The album of Ariel #422

[ebb]

Coming back from the boat today, I experienced one of those instant visons you get once in a while, in this case a vivid picture of a channel across the cabin where the mast would be. A single very live snapshot. That's all I saw. Exciting, huh?

Anyway it was a very heavy epoxy/glass green fairly shallow curved affair with shadows at the ends that makes me think now that they curved down and had some kind of attachment with the interior. My tangible feeling was that it is a drop in. Not done in place. It seemed to be just sitting waiting to be worked in.

Surmise (assuming the image was, shall we say, sent on some legitimate spirit channel) that something was definitely missing. IE the guts in this fiberglass channel. The obvious rest of it. By an extension of the first image it's obvious that the channel is meant to have a wide top put over it that has the same heavy section, probably an even heavier top and a number of 1/4" ribs inside. The whole thing bonded together.

[CapnK]

Back-n-forth, backnforth...backnforthbacknforth...

I've been going round and round on what to make the beam of and how to construct it, and composites have won out in the end.

Right now I have 2 pieces of 1" thick foam cut to fit the outer edges of the beam area, sitting in place and defining the space needed, while I look and ponder. They are 2.5" in the vertical dimension, and the for'd edge to the after is 8". I'm going to do the "box" construction I drew up several posts back, with approx 1/4" of glass between each foam layer.

At 2.5", it doesn't noticeably 'intrude' into the open feeling of the cabin as I have it, so I will probably stick to that dimension. I'll probably taper them down somewhat on the verticals where the beam meets the cabin trunk, perhaps to 1" of protrusion.

Ebb - I gave much thought to doing the external beam concept, but figure that I will leave that mod for someone else to try.

Mike - A friend made a great suggestion to me the other day. He's the guy who works in composites. Once again I was bouncing the idea of the foam-cored, glass-skinned homemade 'plywich' off of him. Big dilemma there is the amount of $$$ I would have to spend on 1) epoxy resin if I used pink/blue polystyrene foam, or 2) the difficulty and expense of finding suitable thickness polyurethane foam if using polyester resins. Plus, there would be a lot of work simply in laying up the panels themselves, and then sanding, getting them flat and true enough that they'll look decent.

He suggested instead to bond pink/blue foam to a 1/4" plywood using a simple but appropriate adhesive, and cut panels from that. It can then be affixed into the boat with, at least on the big surfaces, a simple layer or two of 6 oz glass and polyester resin. Brilliant! Sure, epoxy would be better, and I will use that in structural areas (like the beam), but this way I can have a cheap, easily shapeable yet tough foam-cored structure for the cabinetry below.

I'll be making a trip up to the bigbox hardware store soon in order to confirm pricing, but it should result in less time, money, and hassle to use his idea. The only 'drawback' I can see is that the panels will be maybe 3/8" thicker than I had thought they would, which is no issue at all, really, since it is more thickness of a material significantly lighter than water.

I'm glad to have found a way to use polyester resins for this. Not just because of expense, but also due to the facts that I'll have less risk of becoming sensitized to those compounds, and mostly due to the fact that I have slung so much polyester over the years that I am most comfortable using it.

And afterall, this boat is made of it, and is still doing just fine after 40 years...

[mbd]

A friend made a great suggestion to me the other day. ...He suggested instead to bond pink/blue foam to a 1/4" plywood using a simple but appropriate adhesive, and cut panels from that.

Nice! Thanks for the update. I'm sure you'll be posting pictures soon, eh?

[CapnK]

Mike - Later this week, after I purchase the materials, I will be making up the first of my foam/plywood panels, I'll photo document that when it happens. I've been bouncing the idea off of everyone I know who might have input, and so far all have agreed that it should work wonderfully. I hope we're all right on that account...

Oh - our first good cold snap of the year has made me realize that I could use some insulation on the hull, so I also plan to go ahead and start installing the 2"-thick layer of foam against the hull in the main cabin area (above settee level), probably also towards the end of the week.

Todays 'of interest':

I did some cuttin' on the boat this AM. Since I'll be supporting the mast from underneath, I needed to know what structure was in place at the small step-up into the vberth (where the mast support will rest), and I have also wanted to open up the floor area in the v-berth for inspection, with an eye towards eventually cramming some of my positive-flotation foam in there, since I anticipated it would be too small for any real stowage.

The area is a little larger than I expected, so I am not sure what use I will put it to just yet, but here it is, exposed at last for contemplation.

Warning: work-safe pictures follow...

This shows the cut-out.

[CapnK]

Nice bit of grime in there, eh? Be glad I took the pic *after* vacuuming. There is a small, non-draining depression evident, I would assume at the forward upper edge of the encapsulated lead. I will fill the depression in with foam (glassed over) so that it drains properly.

You can see an old water stain on the hull just a couple of inches below the plywood, which is the same level as the main cabin floorboards. It appears as if someone had a water problem sometime in the past 40 years, one not repeated, thankfully...

I also found a receipt in there, wet and dirty in that small depression (along with various other grunge). It came from a company in Maryland, and is dated 1979. It appears to be for labor on a "heat control valv" (sic), so I don't think it is Ariel related. If it is, I plan to turn that sucker *up* when I find it. But whatever it was, it cost $28.37 to have done.

OK, here's what it looks like looking forward from down inside...

[CapnK]

...and looking aft follows. It appears that the only 'structural' member here is another piece of plywood of the same thickness as the bulkhead, lightly tabbed into place. I'll definitely have to strengthen this area for the mast step.

[c_amos]

Katie has such NICE CLEAN bilges...

I had NO idea that there was so much room down there under the forward step up..... I was hoping to stow some extra stuff in there myself, now I KNOW I will be.

It is interesting to me that Katie has a small block formed into the port side in on the deck in this area. Faith has the same block.... but I have not noticed it on any other Ariels I have seen...

Does anyone know what this tille block/cleat might be for?

(on edit: the one shown in post #119).

[CapnK]

...and last, a hole.