Cave Paintings - The evolutionary History of Ariel #330

[Scott Galloway]

I have uncovered conclusive proof that the Ariel is a direct descendant of Viking vessels utilized by Eric The Red to colonize Vineland AKA the east coast of North America, and further that Hull Number #330 is descended from Hull # 331, which would tend to support my long term assertion that time is actually moving backwards. (Otherwise why would we all be rebuilding 60s vintage Ariels and Commanders in 2004?). The photo below was discovered in an excavation that I originally initiated to explore the cavern of Ariel Hull #330 for bulkhead damage as part of a mast-related accident repair project to the mast, hull, and main bulkhead of my boat.

If there is interest, I will post the progress of the repair on this thread.

I removed the doorframe in the main bulkhead today and then lifted the Formica piece above the door. I discovered this very interesting drawing, which must have been made by a Pearson Employee in 1965 when my boat, Hull #330 was built. Oddly, if I can decipher the hieroglyphics, the number above the drawing is #331. The drawing proves that Viking naval architects heavily influence the design of the Ariel. Note that the vessel portrayed is a double ender with two masts. I cannot determine whether the drawing depicts a yawl, ketch, or schooner, because the rudder is not shown and the tops of both masts are truncated. There is some disagreement among local archeologists here as to whether the horizontal lines on the hull of the vessel areintended to represent ocean waves, or whether they represent an outrigger. I thought that you all might find the drawing interesting. It would interest me to know if this sort of cave painting is typical of Ariels, or if my boat is unique.

[Scott Galloway]

Note the crack running through the two larger bolts in the above photograph. This crack in the cabin linner is the only cabin liner manifestation of damage resulting with a low speed collision between the masthead of Hull #330 and a concrete bridge while the mast was lowered at an angle of somewhere between 45% and 60% from horizontal.

Here is the post accident masthead:

[Scott Galloway]

What goes up must also come back. Just like time, mastheads move backwards as they are raised in a tabernacle operation. When a crewmember decides to help you raise the mast by pulling down repeatedly on the four part mainsheet tackle without first asking whether or not this will be helpful...well shall we say that he or she is not being helpful.

[Scott Galloway]

So much forr the genesis of the damage, now back to the cavern. The interesting and suspiciously intentional looking void depicted in this photo is present and identical on both sides of my main bulkhead door, although it was hidden by the door frame. This space would be open on the outboard side to the forward stateroom, but sealed by the door frame on the inboard side. Is if intended as a drain in the event that water runs down from above? Would sealing this cavern with epoxy be a good or bad idea?

[Scott Galloway]

High above the cavern in the last photo is the principal crack in the cabin top deck adjacent to the mast. This area of the deck absorbed the impact of the collision. Note that the crack continues into the non-skid area. There is evident compression damage to the deck also. This compression damage does not show in this photo, but you can see from the cabin liner shot above that that compression impacted the cabin liner as well. The main crack in the photo is strattled by brown looking fractures.

This area of the deck will be cut away from the top. A new solid fiberglass cabin top will be built up in this area. The bulkhead and strongback will be strengthened. Fiberglass strongback reinforcement will be integrated into the deck beneath the mast step/tabernacle plate.

[Scott Galloway]

After swallowing that pill that made me very small, and with the aid of digital technology, I was able to crawl through the space below the main bulkhead in search of stress damage there. It looks like all stress was absorbed by the structures above the cabin sole. This is a good thing. I did discover some interesting archeological evidence that the builders were in the fir trade, and that they traded with the Weldwood tribe.

[commanderpete]

You can almost feel those fine, dedicated New England craftsmen at work building # 330, sort of like Norm Abrams, only half-drunk and Portugese.

Sorry about the mast. I had a close call with a bridge once, almost had a coronary and/or stroke.

I've devised some optional equiptment you could attach to the top of the mast

[Tony G]

Scott,
The wild, elongated chamfer on the hardwood supports on either side of the main bulkhead are allowances for the tabbing I believe. There was something very similar in 113 that I unearthed when I discovered what initially looked to be 'a little rot'. Look at the photos in the Technical posts under Paranoia Subsides back in 2002.
I don't think there would be a problem epoxying that area except that it may hamper future repair work.
Tony G

[ebb]

A - C
is an early form of Argh! An expletive, usually reserved for the discovery of coprolite in the head upon lifting the lid.

Later, plywood manufacturers (known as APAs -
having dropped the CR, for 'criminal')
pleased that a boat company like Pearson used common house plywood for their yachts
named their product after the
A-riel / C-ommander.

This is called an archetectural dig.

[marymandara]

Opening the burial vault in the bottom of the bilge gives further insight into the lives of these ancient beings, who apparently prized antimony as a great treasure. Further thoughts have suggested that the boat itself is actually a complex sort of floating burial chamber, as encapsulated within this cavity along with the treasured antimony were a bottle the ancients must have intended to carry the essence of the departed, whose name according to the writing thereon was "Jim Beam". It is likely that these were peoples who alternately travelled by land and by water, perhaps in the desert, as a small, crumpled packet which must have carried the essence of the departed Mr. Beam's Camel was also recovered from the antimonious cavity. Whether these being believed that the spirit essence of the departed could be carried into eternity within only a glass bottle or whether a packet would suffice is not clear, as similar crumpled packets have been found bearing other names such as "Pall Mall", "Chester Field" and "Philip Morris". It appears that the believers crumpled the packets as a means to keep the departed's spirit essence from spilling out.

[CapnK]

There is some disagreement among local archeologists here as to whether the horizontal lines on the hull of the vessel areintended to represent ocean waves, or whether they represent an outrigger.

Pure speculation here, as I slept through archaeology, but is it possible that this may be an in-place, Viking engineering drawing specifying the reinforcement of this area with multiple layers of a strengthening fibrous material, in case of future bridge strikes (or, being Vikings, bridge *assaults*)?

Sadly if so, the advice of the engineers was obviously not heeded during the construction of #330, the results of which are evident in the failure of the structure to absorb the stresses of your bridge-butter.

Perhaps placing the boom below, braced at the upper end in this spot, and the lower against the base of the companionway, will allow you to conduct your bridge assaults more effectively in the future.

[Scott Galloway]

Sorry no camels on my boat, but there sure are a lot of side caverns off the main cavern. I am chasing cracks around the main bulkhead and in the process have discovered that the bulkhead weathered the impact well. However the builders made some interesting omissions. The aforementioned choice of plywood varieties is further evidenced in the interesting void pictured below. I discovered it when I peeled away the top section of Formica. I found that a very fine Moto-Tool bit worked well to cut a more or less straight line, level (more or less) with the top of the doorframe. The void was betrayed by a hammer mark. The hammer, mark, now some 39 years old was created when one of the builder's hammers broke through the outer layer of plywood. I cut away the broken section and found a very regular (rectangular) void. I stuck a knife into the unbroken section, and the rectangular void continued down at the same angle into the bulkhead. This is merely a Weldwood AC plywood void, but if water had ever entered the top of the bulkhead, that water would have run down this void through the bulkhead. It sure would have been nice if Pearson had used marine ply. Since I do not intend to remove any more Formica, I filled the opening to the void with epoxy, and later also filled the exposed part of the void with epoxy.

[Scott Galloway]

And here is another side cavern. If you flash back a few postings you wil see a bilge level shot of the sub floor transverse bulkhead plywood bulkhead support beam. It has the Wildwood AC stamp on it. To the right of that piece of plywood is what was an attempt to tab that beam to the hull. You wil see a light spot to the right of the letters E and L in Weldwood in teh above shot. That light spot is thsi hole on teh cabin side. The shot below is just on the other side of that beam, which formed the face of the step from the main salon into the foreword cabin. What appeared to be a crack from the cabin side was but another mysterious passage left by the builders: Perhaps an escape route for a pet rodent, or a hidey-hole for one of Commander Pete's camels.

[Scott Galloway]

Some #10 fiberglass cloth and a few coats of West Systems epoxy, and the void is no more. I decided to take a humorous tack on this thread after I discovered the Viking ship #331 drawing. When I removed the green semi-translucent coat from the exposed bulkhead plywood I discovered that the black Viking ship drawing appeared to have been made by the 1965 equivalent of a marker pen directly on the plywood before the green semi-translucent coat was applied. I presume therefore that the entire bulkhead was built up at a different location and then inserted into the hull, where it was probably painted. Strange though that after the effort made to identify this bulkhead as the bulkhead for hull #331, it was inserted into hull #330.

Or perhaps Pearson did not assign the actual hull number until the boat left the factory. The hull number is after all merely stamped on a bronze plaque is it not? My boat might have started her life as hull number 331, but finished before the boat that was originally slated to be hull #330. Who knows?

Despite the humor implicit in the approach to this thread, this is a very painful experience. I am amazed however that the boat is a strong as it appears to be despite the selection criteria for building materials and the haphazard way some of the tabbing was done.

It appears that the deck section took the brunt of the force of the impact. I am still chasing cracks, however. So far none of these cracks (side caverns) are related to the accident, but instead are part of the mystery of construction.

[Scott Galloway]

I have been admiring all of those bulkhead strengthening modifications in the form of steel plates through-bloted through the strongback above the door in the main bulkhead.

My question is why?

I thought that my door looked a bit saggy also until I removed the Formica above the door and the doorframe. Cutting the plywood above the door in a straight line didn't seem to be a priority for the builders, but there doesn't seem to be a bit of compression above the door. The strongback and plywood appear to be in like new condition.

Now, when my mast accident shoved the mast down into the deck, it did so at an angle since the mast was partially lowered when it hit, and that shoved the tabernacle deck plate down and back, compressed the deck lamination, and forced a couple of bolts to push down and crack the cabin liner aft of the main bulkhead in the main salon, but there still is no observable deformation of the main bulkhead or strongback in 39 years of sailing.

See the photo below. You can see the dip in the white cabin liner, but the liner rises just aft of the plywwod bulkhead to it's original height.

So, although like others, I want my main bulkhead to be a strong as possible, what is the point of installing these steel plates if forty years of successive owners riding a Pearson Ariel hard and putting it away wet has caused no deformation, or am I missing something here?