Ariel #414

[mbd]

Looking good Ben! You're giving the old girl the attention she deserves. In looking over this, while building your drip pan, another thing you might consider is setting up your bilge and bilge pump similar to Capt. Ebb's. Lot's of good ideas and educational reading in his thread!

It's somewhere in his thread here: http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussi...GALLERY-THREAD

But once the engine is in, access to that bilge is difficult, unless you have the arms of an orangutan, which I don't thing you do.

[414]

Boy the months do slip away!

I thought I should give an update on 414. She's been rechristened as "William King" after the great state of Maine's first governor. Sea Glass is a great name but I felt like I was using Mike's boat until I painted the topsides, boot stripe and bottom and renamed it. Now I feel like I can call it mine (but your still welcome anytime Mike!). The Yanmar 2gm has been great. Starts right up, idles well and will rev to a little over 3k. I was having some trouble with the transmission but it turns out I had overfilled it. With fresh oil the dip stick is very hard to read. Once the level was corrected it has been engaging properly with no slipping.

I also relocated the thru-hulls for the bilge pump and engine exhaust to the transom. I know this is an unpopular choice because it messes up the lines but it was important to me to be able to see that the exhaust is flowing the right amount of water and since I had already done the engine I decided to make it symmetrical and do the bilge pump the same way. So I made up two 2" stainless thru-hulls from pipe and round flanges, added 2" ball valves on each inside the rear lazzarate. Then they got painted along with the topsides in an effort to make them less noticeable. They also are about 16" above the waterline and I like the idea of that.

Speaking of the exhaust- I couldn't bear to buy another yanmar mixing elbow after seeing what had happened to the one that was on the engine, so I made my own. It's an experiment to see if it will hold up to the vibration and is made from mild steel automotive exhaust pipe. If it makes it the season with no cracks or other issues I'll make it again but out of 316 stainless. It's been good so far with about 6-7 hours on the engine. It has a pretty radical ubend that comes as high as I could directly after the engine and a few inches of drop before the water is injected. I don't want any water getting back to the exhaust valves and since my thru-hull is mounted high I wanted the insurance here.

I also rewired the mast with new anchor and steaming lights and a new VHF antenna and cable. Getting the wires through the deck as a little puzzling to me and I went back and forth on how to do it but finally settled on a traditional goose neck. I ordered some 1.25" 316 stainless pipe elbows and a flange from Amazon and made it up. I was concerned it would be ugly on the cabin top but I located it right next to the mast (just forward of the beam) and it disappears since that area is busy anyhow. Also in the mast department was a new port lower aft stay. I made it up with sta-lok ends and it was very straight forward. It did however make me wonder about the rest of the standing rigging and I'm thinking of switching to Dyneema next year or the following. Anyone have any experience with synthetic standing rigging?

Along with the new antenna was a new VHF. The standard horizon GX2200 and a USB cable that allows me to run openCPN on my computer. It's not really needed for the kind of sailing that we've been doing this summer but it's fun to mess with and the program is free so the only added expense was the $30 for the cable from milltech marine (which works great by the way). And if we did get stuck out in the fog or after dark we'd have both GPS and the AIS receiver which is comforting.

Lastly I stripped out all the wiring from the whole boat, including the switch and fuse panel. I made a new fuse box that houses the fuses and switches and got new ground and positive bus bars that are currently located just aft of the port side settee next to the battery. Nothing exciting there just wiring that works and most importantly wiring that I know since I did it - but since my memory seems to fade daily I also labeled both ends of all the wires .

That's all for now. I hope everyone is having a great summer on their commanders and ariels! These are really great boats and me and my little family have been having a great time learning to sail a "big" boat on ours.

-Ben

[mbd]

That is one mighty fine looking vessel!