Ariel #24

[ebb]

Someday when the ultimate HOW2 on plastic classics is put together, TIM,
you'll have a prominent part in the volume on Hull & Decks.
Great photos!

Kept running into that purple concrete stuff in 338. Because so much of the interior bulkhead and furniture was fitted loose in 338, I think the stuff was a kind of stiff quick set bondo the Factory used to position and tack things in place. Maybe it was colored blue so the workers could see it in relation to all the other plastic laminate and tabbing going on? A late model like 338, I have the feeling the stuff going in was pretty casual and improvisational, nearly everything is 'off' in the boat. Maybe it was the solvents.

While the main bulkhead in 338 is way crooked down bottom, some of the other important pieces like the settees are relatively, relatively, parallel and square. One side is completely removed now and the telltale purple spots were evident in places. A flapwheel on the angle-grinder* mostly disappears it, but it does seem to have been used befor the major tabbing of the bulkheads, furniture and soles.

Yours would be the first 'rubber' padding Pearson used, that I can remember hearing about here. What is the thinking of putting weight in the end of the keel anyway? Must be a MORC regulation? OB vs Atomic4? Certainly our rudders are heavy enough! There's more than 20 pounds of bronze metal in the rudder alone. Then add the shoe, gudgeon, bolts, and tiller head !
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*In the Book of Renovation the angle grinder and flapwheel is the epitome of evil. After using a Festool vac and 5" sander system inside the boat, it's impossible to imagine a horrible job more gratifying. While not as quick in removing material (afterall we are expecting a sander to do the work of a grinder), the experience of working with NO lethal dust and fiberglass particles is mind blowing! While we put on a dustmask, whipping it off we discover the air inside the boat is clean and sweet smelling, with very few sparkling glass nasties floating around. An amazing experience!

The company has a strangle hold on the pricing in the US. No matter who sells it, it's the same price. VERY very expensive. For prepping the inside of a fiberglass classic nothing else comes close.