CapnK and "Katie Marie"

[CapnK]

Katie Marie is a 1967 Pearson Ariel, hull #422 of 440 made. 1967 was the last year of 5 years of production for these Carl Alberg-designed boats.

[CapnK]

By the way - There'll be a *ton* more posts in this thread, eventually. :) In fact, I'll be moving most of the content from my old site into here. I didn't mean for this to seem like a brief one-liner intro topic, I just posted a quicky to start off, and then went on to other things.

What I'm saying is that I encourage y'all to do with your own threads as you will. Fill them up with content, pics, musings, design ideas, poetry, or whatever. It's your space to express yourself, your boat, your Plans, your dreams. Go for it!

That's what I'll be doing. :)

First, I've gotta make sure that sailFar gets a good launching. ;D

Have a great day!

[The Edge]

Captn K,

     Your boat is a beauty.  I am looking forward to reading more in this thread. 

     I imagine you are quite busy keeping up with all of the enthusiastic sailors who have joined your site.  Thanks for your efforts.

[CapnK]

She's the gleam in my eye. :)

Yeah, busy lol. :) Was out of town most of yesterday, and see now that everyone was really busy here! :D Cool! Wish I could respond to every post - but it is getting too busy to do that, and still have a life, right? ;)

Santa brought me some hardware. Soon the mast comes down for a refit with new spreader bases and LED nav lights, and quitened wiring. I think that while it is down I will fix the strongback on my main bulkhead, and do some related modifications there. Was going to try to be sailable in January, but it might be Feb before she's ready to bear the stresses again. We'll see. It's all part of the Plan, so I'm OK with it, and can hop rides on friends boats in the cold meanwhile. ;D

[djn]

Hey Capnk, I am going to drop my mast in a month and am planning all the things I want to do while it is down.  Do the LED light draw less power or last longer or what.  Also, what is quitened wirering?  I am going to put all three haylards inside the mast, replace my windex, replace spreader sockets, and install a VHF antenna.  Cheers.

[CapnK]

The LED's both draw less power, *and* last longer, since they don't have bulbs to burn out. The 3 watt all-round white LED has a 50,000 hour lifespan and is USCG certified for 2 mile visibility. If it makes it 1/10th of lifespan before needing servicing, I'll be loving it. If it makes it half of that 50K hours, it'll be a family heirloom. ;)

By "quieting the wiring", I mean that I am going to put foam pipe insulation around the wires in the mast to keep them from clanging away like they have been for the past 8 months. :) Some people use zip-ties to do the same, but pipe foam can be installed without pulling the wires out (or re-running them), and on my last boat, after being in there for 3 years, the foam was still dry as a bone and looked brand new. It wouldn't be much, but it would also provide some float in the case of roll-over, too.

I forgot to add the VHF antenna to my list - I'll be doing that too. Already have the Windex. :)

[s/v Faith]

Kurt,

  Been thinking alot about my interior.  Your 'gimp' drawings have got me thinking about the merits of 'hard' stowage, vs my current 'soft' scheme. 

  Wonder where your thinking is right now on this, if you are still planning on lots of cabinets...?

  What you doing with your interior right now?

[CapnK]

Currently, I am very involved in being undecided about what exactly to do. ;D

AAMOF, once I stop posting here this morning, I'm switching the interior the rest of the way over to trying a setup like Franks and yours; stowage up front, and using the original Ariel counter area for the galley, leaving room for an athwartships double and a sea berth (w/footwell in the bottom of the cockpit locker) on port side.

I'll definitely be going with "hard" stowage, for reasons of optimal space utilization, and for as "wide open" of a feel as possible. Also, I did some thinking and calcs concerning positive flotation ("boat as a lifeboat" thinking), and (IIRC) we need about 55 cubic feet of flotation in an Ariel to keep her from sinking. It would be interesting to replace all the interior wood with FRP sheet PU foam to that end. It would probably be a year or more before I began to really get into that, though I will experiment with the concept before going whole-hog on it.

I'm still using large bins as my primary stowage medium. It makes it easy to shift the overall configuration around, and all the "stuff" sorts itself out: frequently used things wind up in the easier-to-get-at bins. I pulled a sack full of "clutterstuff" out the other night, because it felt like space was running low. That freed up two bins-worth of space, which is the reason for the change I am going to make this morning, once I wake up the CrewDogs and make them go out on deck. :)

[CapnK]

Hi all!  ;D I've been busy! So has everyone here - which is GREAT!!! :)

I have been doing lots of computer and canvas work, but have also managed to squeeze in a little of my favorite - boat work!

Katies gelcoat is 40 years old and looks like dooky on her topsides. I think that UV and general exposure has caused it to shrink, so everywhere not protected by nonskid has the appearance of crackle-paint, with the cracks going all the way through the gelcoat to the glass fibers underneath.

I pulled Katies brightwork around the cockpit for its annual varnishing, and have been working on the gelcoat in the cockpit area. I plan to have it done before I replace the brightwork, so that my "porch" is a pleasant looking place to spend time this year. :)

Right now I have it primed with high-build 2 part epoxy primer. Planning to sand that out later this week, and catch all the little stuff which is still showing, hoping to get paint on late week or early next.

Also, I've decided how I am going to do her interior, and have started the process of working on that - and I hope to start building it in after I get the cockpit painted... It should be a bit of a challenge, living aboard during that process, but I should be able to pull it off...

I sure wish the CrewDogs could use sandpaper! ;D

[Skipper Dave]

Wow Capn that is a lot of work good luck I'm sure it will be worth it.  Send pictures.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

This morning it looked so nice out I thought I'd leave it out.

S/V "Tina Marie" Cal 2-27

[Frank]

I'm curious how your final int plan idea ended up captain???

[Pixie Dust]

I sure wish the CrewDogs could use sandpaper! ;D

Try attaching sandpaper to their tails with a weighted block, then talk nice to them, give them snacks, promise them the ball.... their little tails will wag, wag, wag and then you will have some helpers!  Just a thought.   :D  Let us know if it works!   ;D

[CapnK]

Dave - Will do (on the pics)! BTW - Happy Birthday! ;D

PD - I WISH! :D

Frank - I'll do up a graphic soon to show, but the plan for right now is to keep the starboard berth pretty much as-is (except for building in seatback stowage, making it a little narrower), build in some cabinetry portside (for galley & food stowage) just aft of the factory drawers, leaving about 2.5' of space between them and the usual Ariel countertop aft. This space will serve as a seat, and as I plan to extend the foot of the berth there under the cockpit locker, it will be the head of my sea berth. Also, using a spacer across the middle of the cabin, I can have a wide, V-shaped athwartships double, head-end to starboard.

Forward, in the V, I'll have cabinets on both sides, with a 2' wide, 6' 3" long "channel" in the middle which will allow access to chainlocker, and also could serve as a berth in case of a guest. For about a month I've had my "fixed" stove up in the V, portside. Since it is only a step or two to anywhere in the boat, spreading out my "galley" like this works fine, and the forehatch is a great vent. I may go with that configuration. I'll have my gimballed one-pot stove aft, for meals/beverages in rougher conditions.

I'll also be carving out some of the main bulkhead, in order to open up the interior for air flow & make everything look more open. Still figuring out exactly how I want to do this, what materials to use to beef up the structure. I'll make the bottom half of the doorway slotted to accept boards which will make it possible to coffer-dam off the v-berth area in case of flooding.

When I work up a graphic, I'll post it. :)

[CapnK]

Adrift - Zen *used to* have an Ariel, then he had some sort of 'crisis', and bought a bigger boat.

;D

Well, this post has been a long time coming, I'm glad to *finally* have this project underway...

I dropped Katie's mast this morning. Need to replace a spreader bracket, stop the clangy-wires, install an LED anchor light, give the whole thing a good going-over and refurb where necessary, and, if I can, shore up the sagging strongback semi-permanently. So here are the pics showing how we got the stick down...

Being too cheap err, frugal (yeah, that's the ticket! ;)) to get hauled out for the mast dropping, I made a ladder crane, an idea I had seen posted elsewhere on the 'net. This allowed me to drop the mast at the dock. I was interested to see how hard it would be - supposedly, the Ariel spar weighs 88#, but let me tell you this - that 88# must be with every extra piece of hardware removed from the spar, including rivets and cleats. :) It sure seemed a lot heavier than that!

I used a 20' extension ladder (which gives about 16' of useable height), rigged it up, stood it next to the mast, and guyed it out fore n aft. Before putting the ladder up, I put my handybilly on the top rung of the ladder, which gave me a 3:1 purchase for lowering the mast. All went well, except I could have used another 2-4" of hoist - there is a stainless stell tube for thru-deck wires which my arrangement just couldn't quite clear when the mast is lifted. I'll be fixing that before the re-hoist. These pics will show you the rig (bigger versions of the pics in the Gallery). Worked good! :)


Ladder crane up and ready.


Close-up of top of crane.


I used my boom, lashed to the bow pulpit, to spread the foreward guy lines some. Tip: Give some thought to how you route these lines, they'll need to allow the mast to drop all the way down.


Mast down at last. :)

[AdriftAtSea]

You need a good gin pole system on your boat.  Dropping the mast on the Pretty Gee is really simple compared to what you have to go through.  I just installed a modification to the mast-lowering system two weeks ago that the manufacturer is probably going to adopt.  :D

As for LED-masthead lights.  They're great.  Who made the unit you have?  I have an Orca Green Marine unit on my boat.

[CapnK]

Gin pole? No thanks. I'm more of a single-barrel bourbon man, myself... ;)

Eventually I'll install a hinged base on the mast, there is a nice one for Ariels out there, it's just pricey.

The LED is made by Innovative Lighting, sold at BW, it's a 3 watt LED designed to be an all-around white light for power vessels. I think I've written about it elsewhere here. I'd like to get one of the double-row-LED ones which Craig/Faith posted about, the ones made in Fiji, but I already have this one on hand.

The strongback is coming out, for sure. After some messing about, it is coming out much easier and cleaner than I thought it would. Spent an hour pulling melamine off of the bulkhead, yanking screws, etc..., should have it all the way out in another hour or two. Going to make a low-profile replacement of epoxy/foam sandwich while I have the mast down. That'll allow me to take out some of the bulkhead, and open up the cabin interior quite a bit. Might be a couple weeks before I get the mast back up, but this seems to be the way to go...

Maybe, if it takes long enough, I'll be able to get one of those Fiji lights before the mast goes back up. :)

[Zen]

Good Job CapnK, I wanted/needed to do that to my Ariel, before I had my "crisis"  ;)
I wondered how well it would work.

[Fortis]

The ladder thing is interesting!
:o

I have to admit that I used a friction grab on a nylon sling about a foot below the spreders when we did ours (with a frame that hangs out over the public dock, not a ladder). The prusack type knot means the mast has a slight tendency to tip in the direction you want it to go anyway, and this does wonders for control, it also got me that extra foot of lift.

I am not sure about guying onto the boom like that, I am sure it is way within tolerneces...but I would worry about maybe introducing a new stress point.

Hmmm...a ladder...brilliant. Definately food for thought.

Now, did you use the ladder crane to put the mast back up, too?


Alex.

[Captain Smollett]

CapnK,

Your spreader socket disease must be contagious.  I stepped the mast today to take someone out for their FIRST TIME on a sailboat (he has bought a small sailbote but want to do some learnin' first).

Got the mast up and what did I notice?  Bent Spreader  >:( .  Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be the base, which seems to have gotten torqued 'downward' somehow.   Grrrrrr.  Did Katie Marie get too close while I was down there?   ;D

We did get some nice mid-summer shake-n-bake in; I think we had 15 total minutes of wind in the whole time we were out.

Glad to see you finally got the mast down and can get that work done!!

[CapnK]

Zen - It worked great! My fellow liveaboards met the idea with some skepticism at first. Later yesterday, after they'd helped with the mast lowering, they agreed that it went really well and easily, and was a good idea. :)

Fortis - The sling idea sounds like a good one, especially to get some extra lift if needed. I used a loose gasket made of line which slid up the mast and lodged under the tangs when I raised the ladder (which also helped keep the ladder from trying to fall into the drink). Turned out that it had too much extra slack in it - I would have had 18-24" of lift (which would have been plenty sufficient) if I'd made it tight, so that's what I'll do when I put the stick back up. I lost 12" or so of lift because of the slackness. Doh! :)

AFA the boom, good point, I should explain for others who might try this.

I gave it a good deal of thought prior to using it in this manner, here is what my consideration led to: The boom as I used it doesn't take much of a strain at all, since most of the forces involved are compressive on the ladder. Additionally, the ladder is leaned forward a bit, so that the guylines which run aft to the genoa cars are the ones which took up the strain when picking up the weight of the spar. I don't know how easily you can tell from the pic, but the load points on the boom (where the lines are tied off to, and the spots where the boom contacts the pulpit) are all only about 36" apart, and the boom extrusion itself is way overbuilt for this boat (Ariels carry the exact same rig as the Tritons, their older brothers which displace almost 50% more than the Ariels), so I thought it was well within the strength capability of the extrusion to handle what strain it did get. Last, I aligned the boom extrusion so that it would take any load from the lines in a direction in which the boom cross section was strongest, and, at the points where the boom contacts the pulpit, there is a layer of padding to spread any point load.

Hope some of that makes sense. :) I'd be careful and a little more reluctant if using a boom from a newer boat in this manner, since more modern rigs are made so much lighter than these 40 year old components. (In fact, one of the selling points of the Ariel to me was that the rig is so oversized, being basically a transplant from a ~50% larger boat. Pearson's expediency of that time is something I much appreciate - I've read of many cruisers who, before embarking on long journeys, oversize their rigging. On Ariels, that particular detail has already been done for you, at the factory no less... ;) )

I will be using the ladder crane to rehoist the mast when I get to that point.

John - Ouch! Been there, got that tshirt. :) Be sure to take a good look at your mast, checking to see if the force which bent the spreader base down was enough to have caused it to dimple the mast. My CP23 had a problem like that, I wound up installing a socket with a larger base, figuring that it would put stress out beyond the dimpled point when under load.