Alacrity pics: Under Foot

This is Mark Tucci's Alacrity "Under Foot". He is currently restoring her after having brought her home from Maine.

Alacrity pics: Heron

This is Peter Anderson's Alacrity "Heron". He keeps her in in Dunbar harbour at the mouth of the Firth of Forth in Scotland.

This is from his email:
"The boats finally went back into the water on Friday the 18th April and yesterday Sunday 28th I was out for my first solo sail in glorious sunshine and light winds.
The boat is named "Heron" and is a later model. Previous owners have modified the interior, removing the locker to form one long berth down the starboard side. Heron was damaged during the summer of 2006 when a much larger boat "sat" on it at low tide. This caused some cracking to the fibreglass cross-member aft the mast tabernacle. This was rebuilt using a substantial stainless steel beam and may be of interest to other owners. I have fitted a mast-head navigation light. This is powered by a 12v "power pack" which is intended for starting cars. It is easily transportable for charging up at home and has a 12v socket for mobile phones, GPS, VHF, lighting etc. Again this may be of interest to others."

Alacrity pics: Elsie Too

This is Bob Hendry's "Elsie Too". He lives in London, Canada and sails on a small lake named Fanshawe. In summer he trailers the boat to the North Channel of Manitolin Island.

Alacrity pics: Kate

Julie Withley send me this picture of her father Joe's Alacrity named Kate. Since 1984 the Whitley's have sailed her in the waters of Poole Harbour. They love their boat dearly and have done quite some work on her i e replacing her keel bolts.

The Restauration of "At Last"

By Tom Meara

PURPOSE: Great twin-keel sailboats
like the Alacrity are now getting old. For those of us who have
an affinity for them some maintenance is always ongoing. For
those interested in buying one of these boats, restoration or heavy
maintenance might be a necessity. In either case, knowing what
might be possible for the average person to accomplish restoring one of
these great boats might be helpful. When I started my project I
had no special skills just a passion for sailing the old boat and not a
great deal of money to restore it. Do-it-yourself for me was the
only option. I accomplished a great restoration and picked up
some skills on the way. For those of you contemplating
significant maintenance or a restoration I hope this article might be
of some help or encouragement. These are great boats, fun to sail, and
well worth the time and effort.




HISTORY: A brief
history of my boat and how it came to need a restoration is in
order. My boat is was built in 1968. It has been in
the water on the Intercoastal Waterway for its entire life. My
father, a great sailor himself, purchased it in 1973. It was used
heavily by the family for many years until I departed for my military
career in 1983. It then sat in a slip in the neighborhood marina
used only occasionally until 2000. If you are counting, that is
thirty-two years in the salt water! During that time, the boat
did not come out of the water more than four times for a few days each
for bottom cleaning/painting. After many years of seeing the boat
slowly rot away I finally had an assignment which allowed me the time
to take on a restoration of my great boat.




SELF-SURVEY: I
began by taking her out while visiting my parents and then doing the
best survey I could. The boat was in unbelievably bad condition
and I seriously considered scrapping the idea of restoring her.
However, my many years of sailing the Intercoastal day and night would
not allow me to see her towed away and scrapped. As briefly as I
can state this was the condition of the boat: INTERIOR: All ribs (heavy
construction because it had an inboard at one time) were completely
rotted away except for one, All bulkheads and bunk framework were
rotted beyond repair, interior paint peeling off, front hatch missing,
electrical wiring and cushions were also rotted away. In short
there were only two salvageable pieces of wood in the boat: the
companionway threshold, and one rib. All else had to be removed.




HULL: Under the waterline it was also a very bad story.
There were no fewer than 28 sizable and deep osmotic blisters, the
average being baseball sized. RIGGING: The original heavy
cotton jib sheet was salvageable. All other running rigging and
halyards were rotted beyond repair. The standing rigging was OK
and required only new turnbuckles and a few rivets on the spar
plates. HULL SIDES: Chalky and beyond buffing. It would
require painting or a miracle of some kind (more on that later).

TOPSIDE: Heavily cracked jell coat, which needed to be filled and
painted. That’s it...



PLAN: 1.
Research. How do I fix these things? 2. Buy a used trailer with
an extendable tongue for ease in launching; have it modified to fit the
boat. Bring the boat home to Alabama and begin restoration;
restore interior, hull, rigging, and re-fit.


3. Complete to 90% and begin trailer sailing. 4. Complete the
remaining 10% while enjoying the boat.



EXECUTION: For the
most part, the restoration of the boat went according to my basic
plan. I began with the interior. Just cleaning it out after
getting it home was a hazard. It contained the following
communities: A huge bull ant colony living in the rotten wood under the
R/S bunk, several wasp nests, a roach colony, moss and a sizable snake
skin. Save the snakeskin none of the above was happy about being
transported the 500 miles to my home in Alabama. After a few
hours and cans of Raid my son and I managed to get all of the removable
items out. I left the boat open to dry inside over the next few
days.




Next came what was the most difficult stage;
stripping out the inside wood, making replacements, fitting and bonding
them, finishing, and painting. Safety! Fiberglass is not
healthy stuff. For that reason I used a respirator, coveralls and a box
fan on the front hatch to suck out all of the fiberglass dust generated
during cutting. The most indispensable tool I had for this
restoration was a RotoZip. I used it to cut the wood bulkheads
and ribs out of the fiberglass tape bonding them to the hull.
Cutting through the surface of the tape close to the hull, I was able
to slowly cut all of the wood and ribs out of the boat).




This took many, many hours and ten or fifteen RotoZip blades.
After removing all of the rotten wood, I rented a pressure sprayer took
it inside and blew off all the interior paint, mildew and filth.
I had to stop frequently to bilge out the boat before it overloaded the
trailer. When I finished I had a clean interior with only two
pieces of original wood left (pic 2a, 2b). I was now ready to build the
new interior.



I decided to stay with the original cabin layout using the same
construction methods and detail because it was both simple and
strong. I was not able to find or afford the original marine
grade mahogany and teak so I opted for 1/2” Oak plywood. Now came
the task of re-creating all of the original wood pieces, bulkheads,
etc... In some cases I was able to use the remnants of wood I had
cut out for a template. I used a thin wood batten and pencil to
re-create the curves destroyed by rotting and my saw. For many
other pieces though I had to loft them on cardboard, set the data
points on the cardboard, connect the dots with a batten, then cut it
out and use for a template. Lofting was not really
difficult. I had never done it before but got pretty good after
just a little practice. Eventually I got all the replacement
pieces completed and test-fitted.




I then coated the edges that would be in contact with the hull in West
System Epoxy Resin. The finish would be two rubbings of MINWAX
#211 Provincial stain, and four coats of spar urethane. The only
wood I had to get from a mill and could not cut myself were the
ribs. The originals were teak. I replaced them with 2”
thick ash. After drawing in the correct dimensions I had a friend
cut them out using his large band saw.




Bonding the new wood pieces inside the hull was fairly
straightforward. I used West System Epoxy Resin and 4” wide
fiberglass tape. This is similar to the original bonding method
but epoxy is much stronger and provides a better bond. A light
sanding of the finished wood where the fiberglass tape would contact it
is the only preparation I did. Once the wood and cabinetry is fit
in place bonding it to the hull was fairly simple. I pre-cut the
fiberglass tape, wet out the hull and wood contact surfaces, applied
the tape, and wet out again to ensure it was saturated then followed-up
with a second coat after it dried. I did this on both sides of
all bulkheads and ribs. I cannot say enough about the West System
products. I found them exceptionally easy to use. I do
recommend getting the pumps for the resin and hardener. It makes
life a lot easier. I violated the temperature guidelines a few
times and found it very forgiving. As a testament to the system,
I have trailored the boat at least 4,000 miles since I restored it,
sometimes over rough roads and have not had a single bond come loose,
or crack on the wood or fiberglass. Finally, I completed the job
by painting the inside hull with single part white urethane)






.

The next phase of the project was the hull. It was a complete
disaster. The osmotic blisters were serious. I had
previously punctured all of them. They were all under a great
deal of pressure (wear safety glasses). After they drained, I
ground them off with a drill and a #80 sanding wheel. Several of
these were so deep I nearly ground through the hull before I got to the
end of the un-cured resin.




I let them dry. Everyone has an opinion on fixing
these. I read as much as I could and decided on an approach that
was both easy and likely to last (which it has). I began by
cutting out fiberglass cloth patch in slightly smaller dimensions than
the ground out area (cut from 4” FG tape strips). I taped each
one next to its hole with scotch tape so they would be ready to apply
when I wetted out the hole. I began by wetting each hole with
epoxy resin and let it dry. Next I lightly sanded it, wetted it
out and applied the patch and wetted it out again. To fill the
rest of the void I mixed another batch of epoxy resin combined with
colloidal silica additive (West System again) and trawled it on with a
flexible plastic applicator. I sanded all of them fair with a
palm sander. All of this is easy to explain and do, but it is a
great deal of hard work... Now that the blisters were fixed the
easier part was next, painting below the waterline. Since the
boat would be a trailer sailor for the foreseeable future I decided to
paint the bottom with single part urethane (midnight blue). If I
ever have the boat in the water on a semi-permanent basis I will seal
below the waterline with epoxy paint for an impervious coating. I
did not do it this time because I figured it would take a year or two
for the hull to completely dry out. I did not want to seal in the
moisture with epoxy. Once painted I completed the job with a thin
red boot stripe. It looked great.




I was now beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in
this restoration. The work was somewhat less tedious (compared to
the interior). My pace was picking up too. The next part of
the exterior was the sides of the hull.



The hull sides were in good shape but the gel coat had deteriorated
significantly. Rubbing my hand down the side for just a couple of
feet yielded a hand covered in chalk. The condition was so bad
that it was beyond the capabilities of rubbing compound and wax.

Painting seemed the only possibility. I did some more research
and found a product called Polyglow. It was lauded by those who
had used it. I figured I had nothing to lose so I gave it a
try. It is one of the few products I have used that easily
fulfils all its claims. In fact, I think it yields better results
than advertised. No rubbing, just prepare and follow the
instructions. I did the entire hull in two or three hours. The
difference is truly remarkable. I have re-applied only twice in the
four years since I finished the boat.




The topside looked OK and had recently been painted with two coats of
alkoid enamel. Stripping it would have been an undertaking.
I decided to let it continue to deteriorate to the point where I could
sand it off easily. It would be good enough for a couple of more
years.





For the standing and running rigging the work was fairly simple.
I replaced nearly everything. All of the wire for the stays and
shrouds were in good shape but the turnbuckles were in poor condition
and unusable. I replaced all of them with stainless steel
units. Additionally the spreader plates had lost some rivets,
which I easily replaced using a simple inexpensive rivet gun. I
replaced all of the running rigging except for the jib sheet. All
three headsails were original. They had steel cable sewn into the
luff and after many years of poor maintenance the sails were covered in
very dark rust stains. I tried all of the traditional methods for
cleaning them but nothing worked. Time for more research...

I tried many products until I found one that worked exceptionally well,
Iron-Out. Soaking the sails for an hour or two removed every
single stain no matter how dark and did not harm the sail material
either. I’d be cautious on newer sails though. I have no idea
what effect it might have on the resin coatings of newer sails.
For mine, I had nothing to lose. They are heavily worn. They
turned out great. After repairing a few stitches they looked new
again. I will probably get a few more seasons out of them
easily.




All of the above work took me about seven months working two or
three evenings during weekdays and a day and a half or so on
weekends. Some of it was very hard work, some of it was very
tedious (framework for bunks etc...). I learned a lot from the
entire process and in the end it was quite rewarding. The above
represents only the basics of my restoration project. There is
much in the details. There was an occasion or two when I
considered giving up on the project but perseverance brought solutions
to difficult problems and more confidence. Reflecting on all of
the good times I had on the boat and the new adventures my family and I
were going to have in the future helped a lot too. I am truly
convinced that if I was able to do this project then most any one else
can, too. My only caution to anyone contemplating this kind of
undertaking is that if you do not have a passion for sailing, the boat
you are going to restore, and a vision of future sailing adventures,
then pay someone to do it for you or sell the boat and buy a newer one
otherwise you may loose the fun of sailing forever to what might become
the misery of your work. I considered the project for a long time
before deciding. See if you can figure out the meaning of the boat’s
name: At Last. In the end my decision was mostly based on my
memories of my father’s boat and the endless hours I had spent on it as
a young kid, teenager, and adult. Add to this some fairly long
cruising quests as a young man, getting caught in a couple of serious
storms and all of the other adventures the boat had faithfully and
safely seen me through I could make no other choice. I could not
have done a project like this on a boat I had no history with or great
plans for in the future. For me the project and its completion
were part of the fun. I would also be quite remiss if I did not
mention the last but most important element: The support of my
wife and kids. This project took a serious bite out of family
time. I could not have done it without their support and
assistance.




SAILING: Finally after
all of the work it came time for the christening and launch of At
Last. The place was Lake Martin Alabama. I rigged the boat
and backed it down to the ramp. Being of proud Irish descent I
opted for a good bottle of Harp Beer instead of traditional
Champaign. My daughter broke the bottle over the bow and we
pushed the boat out for a great day of sailing and island
exploring. It was a truly great day for the family who put up
with my endless project and me too. Our trailer sailing has not
abated. Several other adventures to Lake Martin and even a trip
back to the Florida Intercoastal were accomplished before we moved to
Kansas. We have continued on sailing a few of the many good
sailing lakes here in Kansas, nearly each time an over-nighter. I
continue to make minor improvements and changes to the boat. The
adventure continues. A long-term goal is to sail Yellowstone
Lake.


Below are some references and products I relied on heavily for this
project. There are probably many other substitutes.



Key Tools:

- Roto Zip to cut wood out of fiberglass
tape. (I also cut out all of my wood with it but I
recommend an inexpensive jigsaw for that task)

- Powerful hand drill with sanding wheel


- Combination hand saw/miter

- Plane

- Orbital sander

Key Products:

- West System epoxy resin and additives

- Interlux single part urethane paint


- PolyGlow



If anyone is contemplating a similar or smaller project I hope my
experiences above are helpful. In my opinion, these boats are not
nearly as difficult to work on as newer models. I also believe
they are better and heavier constructed too. I have been on many
sailboats of similar size. I cannot think of a one that has a
better balance of performance, stability, and layout. It may not
be fast but I can comfortably sail with full main and storm jib in
winds that cause newer boats to either be knocked down, or have to go
‘bare poles’ under motor. In my experience the Alacrity will
easily forgive many acts of foolishness (over canvassing in
particular). These boats are well worth restoring.




Finally, I cannot say enough about safety. I did this project
thankfully with no injuries. I carefully considered every step or
operation before I did it. There are many opportunities to
severely injure yourself. I also read every label on all of the
chemical products I used too. Get plenty of rubber gloves and eye
protection. For interior cutting work always have plenty of
ventilation, protect your lungs with a good respirator and skin with
coveralls. Practice each unfamiliar operation before you do it on
the boat (e.g. using the RotoZip, applying and coating fiberglass tape
etc...).




When you are done and get the boat back in the water I can assure you
that the hard work of the project will fade almost immediately.
You will be left with a new boat capable of getting you though almost
any conditions you will encounter that is easy to launch, rig trailer,
and sail. The boat is capable of handling almost any adventure
your imagination can take you to. GOOD LUCK.

Installing a transom drain

By Ron Hack

In 2005 I spent most of the summer refinishing the hull of my Alacrity “Tulameen”. One of my key objectives was to close all thru hulls and in particular those draining the cockpit through the cabin.
I determined that if a drain was placed at the very base of the transom there would be about a 2” drop from the cockpit opening to the transom opening (see picture 1).

Parts required: two drains, a length of hose, two clamps, 3M sealer.
The transom drain hole was located as low as possible to give maximum drop. But it had to be located high enough to make installation possible. I also cut the size of the drain down to make it just long enough to attach to the hose once installed. This minimizes the “U” shape of the hose which can compromise a straight run from the cockpit.
I installed the cockpit drain not in the floor of the cockpit but on the side of the cockpit. I placed the hole in this location for a number of reasons: it is off center to get around the support in the cockpit and it is on the side of the cockpit to maximize the drop to the transom. This also increases the straightness of the hose.
Finally I installed the drains with the 3M, attached the hose at the transom, cut the hose to length, and attached the hose at the cockpit (see picture 2).

A wedge was also placed under the hose (not shown) to give it support and eliminate as much as possible the “U” effect.
A final few thoughts:
since most moisture in the cockpit is from rain, I decided on a single drain;
I use a removable plug in the transom drain which keeps out water in a following sea.

Mariefred cruise 2002

Lake Mälaren cruise to Gripsholm castle
(July 24 - 31, 2002)

This cruise report does not really
belong on this site, because I did not have my Alacrity at that time
yet. Instead I was the co-owner of a 1964 wooden folkboat called
"Malin". I had just met my then wife-to-be and she had never ever been
on a sailboat before, except for a few quite unlucky shakedown cruises
with either too less wind or too much rain.

However she agreed to a one week's cruise our first summer together.
There are quite a few people who would say that if you can live
together one week on a moderately leaky and damp 26 foot wooden
sailboat, there should be no problem with living together as a married
couple afterwards. So far this has been true.



My idea with this first cruise was to sail into lake Mälaren which
has less traffic and weaker winds than the archipelago and the Baltic.
Additionally there are quite a few things to see. We would sail to the
nice little town of Mariefred with it's famous Gripsholm castle. On our
way there we would visit the island of Birka, where excavations have
revealed one of the biggest viking settlements ever found.

To my wife's annoyance I had decided that we should have one more crew
on the first leg of the cruise. At that time Malin had a berth on the
archipelago side of Stockholm, actually in the same club marina where
my Alacrity is today. Our cruise, however, would take us into the
sweetwater lake Mälaren west of the city. To get there we would
have to navigate an opening bridge and a lock. I was a bit worried as I
never had gone through a lock before and this was the main reason why I
liked one more crew to feel safe.



Here we are waiting for the bridge to be opened. The guy who is
standing aft is my friend Jesper who accompanied us the first day. We
had requested the bridge to be opened at 10 a.m. The weather was nice
and sunny, however the forecast spoke of rain later that day.

When we had passed through the bridge we sailed for about half an hour.
Then we decided to start the engine, a very old Evinrude 6hp outbord
which, however, worked nicely almost the whole time. We did this mainly
because of poweboat swell, something I would never do today as I since
have learned that motoring through swell is much more annoying than
sailing through it. Also, we soon would have to enter a canal to get to
the lock and we wanted to get there as quickly as we could.



Here we are in the canal. It is a very special feeling to sail (or
motor) right through the city. You can see the houses on the right
side. A bit further down there are actually buildings on both sides of
the canal.



We are through the lock, it's right there under the bridge. Now we are
floating in fresh water. I remember actually having a silly feeling of
what if the boat wouldn't float on the other side when going through
the lock. The passage itself was no problem at all and my wife was of
course right that we never would have needed the extra crew. Today I
would confidentially sail through single handed, but I did not know
this then! The lock itself is mainly there to regulate the water flow
from lake Mälaren into the Baltic and there is only few
inches of height difference.

After about one more hour's motoring we finally could set sail. Of
course it almost immediately began to rain.

In lake Mälaren there are almost no natural harbours or anchorages
at all. Instead local yacht clubs have docks on small islands where
guest boats are welcome for a moderate fee. Our first night we stopped
at one of these, called Jungfruöarna (The Virgin Islands). Before
we moored there, we dropped off Jesper att a dock on Ekerö island
from where he would take the bus home.



Jungfruöarna are two small islands connected by a tiny bridge.
There is a club house and a sauna belonging to the yacht club and very
nice docks. We rigged the boom tent (cheap tarp type) in case it would
rain more and relaxed before dinner.



The next morning we sailed on to Birka. Winds were light from the
Southwest so we were on a close reach most of the time and not moving
very fast. At one time we were followed by a swan family...



When we reached the somewhat more open waters of Björkfjärden
which we had to cross to get to Birka the wind died almost completely.
It was warm and sunny and most other boats were motoring or just
drifting along. However, after about half an hour the wind picked up
again and we could sail comfortably to Björkö and the viking
settlement of Birka.



This is the visitor's dock at Birka. It is quite open to the west, but
very sheltered from all other directions. When we arrived we checked
the weather forecast which was talking about somewhat stronger winds
from the west the next day, however the night should be quiet....

The viking village of Birka itself was a disappointment. We had
imagined some reconstructed viking buildings, longboats and people
demonstrating ancient craftmanship. The reality was a tourist
restaurant and a small museum. The rest was holes in the ground
(excavations) and sheep.



Now, two years later, there have been newspaper reports that there has
been some development since. Now they apparently have some real viking
stuff going on. Most people who visit Birka do this by ferry from
Stockholm, a nice day trip.

On the highes hill on Björkö there is a monument of Ansgar
who was the first christian in Scandinavia.



This is my wife at the monument. The view is really great. The picture
below shows the hill and the monument from the seaside.



Of course, the weather forecast was wrong. The west wind came already
in the middle of the night and with it quite a swell. In the early
hours I awoke and felt quite queasy. The boat next to us decided to
leave. We, however tried to get some more sleep with doubtable results.
Instead we went to the restaurant as soon as it opened for the day and
ate a early breakfast on firm and steaday ground. Then we left to sail
for Mariefred and Gripsholm castle.

Winds were perfect and after two days of light winds the boat and it's
crew took real delight in some real sailing. The last part of the
approach to Gripsholm cove was quite tricky with very few navigation
aids (and some out of date charts). All went well however.



This is the steamboat "Mariefred". It was built in 1903 and has since
sailed on the Stockholm-Mariefred trade. It is one of very few coal
steam ships still in active service in Sweden and the only one on lake
Mälaren.

When we berthed at Mariefred community dock the trusty Evinrude
suddenly died. Fortunately the boat was gliding fast enough for me to
get hold of a nearby mooring buoy. Afterwards we concluded that the
engine failure probably was caused by myself sitting on the fuel hose...



Here we would stay two days and rest. Time to open a bottle of red
wine. In the backgrund you can see one of the four towers of Gripsholm
castle.

Gripsholm castle was built by king
Gustav Vasa in 1537 as a part of a new national defense system. It was
restored in Gustav III's time including a little theatre inside the
castle. During the second world war the German writer Kurt Tucholsky
lived (and died) here. Maybe this is why so many German boats visit
lake Mälaren. Today the castle harbours a famous collection of
portraits which is really worth visiting.

Mariefred is a cozy little town. During the summer it is visited by
many tourists. There is an old narrow gauge steam railway connecting
the town with the national railway system at Läggesta. Round trips
by steamboat, steam train and back to Stockholm by ordinary train are
very popular.



The steam is from the train's engine, not coming out of my head...



The town viewed from the castle. The community dock is right in the
middle of the town.



After a relaxing day and a good night's sleep we sailed from Mariefred,
now homeward bound. Winds were light in the beginning, but picked up
somewhat later. This time we had a nice beam reach in perfect weather.



We sailed to another yacht club island, Slandö kalv. It was quite
crowded and amongst all the boats were two German folkboats who had
been participating in a race on lake Mälaren. They did not sail
here from Germany, though, but trailered instead.

The next morning there was no wind
whatsoever, so we decided to stay here another day. The island is quite
small so there is not too much to do. Instead we used the inflatable
dinghy to explore the surroundings and had a swim.

We had now only two days of our
cruise left. As we were still to far from home to get there on a single
day's comfortable sail, we decided to make a last stop at
Jungfruöarna, the same island as on our way out.

There we cooked a good last
dinner. The next day we sailed home and got through the lock one more
time.

During this trip my wife really got hooked on sailing. Since, we have
bought our own little boat and now we are sailing in the more open
waters of the archipelago and the Baltic.