Wherever possible I like to bolt my hardware on, rather than rely on screws. This is particularly important for load bearing components, such as cleats, bollards and fairleads.
The forward mooring cleat, and the aft mooring bollard are both overlying backing blocks installed just for this purpose. They are fastened with bolts passing though the blocks and secured with washers and locknuts.
The fairleads on the foredeck overlie the sheer strake between the stem and bulkhead A, so are virtually impossible to reach underneath except through the fenestrations in that bulkhead. So, here I will have to accept screws, but they will be reinforced by some bedding compound, not only under the fairleads, but also into the screw holes themselves.
The rear deck fairleads can be located so that they can be reached in the rudder compartment, provided that they are not needed further aft than bulkhead F, which is about half way between the transom and the rear passenger seat. However, in order for the fairleads to fulfil one of their functions, namely to prevent rope chaffing on the deck, they have to be placed right up against the gunwale. The holes for their fixation pass through the deck, but skirt down alongside the inner face of the hull. There may not be enough room to fit a washer there, which would prevent bolts being employed.
The small fender cleats can be fixed with bedded screws.
The foredeck clam shell vents in the hatches are used to open the hatches, so they are bolted in, but the aft clam shell has to be screwed because of access difficulty.
The rear flag staff is not really load bearing to speak of, so can be screwed.
The forward burgee staff sits in an oarlock which rides on a wedge shaped plinth on the deck. The wedge is to compensate for the downward and forward slope of the deck, which would make a non-wedged staff sit at a non-vertical angle, leaning forward. The wedge is screwed and bedded to the deck, and the oarlock is screwed and bedded to the wedge.
The spotlight is screwed and bedded to a plinth, which is glued and screwed to the deck.
The horn is bolted to the deck, because it is easily reached from under the dash, and from the motor compartment.
The forward navigation lights are concealed in chromed brass housings. The housings are screwed and bedded onto plinths, and the plinths are recessed to hold the light fittings so that they do not hit the inside of the brass.
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158. Naming Rights
It seems
that when it comes to putting boat names on there is no limit to which
the depths of tastelessness cannot descend. For some inexplicable
reason the power boat community seems to demand, with an almost
solitary voice, the ability to tart up their craft to look like
floating doss houses, the garishness of whose ornamentation varies in
direct proportion to the speed of the boat.
Traditional slipper launches, and the better modern ones, are embellished with good quality gold leaf names, applied by skilled craftsmen, at a layer deep to some of the numerous coats of lacquer which protect them. Having abandoned the bright finish on my top strake, where the name will be located, I cannot use that technique. The top coat is opaque.
The next best option seems to be a factory made name of my own design, sandwiched in a vinyl envelope which can be stuck onto the boat. There are numerous services which offer this, although the choices of font are not always extensive. Font is an important part of the name, as it expresses some of the boat's character, and possibly some of the owner's too. So the modern styles, without serifs, seem to be out of place, and the cartoon styles are out of the question.
Being of Greek, or, at least Cretan, origin, the name, Ariadne, needs classical lettering. While that does not mean Doric columns, it does mean something more restrained than this, for example:
While I quite like the
appearance
of the font, it does look a bit too "Middle Earth" to be relevant. The
font I eventually chose was one which nods towards the classical, even
if it is not a very old design.
To confirm my choice, I printed
out a copy, altered the background colour to blend in with the top
strake, and stuck it on the boat. I think it works well.
And so it was that Theseus and Ariadne set sail from Crete together. However, by the time they reached the island of Naxos, Theseus had decided that Ariadne's actions amounted to an unforgivable betrayal of her people, and so he abandoned her there.
Evelyn Pickering De Morgan "Ariadne in Naxos" 1877.
Ariadne remained on Naxos, lamenting her fate until a young Dionysus set foot there, himself having narrowly averted disaster in his recent liaison with the sorceress, Circe, who favoured turning her lovers into animals after the fact. It was only Dionysus' immortal lineage which thwarted her ambition for him, and he was still a little bruised by the experience when he happened across Ariadne.
She was by now only anticipating death and a trip across the Styx to the underworld, so was inconsolable to find that her visitor was not the grim ferryman, Charon, but an adolescent god just starting out on a lifetime of enthusiastic pursuit of the dissolute. Dionysus, however, soon sobered up and took pity on her plight. He convinced her to choose marriage to him over death and intervened with Apollo to have her matrimonial diadem turned into a constellation of stars.
"Bacchus and Ariadne" by Alesandro Turchi (l'Orbetto).
Hence, the name of the European space rocket, Arianne.
When the first Slipper Launch, the prototype Merk, was launched in 1912, the musical world was agog with Der Rosenkavalier, the latest offering from Europe's leading operatic composer, Richard Strauss. Even as Merk was making its mark, Strauss was commencing his next collaboration with librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, on a bold reinterpretation for the theatre of Molière's play, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. In Molière, the would-be gentleman's guests all assemble in his theatre after the dinner to see a one act play. In the Hofmannsthal/Strauss version, they decamp to see a one act opera, Ariadne auf Naxos. The production was never successful. Play goers loved the play with its incidental music, which is now preserved as the suite, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, but they tired in the opera. Similarly, opera goers struggled through the play. In the end the two were split apart, and the opera was given a prelude so it would be long enough to take on a life of its own. Its main theme could well be interpreted as the continuing struggle between the Apollonian and the Dionysian.
Hofmannsthal (left), and Strauss.
If ever a vessel were to represent that struggle it would be a Slipper Launch, with its hauteur and pedigree on one hand, and its champagne and caviar on the other. And while events like the Henley Royal Regatta and the Thames Traditional Boat Festival seek to be the arbiters of respectability, I am sure that it is the before- and after- parties where the real deals are done.
Strauss lived until 1949, and the span of his career almost book-ended the Andrews Slipper Launch. Only three of them were built by Andrews after the war. So it seemed appropriate that my own boat should be named after a Strauss heroine, opera and boat building being such inseparable fascinations. I resisted the obvious, Elektra, and opted for Ariadne, whose creation in the 20th. century coincided with that of the boats themselves, and whose continuing presence in the firmament may parallel the boats' enduring appeal.
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The pre-hatch foredeck masked for caulking...
...followed by the covering board gap.
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Puzzlement is the usual
expression of people who hear the name. Then
the question: "Who is Ariadne?" soon follows.
So: Ariadne was a daughter of King Minos of Crete, who had the misfortune to fall in love with the Athenian, Theseus, as soon as she saw him disembark from his boat on her island. He had been sent as part of a sacrificial party of youths who were supposed to meet their doom in the labyrinth at the hands, and horns, of the Minotaur. Ariadne, however, swayed by inflamed passion, promised to save Theseus' life if he would promise to take her away to Athens and marry her.
Vows were exchanged, and Ariadne supplied Theseus with a sword and a clew of string, the sword to slay the beast, and the string to unravel as he entered the labyrinth, and then to follow out again to find its exit.
So: Ariadne was a daughter of King Minos of Crete, who had the misfortune to fall in love with the Athenian, Theseus, as soon as she saw him disembark from his boat on her island. He had been sent as part of a sacrificial party of youths who were supposed to meet their doom in the labyrinth at the hands, and horns, of the Minotaur. Ariadne, however, swayed by inflamed passion, promised to save Theseus' life if he would promise to take her away to Athens and marry her.
Vows were exchanged, and Ariadne supplied Theseus with a sword and a clew of string, the sword to slay the beast, and the string to unravel as he entered the labyrinth, and then to follow out again to find its exit.
And so it was that Theseus and Ariadne set sail from Crete together. However, by the time they reached the island of Naxos, Theseus had decided that Ariadne's actions amounted to an unforgivable betrayal of her people, and so he abandoned her there.
Evelyn Pickering De Morgan "Ariadne in Naxos" 1877.
Ariadne remained on Naxos, lamenting her fate until a young Dionysus set foot there, himself having narrowly averted disaster in his recent liaison with the sorceress, Circe, who favoured turning her lovers into animals after the fact. It was only Dionysus' immortal lineage which thwarted her ambition for him, and he was still a little bruised by the experience when he happened across Ariadne.
She was by now only anticipating death and a trip across the Styx to the underworld, so was inconsolable to find that her visitor was not the grim ferryman, Charon, but an adolescent god just starting out on a lifetime of enthusiastic pursuit of the dissolute. Dionysus, however, soon sobered up and took pity on her plight. He convinced her to choose marriage to him over death and intervened with Apollo to have her matrimonial diadem turned into a constellation of stars.
"Bacchus and Ariadne" by Alesandro Turchi (l'Orbetto).
Hence, the name of the European space rocket, Arianne.
When the first Slipper Launch, the prototype Merk, was launched in 1912, the musical world was agog with Der Rosenkavalier, the latest offering from Europe's leading operatic composer, Richard Strauss. Even as Merk was making its mark, Strauss was commencing his next collaboration with librettist, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, on a bold reinterpretation for the theatre of Molière's play, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. In Molière, the would-be gentleman's guests all assemble in his theatre after the dinner to see a one act play. In the Hofmannsthal/Strauss version, they decamp to see a one act opera, Ariadne auf Naxos. The production was never successful. Play goers loved the play with its incidental music, which is now preserved as the suite, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, but they tired in the opera. Similarly, opera goers struggled through the play. In the end the two were split apart, and the opera was given a prelude so it would be long enough to take on a life of its own. Its main theme could well be interpreted as the continuing struggle between the Apollonian and the Dionysian.
Hofmannsthal (left), and Strauss.
If ever a vessel were to represent that struggle it would be a Slipper Launch, with its hauteur and pedigree on one hand, and its champagne and caviar on the other. And while events like the Henley Royal Regatta and the Thames Traditional Boat Festival seek to be the arbiters of respectability, I am sure that it is the before- and after- parties where the real deals are done.
Strauss lived until 1949, and the span of his career almost book-ended the Andrews Slipper Launch. Only three of them were built by Andrews after the war. So it seemed appropriate that my own boat should be named after a Strauss heroine, opera and boat building being such inseparable fascinations. I resisted the obvious, Elektra, and opted for Ariadne, whose creation in the 20th. century coincided with that of the boats themselves, and whose continuing presence in the firmament may parallel the boats' enduring appeal.
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160. Meanwhile, Back at the
Caulking
The last section to be caulked, apart from the gap
between the decking planks and the covering boards, is the section in
front of the hatch. Here is is masked off for priming. The caulk of
these strips, as well as the ones already done, has to finish in the
gap near the covering boards, such that that gap is going to be partly
filled by those stub ends before the proper bead is laid. Proper
adhesion between the old and new Sikaflex can be achieved by applying
primer to the cures ends. Hence, the final act on the foredeck is the
caulking of the covering board gaps on both sides.The
caulking on the foredeck is almost complete at the stage. The port side
is masked and you can see the result of the first pass of the chisel
over the wet Sikaflex. In some lines it is almost good enough to leave
as it is, but in others there is wave formation leaving some areas
proud of the decking and others recessed below it. The second bead
levels the caulk to the deck closely enough for the sanding to take
care of any residual discrepancy.
Port side being caulked.
Wave formation above and below deck level.
After the second bead is smoothed down.
Port side being caulked.
Wave formation above and below deck level.
After the second bead is smoothed down.
The pre-hatch foredeck masked for caulking...
...followed by the covering board gap.
The final result of
the caulking is quite good, but it has still to be sanded and the deck
revarnished. While I am waiting for the caulk to dry fully before
attempting that, I can get on with the next step: caulking the rear
deck.
The end result.
The end result.
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