hull sanded do I have to seal it before winter

[beugenides]

I have sanded the hull and do not plan on painting it until spring. It is down to the original gel coat. If covered well, is there any reason why I should have to seal it for the winter?
Thanks, Brent

[Hull376]

I'd say no reason-- if you still have gel coat. May in fact help overall drying out the hull with the paint removed if it was recently hauled. Lets see what others think!

[willie]

I have a similar question--
I'm new here, so please be kind, but thought about this last night. I've agreed to purchase #350 Ariel, bringing her home in about 2 weeks. She's been in Puget Sound for a few yrs., will be on trailer for the winter. Wondering what the winter freezing temps will do--Like if there's any water trapped in the hull, keel voids, or anywhere else. When does salt water freeze? Would sticking her back in the water be best, then hauling in spring for work through the summer? I have a million other questions, but will wait. This one has me a little concerned. Thanks,
Bill Hoover
Fossil, Oregon

[Bill]

I would recommend leaving the boat out of the water as long as possible.

Here's the short story of how we emptied the hull. Drill three 1/4'' by 3/8" deep holes about two inches forward of the rudder shoe - one at the very bottom of the keel, one about four inches above the bottom of the keel and the third about 18 inches up from the bottom of keel (Releases any vacuum or you can use a compressor to force out the water.) Let the keel drain over the winter, but keep water from getting into the bilge or you will just fill up the keel void again. If water is kept off the hull, you should be pretty dry by the end of the next summer. Before launching, seal the bilge with epoxy and paint the hull with an epoxy barrier coat. We used the Interlux product because it could be done in three days.

[ebb]

The other issue is the deck, of course. There is plenty of yarn on that here. If the boat is new to you, and looks like it's in good condition, if the deck has not been worked on by former owners, your main suspect areas are: the vent hole in the foredeck, the mast electrics hole, the forehatch hinges, the chain plates. Certainly keep water off the deck. If you are refitting, the arguement would be to remove the fittings hopefully to air these places out.

IMCO, if you are sure you are going to keep the boat dry, and you have identified damp in the core, say, around the chainplates, a few holes up from inside might be useful too. Just into the balsa.

[ebb]

Capt willie,
You got yourself a happy sailboat.

To paraphrase a great book on cruising:
There Be No Orcs here! So ask away.

We all have different styles of expression,
but they all is smiling a lot,
and have a beer in each hand,
one for you.

[willie]

Thanks for the info. All of you! This site is the greatest. Looking forward to many questions being answered. The previous owner thinks she'll be fine. I guess I'm a little confused here about keel voids--are we just talking about the bilge area, where if the water left there freezes, so what? Or are there other areas water could have seeped into that are not open, where if it freezes it will break things? That's what I'm worried about, any areas of trapped water that can't expand. Maybe I just worry too much!

[Bill]

Take another look at my previous post. Water enters the keel from the bilge as well as by osmosis. If you are expecting a hard freeze, then drill and drain the water from the hull as noted. Learned this trick from a Michigan skipper. He left a ss screw in the lower hole and removed it to drain the water at the end of each season when he hauled out.

[ebb]

338 had more than 5 gallons epoxy pumped into the void after the water was drained. That does not include other pockets of water, or perhaps sodden frp that may take time to eveporate or find its way out. That's too much water to leave in a boat that's going in the deep freeze

It's easy enough to figure out how to backfill drain holes, 338 had holes drilled specifically to drain the encapsulation cavity. About three feet forward of the ruddershoe.

[willie]

Thanks Ebb,
Guess your keel is pretty solid now! First project when I get her home will be some drain holes. Is any of this in the owners manual? Think I better be ordering one anyway. Want to keep my happy boat happy. And the admiral too. She already knows I'm crazy with this adventure.

[ebb]

IMCO

The Manual is a unique loving tribute to our handsome plastic classics. References on the site here are often back to the Manual which has all the essential esoteric knowledge and a bunch of practical information as well.

Without Alberg, without Pearson, there wouldn't be the Ariel, there wouldn't be the Commander. (I don't know the generation here...) but without the Manual and the godfather sailors behind it we would be without www.pearsonariel.org.

I've visited hundreds of boat sites on the net. I think this one is the only one that has an actual 3D Manual created by sailor owners of the class. You can have it for a pittance.

The point I was trying to get to is this:
There is enough practical information on this site alone to put a shine on every publication I've seen on almost every aspect of sailing, rigging, handling refittiong and restoration of a classic plastic.

An addendum to the Manual filled with HowTo photos and decent drawings might fill a niche in the boat book world. Perhaps the personable format here would be a clue on how to plan the book. Oh weelll, just a thought. There's always This Old Boat to fall back on.*


*[the Ariel Addendum wouldn't forget, for instance, to advise that when attaching deck hardware one also has to ream and line holes thru a balsa deck with epoxy.]

YEARS LATER EDIT: To answer the original question: should one seal the topsides after prep sanding?
The answer is obviously, YES. You are in a major effort PREP stage. Whatever the paint system to come,
an epoxy sealer should go on the boat while waiting for the weather or season to change. leaving a
scratched surface open is never correct. the sealer coat will probably not be a "sanding" coat,
so to make reprep for coatings to come. I would probably put a coat of sanding primer over the sealing.
Just one -- knowing that when I get back to it, sanding will be easy and most of single sanding primer
coat will come off, making it easy to continue with coats of fresh primer for topside system
-- or straight on to bottom paint.
Since the boat is polyester, current pundits may advise to seal the BOTTOM, below the waterline, with a
first rate epoxy underwater coating - applied over freshly sanded gelcoat.
No vestige of previous bottom paint can remain on the hull bottom if you intend to epoxy.(see epoxyproducts. org)

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