I have made significant progress over th last month. I have attached all of the wood hand rails, cabin top winch base, life line bases and am now putting on the kiwi-grip non-skid. I am less than happy with my fairing job on the deck, but my frustration with sanding fiberglass has reached it's maximum. That being said I am also proud to say that I also have the strongest deck on any ariel ever! With kevlar, carbon and many, many gallons of epoxy I am quite sure my boat is going to need some more reinforcment at the hull-deck joint to make the extra deck strength worth while. It is also the heaviest deck around too. I am pretty sure you could pick up the whole boat with the samson post if the hull to deck joint would hold up.
here ya go. don't be to brutal. There are a number of factors that are forcing me to complete the boat a little faster than I probably should be.
I thought that the kiwigrip non skid would have been a little thicker and hidden a little more of my fairing job.
Ah, your deck looks beautiful. You're in the home stretch.
Later (years from now) if you really want to go crazy and level out that deck get this book and read it first. A great paint job is mostly time spent on surface preparation.
Thanks Ben,
I will pick it up. Looks much more informative than the general boat repair books I have been using as my information resource.
The picks from inside the shop are not turning out very good. I am anxious to get the boat into the natural light so that my pictures will have more detail. I made the mistake of not tipping the first couple coats of topside paint. after five coats I decided to sand again before the finall couple of coats. It should look much better. If I am not happy then after this season, when I pull it out I will have someone spray it.
Josh, as a much wiser owner said to me once on this forum: "Get 'er done" - then go sailing. A perfect day on the water will more than make up for any cosmetic imperfections.
BTW, I like the handrails on the forward coach roof. I've been thinking of doing the same thing too.
With the paint done it was time to bring her home where I could put her back together in my diminishing spare time. It will be in the water before june. although without a head, because I will not have time to build a holding tank. I am not to worried since I will not have time to do much more than sail between the bridges this year. Here is another pic. When the sun comes out I will use a real camera and take some good pics.
I am suprised nobody has noticed my forward portlights. I stuffed some 7" by 12" lights up front. like or dislike there is a heck of alot more light coming in even with the 50% bronze tint on the tempered glass. The only issue I had was having to mount the oustide trim ring upside down because there was not enough space to mount it the right side up.
On the home stretch. Installed a tabernacle. Mast is up to check everything. looks silly with the mast up at my house,whatever. Still need to do a little shaping and drilling for halyard blocks and improve the looks a little. The interior is making progress. Not sure if it is in the right direction or not. Might be a temporary solution for a couple of issues I am facing. will post pics tonight.
Josh, My stanchons (on 259) had fiberglass wedges under the base to make them stand up straight and not follow the angle of the deck, did your boat have these? #259 has the 3 bolt base and #245 has the 4 bolt base that you have. Just curious, nice job!
Mine has the four bolt bases. The camber of my deck was not steep as the original deck due to the extra glass I used at the toe rail. I had to turn them backwards from the original design for them to not stick inward. Still unsure if I like this, but i seems it will give just a little extra room when going forward. I have thought about using teak or oak spacers under the stantion bases to adjust the camber. It might also make them less leak prone. thoughts?
Congratulations Josh!
Great work there. Beautiful results. I am glad to see more of these little boats out here on the west coast! I like the color as well...
The Mephisto Cat does not have stanchions (- and I do not want , or felt the need for them even offshore...) BUT there is a great Ariel in my marina and it has the stanchions / lifelines at a pronounced angle (a bit more pronounced than yours...). I think that this is an improvement because this gets them further out of the way. (-IF you are to have stanchions, that is!).
Also, the best designed stanchion bases are built-up fiberglass pads, an inch or so above the deck. -I like this because in addition to beefing up the strength at the base, they also reduce the time when you have standing water at the base making leaks less likely.
It seems you did not make your planned June splah date... What's the new date?
Happy sailing!
She certainly won't be complete. But I plan on putting her in the water by the end of the week. She will stay at Mccuddy's on the columbia. Most of the heavy lifting is done. It will mostly be in there to sail and make sure I am happy with all of the systems. After a few months she will come home and I will complete the ice box and interior cabinetry that is left before next season. My goal is to take a little time next summer to explore the puget sound area with my wife and and two kids. As of right now there is no head installed and no water or heat. Not much to do to make any of them work. It just so happens that the boat will be 15min from my work. so I should be able to get quite a bit done at the marina also. I have a couple more pictures to share that are of the tabernacle and a few of the interior, need to get the camera back from my wife tonight. cheers!
I was able to find the time to splash the boat yesterday! No help! Tuesday's are not the best to find volunteers. At the ramp by 11:00am. Had the mast up by 2:30pm. Very stressfull with out help. I would have done it a little different next time. Basically just not comfortable with the halyards. I was very worried that it was going to fail. Oh and we had steady winds over 15knots! With gusts high enough to really make you worry as the mast is going up! She went in the water very easy. That was the most enjoyable part. Only bad thing was I damaged the knot meter wheel when I believe it was struck by one of the hull support pads. changing that out seems like a fairly wet experience. Oh, after that the outboard would not start. Had to remove the plug because it had fouled. Not a big deal. But still one more thing to worry about as darkness was quickly approaching. A couple pics of her in here new moorage. She is heeled a little to port. (lots of tools on that side)
Reply With Quote
