Launched!

Today I got the boat into the water. Earliest ever! You can still see some ice on the left side of the canal. But there is good weather in the forecast so I am sure it will all be gone in a few days.

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.

The Hungarian refit

On the old Alacrity site are a few pictures of "Bellissimo" the boat a guy named Oskar keeps on lake Balaton in Hungary. I just recieved an email from him where he tells me about the complete refit he has recently completed. He has uploaded more than 70 pictures to the yahoo-group documenting it, but here is some sort of summary.
As lake Balaton is quite shallow the probably most important change was that he cut 15cm off his boat's keels.


He also repainted the boat white.



The interior does look nice and fresh as well.



The boat also got a new name: Sail-Face, which is a play with the Hungarian word "szélfész", meaning a gale.

Alacrity #47

I recieved an email from Ari Rocklin, Victoria, BC, Canada. It includes some old photographs of his Alacrity, with sail numer 47. He writes:
"Hi, feel free to publish these to your website. I bought it in 1976 and sold it in 1980 to a fellow in Sault Ste. Marie Ontario Canada.
Looking at your website pictures, this would be the oldest one at sail #47. It was my first sailboat, and it took me to a lot of places, including a storm so violent that the coast guard came and offered rescue. I refused and sailed her home, no worries."

Thanks for the nice pictures, Ari. I'm not so sure though the sail number really makes it the oldest. Perhaps the oldest Canadian one, as I think the numbers are not global. Surely this one is older.

Vivacities in disguise on Hurley page?

I just found out that there is a page about the Alacrity on the Hurley Owner's Association's website. Hurley did build the Alacrity for a few years and she was even marketed as "Hurley Alacrity" in 1969. The webpage does contain some info and a picture gallery which contains some interesting pictures that I haven't seen before on the web. Unfortunately, however, it also shows three pictures of what looks like Vivacities...declared to be Alacrities...