The album of Ariel #422

[CapnK]

Took some time over the 4th weekend to do many little things to improve Katie's lot in life. One of the most eagerly awaited was installation of a hawsepipe for the anchor rode - the big bundle of rope and chain hanging off of the bow pulpit does nothing to enhance her sweet lines, so I've been wanting to make a path for it to go below easily. Here's what I did:

First, this is a side view of the cutout for the hawsepipe hole. We Ariel owners have a generous 3/4" thick foredeck, and Katie Marie has (thankfully!) nice dry balsa up in there.



Here's the hole in the deck. I thought I'd be more nervous than I was when I put the spinning, sharp drill bit into the virginal (tho' old, for sure) deck glass to start the cutout. Perhaps because I knew it was for the better, I didn't have too many nerves about it.



Here you can see that I gouged out some balsa around the circumference of the cutout, extending back under the holes where the mounting screws would go. I only drilled those holes through the upper skin; I figured that way I could see when the gouging was sufficient, without worrying about epoxy drips down into the boat at those points. I backed the main cutout with some paper taped to the underside of the foredeck.



Here is the epoxy and microballoons slurry in place, and mostly hardened. Before I added the microballoons to make the goo that you see here, I used a Q-tip and some of the plain (kicked) resin to saturate the balsa between the deck skins. BTW - epoxy makes the cotton come off of Q-tips pretty fast; I used 2 of them just to wet the edges of this small hole. After the balsa was wet out, I mixed in the microballoons to make a dry, peanut-butterish consistency slurry, let that sit for a few minutes in the pot, and then smeared it in. After I took this pic, but before the resin had cured all the way, I used acetone on a rag to clean up the surfaces around the hole.



And here is the new hawsepipe in place:



To give a better idea of how it sits in relation to other hardware on the foredeck, I offer this pic:



And last, an image to show you the progress I've made on the brightwork. It was all sanded back to bare wood, had 1 thin and 2 normal coats of epoxy applied and sanded prior to receiving the varnish. It's a bit dirty in this pic, but you can see that it came out pretty good nonetheless. Not bad for an old Cetol hand.

[c_amos]

First rate job Kurt,

And to think, I thought the brightwork looked good when you bought her~!

[mbd]

Verrrrry purrrty Kurt! Nicely done!

BTW, I'm sure you know already, but according to the Pearson Info Site, the run for the Ariels was from 1962-1967. I'm not sure how many were made. But the PO of mine had 1966 on the registration, although he was guessing at it. I'm curious about the year of mine as well.

I'm sure our resident experts can set us straight and tell us how many hulls were made and when ours were produced... Bill?

[Bill]

I'm sure our resident experts can set us straight and tell us how many hulls were made and when ours were produced... Bill?

440 Ariels were produced in the above noted time period. The only close evidence on each boat's production date is when it was first registered. If we could just find Mike Ford . . . he was in charge of "old" Pearson designs in the early 1980's and would likely have the answers.

[mbd]

Thanks Bill. Hmm, it would seem that Kurt's and my Ariels are perhaps from the last year, 1967? Assuming that roughly the same number were produced each year, as unlikely as that is...

[Dan Maliszewski]

Capt. Kurt,

My compliments on a bristol boat. I too carried my anchor on a shoe fixed to the pulpit for many years, until I flew my new 155 genoa. During an upwind tack, it caught on the anchor crossbar and ripped a foot long gash in the fabric. The anchor now sleeps in the chain locker till I call it up on deck. Bad Anchor. But I do allow the chain and shackle to hang out in the hawsepipe, just to keep them handy.

Carry on..

[CapnK]

Regarding boat age: #370, 52 hulls before Katie, was supposedly a '66 (that's what the title said). 440 boats divided into 5 years makes 88 boats per year. If (and it's a big IF, I know) Pearson made 88 Ariels per year, started at the beginning of 1962, then year 5 (1966-67) would be hulls numbered from 352-440. Sooo - Question answered! (Har! Not hardly!). Well, at least I could say Katie is a '66 model, not be too far off, and that'd make us the same age. Gee, I wonder what day they took her out of the mold? If it was 7/22 of 66, that would be an auspicious and spooky date!!!

Dan - good point about the hook being a genny shredder up there. I do plan to put an anchoring platform (think stubby bowsprit) on Katie, the pulpit mount is a temporary but neccessary solution to anchor stowage (I like having the hook ready to go at a moments notice - being able to do so has saved my bacon at least once ). Once I get a "proper" place to stow the anchor up front, I'll use that pulpit-mounting gadget for my secondary on the stern. Sorry to hear about your "Bad Anchor lesson" - I hadn't considered that possibility, but will keep it in mind. I'll be under sail in a couple of hours from now - Yippee!

Have a good weekend!