Sea Sprite 23 #670 "Heritage"

[Chance]

Hello all,

I know, I know, It's not a great Commander or an Ariel, but it's still a classic Alberg design that I now find myself steward of. So..., based on a few folks on this wonderful forum who have expressed an interest in my latest vessel endeavors, here's her debut:

Her lines were orinally drawn in 1959 by Carl Alberg and she was marketed as the "ALBERG 23", later changed to Sea Sprite 23. This vessel is hull # 760, built in 1982 by C. E. Ryder.

She has not been in the water in over 10 years and I have addressed about all the issues that come with unknowing previous owners, deferred maintenance and a slight bit of neglect. With that being said however, she was not in bad shape by any means, just needed some of the classic TLC and a caring new steward.

It is my hope that I'll still be welcomed here on this wonderful forum. In my humble opinion there is no other forum that comes close in quality, detailed activity and caring, tallented and professional stewards of our Alberg designs.

Thank you,
Chance Smith
Camden, NC

[carl291]

Hello Chance, It's truly great to hear of your new project, that's a great boat for sure, The place that modified my Ariel trailer to haul the Triton owns one and he loves it. It needs deck recoring but he hasn't gotten to it yet. Is that a Mass. state registry number?? Is the mast going up or down in pics.? Carl

[Commander 147]

Oh Oh somebody got their commander wet one to many times and it shrunk. Well the good thing is now that you shrunk it you should be able to get it wet anytime you want without worrying about it shrinking any more so have you had a chance to splash her yet???

Seriously Chance that looks like a mighty fine vessel you have there. I'm curious about the thru hull on the port side about a foot above the water line. Did somebody reroute the cockpit drains there?

And WELCOME BACK CHANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chance]

Carl, and Jerry,
Thank you and it's good to be back!

Carl, you are correct, I do believe the third owner had her there. I now am the fifth owner and have her registered, though I am having trouble identifying the font that is currently displaying her old registry number, that I want to duplicate. I have attached a closeup of the font I'm looking to duplicate.

As for the mast stepping. We (my family) and I had just stepped the mast so that I could obtain accurate marking on all shrouds and stays for measurements on the new rigging. The rigger I chose (Rigging Only up in MA) , recommended I step the mast with the old rigging to find out where her turnbuckles sat once tensioned, instead of assuming the the old rigging was of the right length. So that is why you see the mast stepped in our driveway. It was a rather cumbersome set up. The mast is not that heavy, but at 30 feet, with jumper stays and the normal cap shrouds, fore and back stays, double intermediate (lower) shrouds, halyards and topping lift, it made for an interesting evolution.

Jerry,
The thru hull you noticed is the manual bilge pump discharge point as placed by the builder. It was originally nylon, as was the cockpit drain thru hulls, and sink drain thru hull, but I have replaced all thru hulls with bronze. I have attached a couple of close ups of the thru hulls, with new garolite G-10 backing plates and the new bilge pump and associated plumbing I have installed.

[Chance]

My focus on "Heritage" has been to go over her inch by inch in my efforts to re-commission her. As I have mentioned, she has not been splashed in about 10 years.
Here's more of the thru hull replacement phase that is now complete.

[Chance]

A bit more on thru hulls:

[Chance]

Here's the new cockpit drains I installed. They are Forespar Marelon, 1-1/2" drains.

[carl291]

Chance , very nice work. That hull has the look of a very fast keel boat, I'm sure you will enjoy her!!

[Chance]

Thank you Carl.

I believe she will sail nicely. A few years ago I had the opportunity to sail / motor Commander #269 from St. Michaels, MD to Elizabeth City, NC (10 days) and when not over powered, she sailed beautifully.

An area that needed attention on "Heritage" was her orignal opening bronze portlights. They are Wilcox-Crittenden 5X12s but the sealing rubber was in need of replacement, one dog was bent and non functional (how it got bent I have no idea), and they needed rebedded. I chose butyl tape for the bedding on this application. I was able to locate a foundry (Port Townsend Foundry) in WA, that cast / machined a new dog for me, the bronze cotter pins took some time to locate and the hardest part was finding replacement rubber sealing stock. A also replaced all the mounting fasteners.

Here's a closer look:

[Commander 147]

Chance

You have been very busy since you last poked your head up here. The clean meticulous nature of your work is always nice to see. And I really like those new Forespar cockpit drains.

So tell me is the hand pump the only bilge pump you plan to have on Heritage? On Destiny I'm taking a differant tack. My aging body would only be able to handle a hand pump for so long and then we would just have to sink. And as I thought through it I realized if I'm busy pumping away I can't be doing other necessary things that will need doing in an emergency situation. So I'm going with a double electric pump setup. The first pump will be the one that does almost all of the water pumping work for Destiny. It will be a low volumn inexpensive pump that will pump from the bottom of the keel and do 98% of the work. It will also not cost an arm and a leg to replace annually. The second pump will be a very high volumn pump that will pump from a point higher in the keel and will almost never come on. It will only come on when the water coming in is coming in faster than the small volumn pump can handle. It is my hope that this double setup would give me significantly more time to get to shore than I would have with a hand pump.

[Chance]

Yes, I only plan to have the manual bosworth guzzler 500 pump for dewatering needs.
There was a point in time when I thought of having an electric pump as well (past vessels), but came to the conclusion of keep it simple, keep everything well maintained and sometimes less is more.

I don't see anything wrong with your set up, and honestly it's fairly common. On the other hand, it's not unusual to only see a manual pump installed by the builder, just like it's not uncommon to see no sea cocks on cockpit drain thru hulls, as installed by the builder.

For me, the battery I will be using is very small. Secondly, how long will an electric pump run before the battery charge is insufficient? Thirdly, how to monitor electric pump activity when not on the vessel? Forthly, how to plumb in multiple pumps while still maintaining a clean installation.

A previous owner did have a small rule electric pump installed in this vessel, the install was very poorly done, looked terrible, and so I yanked all of it out, with no intention of re-installing an electric pump.

Every steward of course, has their own idea of the "ideal" set up and that's really what makes our passion for these beautiful boats so interesting. Some where in the emergency dewatering phase of the game a line must be drawn as to critical minimalist, redundancy, back ups, and overkill. For me, I'm choosing minimalist and simplicity.

For what it's worth, Commander #269 (the one I brought down from MD) had nothing other than a manual bilge pump. She didn't even have a plumbed in discharge (thru hull) but instead you yanked out the discharge hose and either placed it over the coaming and toe rail or you dumped it into the cockpit.
A week ago, I visited this vessel I am speaking of, and out of courtesy, cut the locks and dewatered her, pumping for nearly 1-1/2 hours. She had taken on water. Her boot stripe was partically in the water. There was 6 inches of water in the cockpit (scuppers clogged), and worse yet, almost 2 inches of water over the top of the cabin sole! Yes she was sittin "LOW". Just goes to show that not all of our beloved Alberg designs have loving and caring owners. This one obviously has an absentee owner, who self admittingly said he has only used her once in the past two years, so sad. It's hard for me to see a vessel like ours, sit in the water and slowly deteriorate.

Anyways, shes dry now, I hosed out the bilge for him, aired out the cabin for a couple of days, and even replaced a rotten section of bilge hose. Durnig all this, the manual bigle pump worked as designed. My only issue is that the location of the pumping handle can only be manipulated with the starboard cockpit sail locker open! Go figure, what an awkard set up, again as installed by the builder, Pearson Yachts.

At least on "Heritage" the manual pump can be operated sitting comfortable, with all lockers closed and in an up and down motion. So....orientation of a manual pumps installation really does need to be taken into consideration, at least from a stewards perspective, because builders won't necessarily.

Here's anothe shot:

[Chance]

Sorry, Here's the exterior shot of the pumps access.

[Chance]

Here is the evolution of the cabin sole. When I became steward of "Heritage" what remained of her cabin sole was only the fiberglass liner. Originally she was built with a one piece teak and holly plywood sole that the previous owner found it necessary to remove due to the poor condition it was in. The second shot is from the previous owner and is what I was starting with. I my quest to get into this cosmetic aspect of her re-commissioning, I did not take any close ups of the fiberglass liner's cabin sole.

All of the burma teak I'm using is vertical grained and about 1/4" thick.

[Chance]

Here is more of the new cabin sole creation:

[Chance]

More on the cabin sole evolvement: