Cave Paintings - The evolutionary History of Ariel #330

[Scott Galloway]

A Groco 1.5 inch flanged bronze seacock awaiting installation. NPS threads on bottom, NPT threads on top, and one well built low maintenance seacock.

[Scott Galloway]

If you are suffering from cave deprivation, here are three photos of my most recent cavern exploration and repair. A bulge on the starboard bow below water told me that I had a blister. When we parked the boat with the starboard side to the south, a small bleeb of green resin-smelling stuff appeared. So I decided to open what turned out to be a fair sized blister.  Upon grinding with a disk sander, I discovered cracks radiating outward from the central bleeb. I chased these to their bitter ends and as I did, brown water poured out for a time. I removed most of the water by applying pressure to the damaged laminate with a screw driver and continued to grind away with my sander until I removed all fractured glass. This took me down a layer or so. I don't know about you, but this is very exciting stuff to me, especially knowing that the inside of the hull is not terribly accessible at this location.

From the photo, you can see that there has been some delamination, Oddly, this delamination continued into an area where the glass and space in between ws completely dry. It appears that the first and second layers of glass were either laid-up at different times or were not sufficiently wetted-out. One wonders a whether the Pearson folks laid up the gelcoat and first layer of glass one day #one and waited to day #two to lay up the remainder of the hull. This was for a time the practice of many boat builders, or so Don Casey writes, and this practice would create a weaker bond between layer #one and #two and facilitate both delamination and more rapid lateral transporation of osmotic and/or other water.

Another possibility is that this long-ignored blister just ate up the resin between these two layers, but the fact remains that the space beyond the bulge of the blister (as delinated by the cracked and bulging area) was absolutely dry. Please see below on how I fixed this blister. I more or less followed Don Casey's advice in his fine and easy to read book on fiberglass repair, augmented by a little of my own home-spun inprov. Perhaps you have a better method for repairing these pesky caverns.

[Scott Galloway]

Hmmmm, very strange. I tried posting the above two images simultaneously as an experiment, but they appear only as links above. Well, that's OK I guess. Maybe it saves bandwidth.

Here is the third blister repair image. This photo is of the completed repair. I need to do a light finish sanding and add bottom paint, but this third photo is taken after grinding away all weakened and wet surfaces until I had a very solid and very dry undamaged area, thoroughly washing the area, then drying the area both by air drying, application of hot air (hair dryer), and several applications of acetone, and then air drying once again. I wiped the area down once again with acetone, and then applied un-thickened epoxy to the original laminate ("delaminate"), and laminated five new layers of #10 weight fiberglass cloth with West Systems epoxy. I then faired out the remaining space with colodial silica-thickened West Systems epoxy in two layers to obtain a fair surface corresponding to the curvature of the hull in this location.  I spent an afternoon and a few hours on a second day on this project, allowing the epoxy to kick and cool between every two layers of glass, and between each layer of thickened epoxy. I sanded between the final two layers of thickend epoxy to better fair the area in preparation for the final coat of thickened epoxy.

[Scott Galloway]

The mast and tabernacle mast step are now off the boat. The thumbnail photo collection below reflects some of the damage to the deck from the accident. Note that a previous owner removed the wood core beneath the mast step and built a solid epoxy core. This core cracked in the accident. The cracks entend beyond the epoxy into the wood cored area. The cracked epoxy and wood cored sections will be removed. A new laminated fiberglass deck section will be constructed. This new section wil be solid glass. It will not have a wood core. The new solid cored glass section will extend to at least the width of the forward hatch.

Note the bent longer bolts in thumbnail image C. These two bolts were inserted in the foreword two holes, which are directly above the stongback. They penetrate the forward plywood section of that strongback unit directly above the doorframe. Their securing nuts were captive inside the beam. Inspection holes were provided in the bottom of the beam. Those holes were drilled completely through the teak door fame as well. The beam prevents the lower portion of the bolts from bending. The bolts were pulled upward, and the bends occurred at the very top of the bolts. The angle of the force of the impact pulled the longer forward bolts upward, and the shorter aft bolts downward as the mast step plate rotated aftwards into the deck. This effectively crushed the deck.

There was no sagging or deflection in the strongback or plywood bulkhead although the force did cause some cosmetic cracking in the glass at the base of the doorway where the vertical door posts intersect the horizontal support beneath the door.  I have chased those cracks and repaired them with epoxy and fiberglass cloth. The cabin liner in the main salon is obviously distressed as can be seen in thumbnail image A. Less severe distress is evident in the forward salon.

The shorter bolts were driven down through the cabin liner causing the liner to crack and shatter as show in  thumbnail image A. Thumbnail image B is a closeup of the port side (left) hole also shown in thumbnail image A

[Scott Galloway]

Our lead archeologist discovered six new tunnels at the Ariel 330 site leading to hidden chambers located in the deck laminate. Here is one of the larger entrances. We are referring to this tunnel as the Starboard Upper Shroud Chainplate Slot. We have not yet fully explored the six caverns, but they appear to have been wood-lined cisterns for the storage of rain water. Mineral tests indicate that salt water intrusion must have contaminated these cisterns. This may have been one of the reasons that the builders concealed these tunnels beneath polysulfide, abandoned this site, and moved on to build site P 26.

[Scott Galloway]

This will be the site of our primary excavation. The accident-caused crack runs completely through the epoxy section. This epoxy section is not an overlay, but completely fills the deck core. This is not a standard feature, but was added by a previous owner who added the tabernacle deck plate. This was his solution to delamimation beneath the original mast step plate. It worked well enough until the mast struck the bridge transferring the full force of the impact on this area forcing the epoxy fill downward and cracking the cabin liner aft of the main bulkhead. This epoxy section does not appear to have been laminated, but seems to be a solid epoxy pour. We will know more when we remove it. We have to chase the cracks to their outer limits. The excavation will extend at least to the width of the forward hatch.

[Scott Galloway]

Filling The Holes

1.   Mast
After nearly four months the process of accident assessment and repair has been completed. I used professional help for the rigging and structural repair to the deck and strong back, and personally took care of the mast work, chain plates and reinforcement of the bulkheads, and gooseneck. In order to rebuild the deck and strengthen mast support structure following the accident the mast was unstepped, stripped of its paint, and rewired. A new VHF antenna and coaxial cable, new steaming light, and new wind vane were installed. The spreaders were removed, inspected, and reinstalled.

The photo below shows the mast after it had been stripped. For more information on the rewiring effort, see the technical forum.

[Scott Galloway]

The photo below shows the mast installed at the end of the project. The mast has been protected with three coast of marine polish with Teflon. Reapplication will be required about once every six months. With a tabernacle this will not be a major effort.

[Scott Galloway]

2.   Deck

Once the mast was off the boat, the deck cracks were evaluated. A previous retrofit (an epoxy core with horizontal dimensions equal to the tabernacle mast plate) was removed. All deck cracks were followed both horizontally and vertically with a grinder until undamaged top deck sections and undamaged balsa core was reached.  The repair was initiated.

The photo below is a composite of photos taken during the repair process:

Photo A.  Shows the original epoxy retrofit
Photo B. Shows the stainless steel mast plate with damaged bolts beside the old epoxy core insert
Photo C. Shows the new Q Cell core after it was poured, but before sanding
Photo D. Shows the area after the top section of the laminate was completed
Photo E.  The image in photo A was superimposed on the image in photo D to create photo E. Cracks caused by the accident are highlighted in white. These cracks were removed by grinding prior to building the new deck section.
Photo F. A new slightly raised mast base is shown in photo F. after the application of two coats of gelcoat and sanding. The color of the new gelcoat matches perfectly the forty-year-old surrounding gelcoat.

[Scott Galloway]

The photo below shows the re-installed mast after completion of the repairs.

[Scott Galloway]

3.   Repair of Mast Support

The photos below show the repairs completed below deck

V Berth side:

The first photo shows the V berth side of the strong back in various stages of repair.

In photo A, the cracks in the bottom laminate were removed by grinding, as was the paint on the central section of the strong back. The two holes in the deck are for mast wiring (Coaxial VHF cable on port and electrical wires for mast on starboard).

In photo B, multiple layers of vinyl ester resin and fabric were added to the damaged area and to the strong back to tie the deck section to and reinforce the strong back.

As can be seen in photo C the application of glass to both sides of the strong back and to the deck sections forward and aft of the strong back created a very strong integral structure to support the mast.

Photo D shows the area after the application of gelcoat. Screws protruding through deck are hinge screws for forward hatch.

[Scott Galloway]

Main Salon side:

The next composite photo shows the main salon repair in a single composite photo.

Photo A shows original plywood taped for application of product after minor repair of voids in plywood and sanding.

Photo B shows area after sanding of applied product. Strong back area (both sides and bottom) was reinforced with multiple layers of vinyl ester saturated fabric including unidirectional cloth and x mat.

Photos C and D show finished project after application of two layers of new gelcoat. The two holes aft of the strong back at the top of photo D are newly drilled holes for attachment of the mast base. The original holes were filled prior to application of glass and resin to top and bottom deck sections.

[Scott Galloway]

The next photo shows the finished project. Seam between Formica and original gelcoat was sealed with 3M 5200 and topped with a bead of 5200.

[Scott Galloway]

The next photo shows the new mast base bolts with washers in place.

[Scott Galloway]

While we were at it, I repainted the interior of the boat.

Soft luggage is my solution to storage. The black bags are multi-pocket brief case style vinyl bags from Ross Dress For Less. They don't scratch painted surfaces, and secure easily, and are easy to lug around the boat. One of the two black bags holds my wrenches, vice grips, channel locks and pliers, and the other holds all of my other tools, with the exception of large tools and box wrench set, which store under main salon settees. The red bag holds 75 feet of towrope, a towing bridle, and a polypro throwing line with monkey's fist.

Behind the red bag is a padded bow bag (as in bow and arrow) that holds my Garhauer Lifting Davit. All soft bags secure to eyehooks mounted into the starboard shelf above the V berth.

Cushions are Ross Dress For Less nautical theme cushions. The green cord holds the cushions securely in place. The cushions match those in the main salon.

The wood and bamboo partition between the V berth and anchor locker is secured by four bolts with wing nuts on the anchor locker side. The entire partition can be removed quickly to allow access to the anchor locker for more serious maintenance. The double doors allow reasonable access to work with the anchor, rode, and perform minor maintenance.


The lee board on the berth comes apart in secitions to allow easy access to the head below the V berth. The cushions on the berth are two chair cushions that double as cockpit lounging cushions. They fit perfectly on teh cockpit seats with the hbvack of the cvushions against the trunk cabin.