Ariel #24

[Tim Mertinooke]

Well, I purchased Hull #24 and will have her resting safely in my yard by the end of this month. She is in sailable shape on a nice roadworthy trailer less than an hour from my home in western Massachusetts. My wife and I are school teachers and plan on cruising the New England coast together most of the summer with our 4-year-old son. The boat will be kept in Newburyport on the Merrimack River where we have kept our Cape Dory Typhoon for the past five years. At the end of the season she will then be trailered back to my house about two hours away to be worked on. My list of projects probably looks similar to everyone elses; couple soft spots on the deck, spongy cockpit sole, replace ice box, paint interior, etc. The two most pressing issues however that will need to be done before splash time is the rudder shoe and a bulge in the keel where the lead ballast is. The rudder shoe seems strong and has no play. The fiberglass sheathing over the shoe is cracked and once I get it to my house, I will be able to grind it off to get a better assessment. My feeling is that it looks worse that it is because it appears to be very strong and the bronze rudder shaft is in good condition. The bulge however takes priority and I am ready to attack it with a grinder, then start the layup routine. My initial idea as to the cause of the bulge was water migration through the bilge, then freezing. The bulge location is where the lead ballast is, so the expansion may have pushed against the lead and the fiberglass. The other side of the hull opposite this bulge shows no bulge at all. The perplexing thing however is that it is in a very localized area. Maybe it wasn't freezing water, but a blister? Maybe water that reached the laminate from the outside then froze? It was mentioned to me on another board that this sort of thing has happened to other ariels and would be very interested in hearing from those who have been there and done that. Bulges and soft spots aside I am very excited about our new ariel. Having been an Alberg fan my whole life and weighing the trade-offs with bigger vs. smaller, the ariel is a perfect fit. Big enough to cruise, small enough to trailer home at the end of the season. My plan is to document my restoration on a website that should be up and running by the time the boat gets home.

Tim

[frank durant]

Thats a fine looking boat...well worth your efforts.Please keep us updated to your repairs and mods.Always interesting to see peoples ideas 'come to life'. They are fine sailing boats. Have fun

[mbd]

Congrats and welcome aboard Tim! Looking forward to tracking your progress on A24! She's a beaut.

PS. Love the Mark Twain quote on your website too...

[c_amos]

Tim,

Glad you found your way here from the Classic Plastic's site. I think you will find some of the same folks here. There is some great info to be found here.

They really are great boats, and she will be well worth the time you spend on her.

I look forward to watching your progress on the repair.

Good Luck!

[Tim Mertinooke]

Here is a picture of A-24's rudder. The shoe feels solid so my plan is to grind off the loose glass then reglass. If the shoe's integrity is in question, then a replacement shoe is in order which will be a much more substantial repair. I'll post what it looks like after grinding which will paint a clearer picture later this month when the boat is transported to my yard. Tim

[commanderpete]

Nice boat.

Don't think we've seen any reports of the keel busting out like that. Not a real biggie though. Have at it!

I'd take care that the repair is fair and symmetric with the other side.

Bottom looks smooth. That's a bonus

[Tim Mertinooke]

The PO had removed all of the bottom paint before his last season in the water. There is one coat on most of the bottom with a few hard to reach areas with more. This was a bonus for the close-up inspection of the hull and having done it with my Typhoon last winter I can say I'm glad he did it not me.

Yeah, the bulge was the only thing that made me the slightest bit apprehensive before purchasing. After much research, I feel confident that with some grinding and a good careful layup, in the end it will just be a bad memory. Fotunately it happened in an area where the opposing force was the lead ballast so the bulge was kept to one side. Had it froze somewhere else and compromised both sides of the hull, well, maybe A-24 would have been someone else's dream. The whole story will unfold soon and for those who seek out pixels of others breathing in fiberglass, stay tuned. Tim

[CapnK]

Congrats, Tim! Overall she looks great! I wonder what caused that bulge?

You mentioned you read about it at another site - where was that? I'd like to see what they said...

Can't figure out what would have caused it, unless one of the drinken Portu's of Pearson manufacturing fame dropped a steel/iron tool down next to the ballast before it was glassed over, and then it later swelled while rusting, causing that. It will be very interesting to see what you find when you fix it up.

Topsides look nice and shiny! Katie is jealous,

Welcome aboard, you're gonna love sailing her.

[Tim Mertinooke]

Here is a link to the topic with replies.

http://triton381.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2319

[ebb]

When you start grinding, if it smells sweet, it's polyester. Don't think epoxy would have broken like that (like what is swelling?), nor gotten so bulbous looking. If it is epoxy, it'll be very interesting to see what it is hiding.

338's Factory shoe was very corroded on one side - mostly because the DFO's rudder post was made with highly alloyed s.s. propshaft - that's what I think anyway. Really hard and showed zero corrosion.

Rudder shoe should be made of nearly inert silicon bronze, along with the rudder post. But it's possible other copper alloys were used.

[Tim Mertinooke]

I am pretty sure it has not been previously repaired. The PO has owned the boat since 1974 and he was the second owner. WHen asked he told me that he hadn't tried to repair it so it is probably the original laminate.

I have seen the diagrams and have heard of the ills that come with the infamous voids. Is it possible to have water make its way in between the lead and the laminate from the voids, or is the lead pretty well sealed from the voids found fore and aft of it? My grinding finger is twitching...can't wait until she gets home.

[ebb]

Sorry!
Somehow a correction became a double post....

[ebb]

Don't have to take it from me, but it seems that lead ballast casting was lowered into the space designed for it in an Ariel with plenty of scrap cushioning and shimming using whatever lying around on the shop floor (as one one guy put it.) That wood (and maybe also wads of glass roving) has disintergrated over time - and space does exist around the ballast. ebb has gone on adnauseum about this and the Search mode will probably find that AND what others have contributed.

The ballast is secured, ie 'encapsulated', across the top of the lead - under the cabin sole - with multi layers of glass matt and polyester over it that crosses the space and tabs onto the hull both sides. This 'encapsulated' volume may or may not be isolated from the sump under the steps. But it more than likely has or has had gallons of water in it. If the hull is in relative good shape, the liquid in the encapsulated ballast area COULD have come thru the hull over the centuries, but it's more likely imco to have migrated there from the bilge area.

The search mode will find discussions on a number of configurations that evidently were used by the Factory for the space under the cockpit. Some like 338's were empty, others filled or sculpted in different ways.

It's pretty certain that water will find its way to the lowest point in the bilge and even into the laminate. It's merely a matter of drilling holes and letting the hull dry out. This also has been discussed on the forum and Search should find it.

It's my opinion that the Factory would NOT have delivered a new Ariel or Commander with the shoe covered in fiberglass. The rudder, also, is a traditional bronze and mahogany structure with not a stitch of glass or a smear of glue on it or around the post. LOTS on the rudder in discussion here. The original rudder is a holdover from wooden boat building practices, and is an exceptional work of craftmanship.

What we see in your fotos - on the face of it - at the end of the keel - doesn't look too professional. imco
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __
A clew as to what may have happened to your Ariel's shoe may be similar to the experience with 338's. When it was removed, a bunch of crystalized stuff was discovered. Very strange. Much of it came off with the fitting. Stuck inside the shoe! But there seemed to be evidence that the fitting had been a problem because other bolts had been drilled thru it! NOT a good idea.

After examination it appeared that the very end of the keel over which the shoe is fitted did not have its glass layup pushed down far enough into the corner of the mold. The 'crystal' stuff was unreinforced polyester that had broken from the mother.

The bronze shoe was being held onto the hull with literally ONE stud thru actual frp. The one bolt furthest in. The others had penetrated only plastic. These thru bolts actually created the cracking, I believe, from the weight of the rudder pushing down on the shoe. It's amazing the shoe had stayed on there for 40 years! I put four studs thru the fitting when the new one was attached, believe the original had four also. Actually the bolts are peened rod.

Your Ariel may have a similar situation and the cracked muff in your foto may be a DFO's attempt at reinforcement without taking the thing apart.

[Tim Mertinooke]

Last Saturday was supposed to be the delivery day for A-24, but mother nature dumped a couple feet of snow on us. It looks like delivery will most likely be next weekend. My neighbors thought me a little weird when I spent all of yesterday afternoon shoveling my yard. Here are some photos of my last visit to her.

Nameplate of course. That will stay original without any touchups. Maybe just a careful cleanup of the PO's slop of white paint.



One of the things I can't wait to do is rip off that terrible box made to hold the depth sounder display. The good news is that it is held on with only four screws and no 5200!




The finish on the mahogany is in pathetic condition, but the boat has been covered during it's layup and all the mahogany appears to lack rot. I won't know if it just looks bad or if I will need to mill up new coamings until they are removed.









The interior looks like all the others that I have seen. This one however has no water stains through any of the deck hardware including the ports and chainplates. I took this as a good sign and I plan to rebed everything before she hits the water this summer.

Those who cannot see the beauty of a run-down sailboat in need of love that will require time, money, and epoxy in one's hair will never understand this grin on my face...ready about?

[Tim Mertinooke]

Here are some photos of a couple mysteries I found on A-24. If anyone has any info regarding the "foam " that appears to be literally busting out of things I would appreciate it. Enlightenment please.





I didn't check the date on the newspaper, but I will once I see the boat again this week. If it says "1962" then some of my questions will be answered.