Haul out of Ariel #226, 'Faith'

[s/v Faith]

My Haul out;

She looked pretty slimy on haul out;




The Slime layer was worst at the water line;




On haul out, the rudder looked pretty good. It was covered in the same slime that had built up over the rest of the hull;  :-X





The straps you see were added by the prior owner, Herb Tucker and appear to be holding up well. I did not remove them, but sanded them down, and they seemed to be in good shape. There is a split in the rudder along the seam where 2 planks were joined (I can see at least 5 bronze rods (pins?) that run through from the end.  This is a common issue on the wood rudders on these boats.

The split had been filled with some kind of Calk on the last haul out, which seemed like a good compromise to me.

Here is the rudder after pressure wash;







I sanded it, coated it with epoxy. I coated it with epoxy, faired it in and painted it.



Here is what it looks like now;





I felt like the rudder was in pretty good shape. The straps that Herb added seem like a reasonable precaution to prevent the end of the rudder (beyond the seam) from sliding off.

______________________________________________

While in the midst of a haul out, I decided to do something about the lazy-rat drain.

Sometimes when or sailing hard or motoring above 5 knots, if the stern squats the lazy-rat will fill with water and my fuel tank, 2 stroke oil bottle, funnel and whatever else will float around until I slow down.  :P

I have noticed that there are times when it would drain, but can not because of the smallish drain (mine is about 3/4"). 

I used a 2" hole saw to cut around the current drain hole, and then used a rasp to taper the edges of the hole. I then sawed a piece of 1 ½" fiberglass pipe at a shallow angle, rotated the ends and epoxy and glassed them back together to make this;




I pulled out all the foam I could reach through the holes and was surprised to find it was damp, but neither was it saturated or did it smell of gas. One of #226's prior owners had overlain the lazyrat floor with glass years ago, and while the poured resin had not held, the glass apparently had done a pretty good job of protecting the floor.  (I removed the resin that had been poured in with a heat gun a couple years ago).

I then foamed the new pipe in place, and when the foam hardened I chipped it out for an inch or so on the top and the bottom around the pipe. I laid thickened epoxy into this void, to secure the new pipe.





I will let you know how it works.

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I had not scrubbed the hull since the fall.  I normally dive on her for a good scrub before a race.  The boot stripe paint has been failing since I got her, I do not think it was the correct type, and it has spent a good deal of it's life below water due to the boat being loaded with too much gear.  I have tried to remove stuff, and for everything I take off I find I need to add two more.  I will raise the waterline by about 1 ¾".

Sanding down the high spots, and filling the lows begins;




There are many, many pictures of this activity, I will spare you.  Basically the process was to sand every inch with 80 grit, then with 100 grit I took down all the bad stuff I could see.  The obvious bad spots were filled, and smoothed.

Interlux 'precoat' high build primer was then rolled over the whole thing and all the stuff that looked pretty good suddenly no longer did.  Several rounds of wet sanding and filling took place over the next few days. 

  I thinned the topcoat (interlux brightsides) as thin as I dared, and rolled it on..... as you guys said it would it looked horrible!
  It was so thin that you could see all the variations in the primer through it!  Wet sanding only made matters worse, but the second coat seemed to help a little.  I had thinned it so much that we did 2 coats with the first quart and still had paint to spare.  We ended up doing 4 coats, 3 might have been fine but for the roller fiasco I mentioned earlier.

I went on applying thin coats, and wet sanding with 400 in between to remove the orange peel, and 'no-see'em's'.

Guys, here is a tip for you.  Make sure you have a big stick with you because when the rest of the guys in the yard see your first mate wetsanding they will try to steel her from you.  ;D ;D ;D

  We have been on the hard for over 2 weeks now, and Rose has been the only spouse I have seen working in the yard.  When asked about this, she answers matter of factly "it's my boat too".  ;)

The port side after the tape comes off of the boot stripe;








The starboard bow;





I am still working on re-installing the s/s rubstrake.  The hull to deck joint was dremmeled out, and the seam and screw holes were filled with thickened epoxy.  I am bedding the rails in polyurethane (PL window and door, I love that stuff).  It is messy work but should look nice and leak free (I hope) when I am done.

[Frank]

Great shots...lookin GOOooood !!   I read a few yrs back about that 'majic moment' when you peel off the tape after doing paint work and how the boat comes alive and how good ya feel looking at your work. From the pics...I'd be guessing you know that feeling well ;-)

[AdriftAtSea]

s/v Faith-

You're a far luckier man than you deserve to be... with Rose at your side.. ;)

the work looks to be progressing beautifully, and you're doing a really nice job of it.  I'll be doing the bottom paint as soon as the weather up here clears up a bit.  It's been really ugly. 

I'm hoping that my crew works half as hard as yours does....

[CharlieJ]

Looking VERY good. We need to haul Tehani pretty soon ourselves.

As far as Rose working on the boat- I have a lady like that too ;D Ain't we lucky??

Shot of Laura while sanding the bottom paint.



You  think she got dirty in that first pic- look at THIS one-

[skylark]

Beautiful boat! 

[Bubba the Pirate]

Spiffy!!

TrT ;D

[AdriftAtSea]

TRT- 

Looks like s/v Faith has set a high bar for you to meet.  ;)

[Pixie Dust]

Craig, wolf whistle!!! (easier for me to type than to do  :D)
Faith looks AWESOME!
You and Rose did a fantastic job.   You and Charlie and very lucky boys to have wifes that love the boat and want to do more on them than just get sun.  :))   You should be very proud. 

[s/v Faith]

Thank you all for the complements.  I really am thankful, and more so that she is nuts enough to get aboard a small boat with me and head over the horizon.  :)


Here are a couple more shots;

This is the original stainless steel rub strake. I removed it and ground out the filler that sealed up the deck to hull joint (back in 1964, it had long since ceased from sealing anything). It was a tough call to put this back on, since it involved drilling over 100 holes in the toe rail I had just finished sealing up.

  It is bedded in 2 and a half tubes of PL polyurethane (quiet the messy job!).




Then, here are the new stern cleats There are 6 of these 10" hershoff bronze cleats;



  And finally.  Saving the best for last....  ;D

Rose wanted to make sure the fish that visited us would have som company... and that when we were diving in the crystal clear water we will be in... so she used some extra cans of bottom paint laying around the yard to bring these friends along...  ;D


Port side;


Starboard;

[CharlieJ]

 ;D ;D

Now THAT bottom painting is PRICELESS!!

Very kewl as the Lat's and At's people would say :D

[skylark]

That is soooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+1

Aren't you afraid of the keel getting bit by a shark?

[Captain Smollett]

Beautiful work, Craig and Rose.  I love the keel.

I have some questions.  It seems like every time I seek info about hauling and bottom painting, I see a LOT of vague references to options.  So, I'd like to know what YOU did.

What exactly did YOU have to do (vs. what the yard did) prepping and hauling your boat?  Is that typical of most yards?

I've ordered the "Haul Out" video from Bennett Marine to learn some more about the general procedures, but would like to hear the details of one specific experience.

Thanks. 

{Edit to fix link}

[BobW]

You've done a marvelous job!

Prelude needs a bottom job, some cosmetic work, and new paint, too, so I'd be interested in hearing about the complete job as well.  What did the yard do, and what did you do?  Looking forward to hearing about it. 

Again, Faith looks great!

[AdriftAtSea]

I love the bottom paint job... that is truly priceless, and makes the boat truly a work of art.  :D

[s/v Faith]

Beautiful work, Craig and Rose.  I love the keel.

I have some questions.  It seems like every time I seek info about hauling and bottom painting, I see a LOT of vague references to options.  So, I'd like to know what YOU did.
.......Thanks. 

John,

I believe that is because each haul out is different.  Faith has been on the hard for almost 2 weeks now.  A guy hauled a hunter 30 while I was in the yard, waxed the topsides, and painted the bottom in a day.

  Constants, pressure wash.... then pressure wash some more.  The yard did no work at all on my boat... except for operating the travel lift, and the first 10 minutes of the pressure wash.   They include the $ of the pressure wash, but only knock off the big chunks.  Using it long and aggressively cuts way down on the work later.  If you can get the paint to chip, it was bound to fail anyway.

  More modern fiberglass has blister problems.  Ariels, and Triton's don't blister...  Some other older boats either dint blister, or have minor problems with the blister issue.  Some believe in 'barrier coats'.  I think it is largely a marketing ploy, and the wrong barrier coat can make blistering an issue where none exists.

  I know the bottom on the Smollet 30 is in pretty good shape.  I have dove the boat, and scrubbed the hull.  I doubt you will have much to do.   ;D

  One tip that I will pass along, and I HIGHLY recommend. My buddy Dennis,  a Flicka Sailor with several island trips under his belt (he is not much for the internet, I keep trying to get him to drop in here... great guy, very knowlegable).   He suggested that sanding of old ablative bottom paint be done while the hull is still wet from the haul out (pressure wash).  Don't use sand paper, but use the fiberglass dry wall sand paper instead.  It keeps you from breathing the bad stuff, and looking like Laura did in the pictures above.

Works great, and really saves the dust!

  The bottom paint on Faith was somewhere near 5 years old.  She had been painted with 2 coats of red hard epoxy bottom paint, and 3 coats of blue ablative paint over that.  The idea was to see when the ablative paint was failing, by seeing the red.  It worked well, and we were able to clean it up, and recoat after fairing a couple spots.

  You can generally paint ablative over hard paint, but not the other way around.  The biggest deal is to check the manufactures literature and follow that.  Some paints recommend you paint a primer layer over old paint.  There is much bogus info out there on the subject.


  Oh, and make sure to bring your own ladder..... and lock it up to your boat (by the top) when not in use.  The musical ladder thing is lousy.

[Bubba the Pirate]

Adrift - there are several bars now.   :o)   

I love the fish too!! 


TrT

[s/v Faith]

Couple more pictures;

  Getting ready to sling;



Almost there;



The fish return to the water;

[AdriftAtSea]

Bravo... :)  May the fish find lots of dolphins for company... ;)

[Pixie Dust]

Craig, SHE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!  Something about seeing Faith on the Stern just spoke volumes to me and made me smile.   You and Rose did a FANTABULOUS job.   I bet she is beautiful under sail as well.  I still love the fish on the keel addition.   Fair Winds!!

[cubemonkey]

Craig and Rose,
Your series of pics are very instructive. You can see your pride in your boat in the end results and the care you put into taking the pictures.

And the keel is so whimsical! What a masterpiece.

I'd love to see more pictures of Faith under sail.

Fair winds to you both,
-elizabeth