Ariel #24

[Tim Mertinooke]

Like I mentioned before the area seems structurally solid. I will grind the area down to the glass, then drill out the rotten laminate, dry, fill with epoxy, and then coat the area with epoxy, finally bedding the shoe with 5200. This should do the trick as it has worked for others.

"Gotta love a mystery! Have to follow where the evidence leads"

I call it brain candy. Every active mind needs a futile project to spar with and I'm no exception.

[Tim Mertinooke]

I removed the rudder today after first removing the rudder strap and tiller cap. The removal went as planned. I cleaned up the upper and lower shaft to get a closer look and they look great. The rudder having dried for a week now has begun to check a little bit, but it's shape is good and the checking is localized to one area on one side. I've decided to laminate the rudder with epoxy and cloth. If a shady job 40 years ago with polyester worked, epoxy done right should last another 40.

Beneath the rudder strap was an extra hole presumably drilled by Pearson. It was at a weird angle so I'm assuming it was a first failed attempt to mount the strap. This extra hole would have certainly let water into the keel void. You can see in one of the photos below that there is a small opening in the center. THere was no bedding compound either. I'm amazed this boat floated as evidence lets itself be known from removing these items.

The rudder strap has a good amount of wear and I may use it again, but would prefer not too. Does anyone know of a source for bronze stock that could used to make a new one? Also, the pins that I tapped out of the shoe and the strap are in poor shape. They are all bent from tapping them out and the ends needed to be drilled to remove them so they are too short to be re-used anyway. I suppose I could use a bronze bolt with the head cut off and just peen the ends. Anyone try this?

BTW-My new Nissan 6HP 4-stroke gets delivered to my house Monday. Yippie! Just in time for our spring Nor'easter.



You can see the extra hole in this picture. The extra hole was the same diameter as the other two holes, but this picture was taken after I had drilled out the two used to hold the strap. The laminate was solid with no evidence of laminate saturation.



Look closely in the hole and you can see on the right where water would travel into the bilge.




This is after grinding the area and drilling the extra hole. The plan is to prep and fill the area with epoxy making the future holes sealed from the bilge. You can see another place water could have entered in this photo on the right.

[Tim Mertinooke]

As mentioned in the previous post, I cleaned up the rudder shaft so I could get a better look and gauge its condition more accurately. I started to remove the filler placed at the access points for the bolts that tighten the rudder. I don't plan on adjusting the rudder at all and I am considering leaving these areas unfilled. I am going to leave the rudder in the house for a while to give it a better environment to dry before laminating.





Here are some close-ups showing the condition of the upper shaft.







Lower shaft.







This is the localized area that checked a little while drying.

[ebb]

Tim,
Great detailed photos!!

Check the rudder bolts if you can for deteriation of either at the rudder shaft. Different alloys could have been used there. The same can be said of the shaft where it sits unseen inside the tube where there is (dead) air and captured water. Many rudders have had corrosion there (as I understand it.) This is covered in the Manual.

The gudgeon strap is interesting. Looks like there is bottom paint under where it was mounted? The extra hole is mystifying because it is so off!
If there was some evidence of a second hole then of course there had to have been another strap there at one time.

If you haven't noticed here yet, I'm a believer in Silicon Bronze (Everdur 655) for under salt water applications. If your boat is a salt water boat imho you can assume the bronze you have there in such good shape is 655 and all the other parts as well. (This may not be the case with the rudder shoe.)
I have some 2" wide strips (bar) of s.b. It's definitely 'soft' enough to be bent into a U. The stuff is a true 1/8". But it looks like your strap is thicker.
(If interested, get in touch thru the 'private messages, up above here.)

Your shot of the strap shows good gold color, the chamfer, if that is original, looks like it was just done!! The rudder shoe on 338 was fastened with peened bronze rod. The trouble with that was/is available bronze rod is hardened somewhat. The normal stuff. I'm sure that there is soft peening rod somewhere, but you probably have to buy 20' of it. Is there a boat shop near you? What do you need, 6" of it? I peened the regular stuff and it was a PITA. I clamped on a big ole hunk of plate on the other side and banged away. Like with a hero peening hammer! There's no cheat so you've got the get the length of the thru pins just right.

'Luxury' machine shops have to buy lengths of material that have to be stored.
A shop that does boat work has to have the exact stuff you need.

The pins are doing minimal 'work' so imco the chamfers should be quite small and not deep. It is better to have some material to peen against. A smaller head would make it easier to remove later. Like I say, you're not going to get much of a head with off the shelf s.b. rod. Annealing the rod must be real easy to do. All you have to do is heat it to 900-1200 degrees. Tell us how to do it, OK? Next time.

[Tim Mertinooke]

My new Nissan 6hp 4-stroke was delivered to my house on Monday. Today I dragged it up to the cockpit and placed it in the motor well to see how it fits and as expected it fit perfect.

Since I have not been able to start laying fiberglass due to the temps and the fact that it has not stopped snowing, sleeting, and raining for the past five days I decided to start ripping the outboard well apart. When I first looked at the well I noticed some fiberglass that was delaminating from the plywood. The test hole I made showed the area to be very wet and there was a gasoline smell coming from the hole. I started by just peeling the laminate off of the plywood. Some of it came off easy, but most of it required a chisel, hammer, wonder bar, and back pain to get it off. I just dangled my legs out of the well and went for broke.


Here is a picture from the initial inspection made last December.



This was taken today. It was raining while I was doing this which made a nasty job even nastier. You can see the Ariel soup that I have encountered in other parts of this boat.



A little more progress. This was slow going for the most part but very rewarding because progress was obvious.



The chisel and hammer mixed with careful technique worked well. The gasoline smell was very strong at this point and the pieces of foam and plywood I removed created slicks in the water seen below.



The water and debris was removed with shop rags that were thrown out. I worried the gas smell would never leave my shop vac had I tried it.




This is what it looked like after removing the rest of the laminate, plywood and foam. The gas smell was very strong even after I removed the water and debris. I filled up the well with water and dish soap and scrubbed and rinsed a few times. The smell was gone and I'm sure the grass under the boat will never grow again.




The rain stopped for about ten minutes so I dried the area and took a grinder to it. There will be more grinding to prepare it for paint. I was thinking bilgecoat. Has anyone else tried that type of paint in the well or is there something better?




All in all it was a nasty job, but once I finish prepping and painting, it will be worthy of the new engine and functional. I need to figure out how to keep my tanks level, I was thinking about an insert that can be removed so that I can change the configuration of the well to accomodate the engine laying sideways when I'm not there. I have a plug too which will also be used while I am not there.


BTW- with the right seat this could constitute the enclosed head I dream of in an Ariel.

[Westgate]

Tim,

Picture two reminds me of a soup I ate once

I was surprised how "shallow" the new space under the old laz floor appeared. I always figured there was more room down in those nether regions. Maybe it's the perspective??

So are you going to glass in a new sub-floor or just leave it as is?

I think the wonder bar is one of the best tools ever made and your clever use chalks up yet another application!

Great job and really nice pictures.

Andrew

[Tim Mertinooke]

That exact wonder bar and hammer were responsible for 90% of the demolition involved for our new kitchen.

"are you going to glass in a new sub-floor or just leave it as is?"

As is. I don't like unknowns, surprises or nether regions. I envision some sort of insert to keep my tank level and that's it. Also, there is a drain, but it in an awkward place that you can't inspect or reach when the engine is in the well. I'm not sure where or what, but a new drain of some sort is in order.