location compensated for this winch issue and as a result the pointing abilities were different depending on the tack... - not good.)

You might be able to spot it.... It is barely noticeable on the first picture in post #96. I use one of the cars intended for my Genoa track. I'll never be using BOTH tracks at the same time... so it was not a big issue.

I remember some skipper once befuddling a newbie sailor as she wondered about the direction of rotation of the winches on each side of the boat. He told her that when he bought the boat could not quite afford the 'optional' counterclockwise-turning winch for the port side...

- I'll post some 'action shots' - once I take some!

Picture 1: The sail track location looking forward.

[mbd]

Rico, thanks for the great pics and set up information! I'm taking copious notes for when I finally get around to re-mounting the genoa and jib tracks. I'm going on three seasons just attaching the blocks to the stanchion bases. (I'm obviously not a racer!)

[SkipperJer]

Rico,
I'm about to install a headsail track similar to yours and your work prompted two questions:
1. How has this worked out? The sailmaker who just made a 125% for me like this but identified a point about 12 inches further aft that he felt would be ideal for the new sail.
2. What kind/make of track is that?
Beautiful boat.

[Rico]

No worries mbd - Thanks. All that matters is that you are out on the water sailing!

The Plastic classic and getting beat-up in the dark
The ‘Mephisto Cat’ participated in the ‘Plastic Classic’ regatta a couple of weeks ago. The regatta is intended for boats designed more than 25 years ago… It was a fun-packed sailing weekend which included a bit of a beating /soaking during a windy and very wet / chilly sail on Friday afternoon & night.

I do not have any pictures of our night sail, but here is a picture of the Mephisto Cat sailing in the South bay in the Plastic Classic regatta:




More details and pictures posted on the Plastic Classic Regatta thread on the 'events' board:
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...ead.php?t=2041


BTW - You cannot see them in the pictures above, but the shiny Original Pearson Nav light fixtures with LEDs are now installed: See picture below of the light at a 45 deg angle.

For details and more pics on the LED installation along with product info, an order discount, see the Navigation Lights thread:
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...0064#post20064



- the scupper covers are finally on too.



**More pictures of the track installation are now added to the posts above. More project postings soon...