The album of Ariel #422

[CapnK]

Katie Marie's previous owner is a paraplegic, and had bolted a car racing seat to the cockpit seat so that it would aid him with lateral stability when underway. It was a quick job, the holes were only sealed with 42/5200, and as a result, I had water penetration there. I drilled a series of exploratory holes to find the extent of the wetness some time back (the big hole led to the many outlying smaller ones), then kept them covered and let the project rest until such time as the weather permitted me to open the bad area up and let it dry. Here are my test holes:



The current hot spell is giving us a couple days of no-rain-possible, so this morn I started cutting after I got that first cup of joe into my gullet. It was bad, but not as bad as it could have been. I was really surprised by how well the skins were still bonded to the core, even though it was wet. I was also surprised to find that at least parts of our boats are cored with plywood. The upper glass skin is almost 1/4" thick in this area, and cutting it was no easy chore, and neither was getting the skin off. It took 2 BIG screwdrivers as levers, and a hammer to tap them in to break the skin free. The skin came off in 2 pieces; one over the plywood, and the other over balsa. The skin broke along the line of CSM which separated the two areas. Also broken were about 5 Dremel cutting disks, one Dremel 1/4" grinding disk (used as a cutter when the little ones just weren't working), and, worst of all, one blade of my grandpas old pocket knife, which led to the retrieval and subsequent usage of the 2 overlarge screwdrivers...



There's a real mish-mash of materials used in this area, and no shortage of what looks to be inadequately wet-out cloth and CSM. Still, it's incredibly strong.



It's drying now, I hope to get some epoxy and microballoons in there before the chance for rain comes back. Will post more shots as the project continues...

[ebb]

Interesting... and nice work there, Kurt.

338 has no balsa anywhere in the cockpit or the cockpit cabin side (which is hollow in that the liner has no backing).

Plywood strips were used to increase stiffness
under the deck
under the seats and lids
under the cockpit floor.
These pieces were added to the molding when it was upside down being made in the factory. Each strip is isolated and molded in with wads of mat.
Really surprised you have found such extensive deterioration. Wonder if a DFO was is there at some time. Doubt that Pearson encapsulated sheet or areas of plywood. Just an observation.

[frank durant]

Looks GREAT !! Love what you've done with the hatch and sreens. Nice and bright. The screens gotta be nice on a warm night. Would that happen to be a bottle opener handy there too.???....for pop of coarse.

[CapnK]

Ebb - Pretty sure that this is what came from the factory. Don't see any evidence of repairs from the past in this area, and the original non-skid in the area looks (looked) undisturbed. Katie has a few things different from what I've seen in pics of other Ariels posted here - such as no diagonal supports on the backside of the main bulkhead. Maybe they just got forgotten that day, or perhaps the workers were too busy trying to get to hull #440, so they could call it a day and go hit the bottle.

Frank - That is indeed a bottle opener for pop. My favorite flavor is what I refer to as "Barley Soda" (at least when in front of the youngsters).

[ebb]

yeah, the anti-skid grid couldn't be duplicated. The improvisation in the Ariel hulls is fascinatin!!!
Makes it easy to add your own riffs, so to speak.

Wonder why Pearson did that to yours? Rather weird, I think, the factory going to that extra trouble and fitting. Maybe they were using shorts from the bone pile??? You going to impregnate and glass over?

[CapnK]

Oops, ebb, just saw your reply. All I did for right now was clean and dry the area, then put the skin back down for now. I filled the voids w/a combination of microballoons and silica. Now that it is sealed, it can wait until I get around to addressing the exterior of the boat in a meaningful way.

[CapnK]

This is what I'm thinking to do (right now at least) with the aft area of the cabin:

Icebox below present location, sink moved off to starboard, just forward of icebox.

The roundish area where the sink currently is will be the stove. I wanted it where the heat from it can leave the boat as quickly and as easily as possible. I also wanted to keep it away from the icebox.

I'll have lots of stowage under the countertop to starboard. The weight of this will be countered by the cabinetry I am building into the v-berth area to port.

I'm giving serious thought to making a gimballed stove out of my Magma grill, since I don't like it much as a grill, but it will hold a wok nicely (I have the version which functions as a grill or a stove). It will still be useable as a grill, and possibly even an oven of sorts, though I need to experiment with that.

Here's my first rough "sketch":