Ariel #24 Launched

Tim Mertinooke · Post by **Tim Mertinooke** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 10:44 am

Ariel #24 made to the water last weekend after a ten year hiatus. She was dry as a bone in the bilge and everything worked out very well from the 150 mile trailering trip to stepping the mast and getting her snug on the mooring. Now the focus is on cruising which starts Wednesday for my wife, 4-year-old son, and I. Excited is too small a word right now :)

My Favorite...

Figment · Post by **Figment** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 12:51 pm

Let's just get this out of the way: "naughty-naughty" I didn't see any ties on the travelift slings!

ok, so now onto the HUGE congratulations! She looks happy as a clam. A fair bit of tide running on that mooring, eh?

Cruising starts THIS wednesday?!?!! you lucky lucky dog! How far and wide?
I'm quite thoroughly jealous.

Post by **Tim** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:15 pm

Serious current indeed.

Congratulations, Tim. Nice work...now enjoy your cruise!

Tim Mertinooke · Post by **Tim Mertinooke** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:54 pm

Figment wrote:Let's just get this out of the way: "naughty-naughty" I didn't see any ties on the travelift slings!

There was a tie on the starboard side fortunately.

Figment wrote:A fair bit of tide running on that mooring, eh?

The Merrimack River does have a bit of a reputation in terms of current. The mouth of the river however is a force to be reckoned with. Here are some pictures from a storm a year ago May. These were taken right at the mouth of the river.

And for those who like seeing a 44' aluminum boat look like a bath toy check these out.

http://www.uscg.mil/stamerrimackriver/w ... owqual.wmv

http://www.uscg.mil/stamerrimackriver/3 ... rf_vid.wmv

Figment wrote:
Cruising starts THIS wednesday?!?!! you lucky lucky dog! How far and wide?

My wife and I are teachers in the same district and tomorrow is our last day of work until August 29. we plan to cruise close to home hitting some of the local spots. We are doing some daysailing Wednesday to get the boat squared away, and if all goes well we will be leaving Thursday to head to Essex Bay for an overnight, then head back to the mooring Friday and take it from there.

Rachel · Post by **Rachel** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 5:51 pm

Nice going, Tim!

Have a wonderful cruise (take lots of photos :-)

Rachel

Hirilondë · Post by **Hirilondë** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 7:19 pm

Congratulations! She looks great.

I love boats with names that can't be pronounced or understood with out an explanation. Please spell it out phonetically and explain any significance to it?

AJ · Post by AJ » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:38 pm

Hirilond? wrote:I love boats with names that can't be pronounced or understood with out an explanation. Please spell it out phonetically and explain any significance to it?

Well... Tim insists that his Ariel is named "Archimedes." So we might have to give him a hard time about that. ;-)

I googled Whigmaleerie and here's what I came up with --

whigmaleerie

Scot. 1) whim 2) an odd or fanciful contrivance: gimcrack

http://www.answers.com/topic/whigmaleerie

Main Entry: whig?ma?lee?rie
Pronunciation: "hwig-m&-'lir-E, "wig-
Function: noun
Etymology: origin unknown
1 chiefly Scottish : WHIM
2 chiefly Scottish : an odd or fanciful contrivance : GIMCRACK

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/whigmaleerie (<-- audio pronunciation you can listen to)

"Whigmaleerie" has a number of meanings, including a fanciful notion, a piece of ornamentation in a dress, a game played at a drinking club - and a fantastical contraption. Nowadays, it is often applied to a rotating clothes dryer in a garden.

http://www.rampantscotland.com/poetry/b ... alerie.htm

I certainly hope that Tim doesn't encounter any conditions that make him feel like that last definition is apt!

AJ

Tim Mertinooke · Post by **Tim Mertinooke** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:36 pm

Well, we completed our first trip with Archimedes (wooden name banner being worked on as we speak, sorry to those that liked whigmawhateveritwas...) Like any shake down cruise, there were highs and lows. The high is that she sails great, is roomy enough to live on for a few days for the three of us, took on no water, and overall is in nice sailing shape with the exception of one thing, the rudder. The wind was blowing a steady 15 gusting to 20. Not quite the ideal conditions to test a boat that hasn't been in the water for a decade, but non the less it was a fine day to see how balanced a boat can be. We started out by flying the jib as the wind was from the aft on the way out the river. After exiting the river we raised the main and were on a great beam reach and exceeded six knots over land the entire trip down. We were at hull spped and pushed the boat pretty hard. Just before we got to essex I noticed the tiller had a little more play than when we left Newburyport. We motored into the bay and set the anchor. The wind was coming from one direction and the current was coming from another so the anchoring was not ideal. I set the tiller so we were riding well for a while. With everything set, I started to check the tiller to see what was up and was getting ready to dive and check the rudder to see why it had the extra play. The wind began to pick up and the balance that I had found was disrupted and the boat started to swing around the anchor rode as it was overpowering the current. I couldn't stop it from happening once it started and once it was wrapped I heard a crack and the tiller went loose. The anchor rode that wrapped around the boat created enough force to break the top 25% of the rudder clear apart from the rest of the rudder. The shaft setup on the Ariels is not continuous from the top to bottom instead it is in two pieces to allow for the propeller aperture. The forces of a hard sail mixed with the force of the wrapped rode was all it could take until it broke. A piece of the broken rudder floated up and I hopped in the tender to chase it down. In the center of the piece was some suspect wood that looked a little rotten. I'm drying it out now to get a better assessment. The rudder was laminated as I showed in previous posts and it was damp when I removed it. It looked like it was in great shape, but apparently it wasn't. The good news is that it happened on the shakedown cruise within ten miles of my mooring and that we had a great two hour sail before it happened. We motored back using the outboard in the well and were able to steer using the motor just fine. This was one of the pros I thought of when buying a boat that uses an outboard in a well intsead of the inboard. Everything else on the boat worked great including the instruments, lights, running rigging, etc. so that's good news as well. Right now the boat is sitting on her mooring safe. We can motor just fine so bringing it in to the dock is no problem. Our plan is to bring it along side the bulkhead of the yacht club and dry dock her for a tide or two to get a better assessment and move from there. If I can rig something temporary up so that we can go for a few more sails we will. If it can't be repaired and sailed this season, then we will enjoy the fine harbor we moor in and putter around with our new 6HP Nissan. You can probably guess what my winter project will be.

The sunset on the first night aboard before motoring out to our mooring.

The next morning on our way out the river via the jib.

Right after raising the main.

What it's all about in my eyes.

This is looking south toward Halibut point which is the tip of Cape Ann Mass.

This is looking at the entrace to Essex Bay. At this point I could really feel the extra play in the tiller.

A blury picture, but we were flying down there on a beam reach. The top left shows our speed over land at that moment.

The show goes on. Stay tuned as the story unfolds. Of course I hope to sail again this summer, but even if I'm left to be a "powerboater" for the remainder of the season, we plan to spend quite a few more nights aboard as we work out where we want to keep everything and come up with a list of modifications we will make to make it ourlittle cruiser.

Tim Mertinooke · Post by **Tim Mertinooke** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 10:18 pm

Well, I repaired the rudder by removing what was left and fabricated a Macgyver-type repair before putting it back on. It cost me about $60 and a day's work. We did a test trip to the Isles of Shoals over the past couple days and it worked very well. So far we have logged about 50 NM on the repaired rudder with no problems including a nice close haul in 15 knot winds.

En route.

Approaching the Isles (The port winch is being reconditioned at the moment in case you wondered why it was missing.)

Archimedes at anchor in Gosport Harbor on the Maine side. My friends CD27 is rafted up beside me to port.

leaving the Isles the next day

The cruising continues...