Wooden keel Alacrity

Some time ago I had a conversation with someone (don't remember who though) who claimed there were fiberglass Alacrities with wooden keels. I doubted this. While early Alacrities were made of marine plywood and of course had wooden keels, the later fiberglass ones all had incapsulated fiberglass keels. However, now I seem to stand corrected. While on vacation in the South West of Scotland, a member of the yahoo-group came across this boat. According to him the boat looked like an Alacrity Mk II (and the coachroof on the pictures certainly does), but the keels were definitetly wood.

Now, if the owner of this vessel reads this or anybody else who hase a similar boat, please enlighten us with some more details! Is this a production Alacrity? Or a modification? I guess it cannot be outruled completely that it is a Vivacity as well or maybe another experimental design or prototype. Are there more of these boats out there? Please tell us!

Spring preparations

It is slowly getting lighter and warmer up here. It is still a little too cold for painting, but when the sun is out the urge to get going with spring preparations is too strong to resist. So I went to the chandler's at least and bought some stuff. I am, however, trying to keep it to a minimum this year. Credit crunch style if you like. I will antifoul, touch up some paint and gelcoat (the new engine's prop took a bite out of the rudder going astern last season), but that is to be it this year. Or so I hope...

I also realise that I am not alone. Traffic in the yahoo group has increased quite a bit those last few weeks. Hopefully we will all have out boats in the water soon, looking forward to a good season. I am also looking forward to lots of pictures and cruise reports - so don't forget the camera!

PS: No this isn't a product placement for either Hempel/Blakes or Plastic Padding. However, I would take the money if they were willing! :)

Mast support modifications

Different ways to reinforce the mast support beam were recently discussed on the Alacrity group at yahoo. Two owners have sent pictures that may be of interest. First out is Alacrity owner Peter Anderson from Scotland whos "Heron" had her mast support beam damaged by an encounter with another boat while moored at low tide. The beam was reinforced by a stainless steel bracing.

The second example is from a Vivacity, Ned Reiter's "Haiku". Her beam cracked at the port side knee and Ned reinforced it with a plywood solution. It has yet to be tested under sails though and I am sure Ned will report during the season.