Sorry guys I did not know this was a private club...

[Commander 147]

where new participants are not wanted. I'll leave now and I apologise for the intrusion.

[Bill]

I'm looking, but don't find any posts where you were made unwelcome :confused:

[Commander 147]

I've posted on another sailing forum for several years. On that forum when someone asks for help at least a half a dozen or more people will jump in and give suggestions and opinions.

Here I asked for help and 25 people read my request for help. Not a single person offered any advise or even an acknowledgement of the request. Not a very friendly place.:( So if the people that know the most about these boats are not willing to share their knowledge then I will find another way to stumble through.

[c_amos]

where new participants are not wanted. I'll leave now and I apologize for the intrusion.

Wow, I gotta say that was completely uncalled for.

Let's see, you posted here less then 24 hours ago, and you have not received a reply yet, so you fire one across the bow of the collective membership of a site that no one has asked you to pay for...

Ok, let's slow down now. I am sorry that you feel this way. I think that this is one of the best sailing websites on the entire internet. No, I do KNOW that is a bold statement... but I have seen some folks here go pretty far to help others out here. I see people taking time to take hundreds of photos and post every intimate detail of their work for no pay, and no personal gain....

Oh, and this site has literally hundreds of posts that address the questions in your post. I am sure that while someone would have come along an either pointed a few of them out, or reposted the info.. our patron saint Bill would like us to use the 'search' feature here... really not too much to ask.

I am sorry if this comes across a bit harsh.. . My wife and I just made the trip of a lifetime on one of these great little boats... largely due to the help and assistance from the folks at this webs site. I believe they deserve better then this.

Now, if you choose to remain, and I hope you do. The commander is indeed a fine little boat. So much so that Carl Alberg took one above all his other creations as his own boat.

They are fairly inexpensive, and some have been allowed to fall into disrepair which makes it easy to find one for very little money that you can sail as is or repair to make better then new for some elbow grease and a little money.

The single biggest fault that you should look for is soft decks. They can be repaired, many have done it. It is a bit of work, but you will be able to do it yourself with simple tools and reading the pages of this site.

There are several minor problems that are easy to repair. They are listed in the excellent owners manual you can purchase from the association. It is an excellent investment, and a good paper reference to have close by when looking at or working on these boats. It was compiled from much of the info on the site.

Some of these issues are the sink drain, rudder bearings, chain plates, strong back, and tiller head fittings. If you search on each of these terms you will get a pretty good feel for the issues.

TO assist you in your search, many of our members will post leads to any and all boats they see advertised or find in the back of boatyards somewhere... might want to search the general forum for boats for sale. Some of us also contact sellers to let them know about the association and the forum.

Good luck to you in your quest, you will find no finer small boat then the Ariel / Commander. You will also find no better place to learn about them then this one.

[Bill]

Couple of thoughts come to mind:

1. It's the weekend and likely that most members are out sailing / working on their boats. :)

2. There are a lot of subjects in that one post, making a reply a bit daunting. As you might expect, most of your questions have been discussed and are answered elsewhere on the board. The search function is a good place to begin looking for answers while waiting for the skippers to return from their weekend sailing adventures. ;)

[kendall]

Not private, just not very busy. Sailing season for the lucky ones, haul-out season for others, and hurricane season for the unlucky ones. (good luck to you guys by the way)

Read you're earlier post, but had nothing to offer. I don't have a clue as to how many were made with inboards, and actually every ariel or commander I've ever seen have been outboards, so untill I started digging around here I thought they all were.

As for what to look for, my method has always been to check the sails and hull.
For me it's worked out that If the sails are good, and the hull is solid I've been happy with the boat, everything else is fluff. Only problems I've ever had is when I bought nice boats that look great but just needed new sails.

Poke around through the site, gallery and technical especially, and you'll find a lot of little things to look for, and a couple not so little things, but having been lurking on this list for a few years (finally joined a while ago) I haven't seen anything that would scare me away from a commander or ariel.

Ken.

[Commander 147]

c amos

Thank you for your reply. In respose I would like to say a couple of things.

First you are right that I was hasty in my assesment of the general population of this this forum. There are many members of this forum that had never even read my first post and therefore could not reply. And to those folks please consider this an apology. I should not have made such a generalization. And I need to understand that this forum is not as active as I am used to.

Second you seem to have a very good understanding of these boats. The second half of your reply gave me some very useful information. So I hope you will consider teaching me more in the future and that I don't have to get you upset to share that information with me.

[Commander 147]

Thanks Kendall

I will follow your advice and look through all the old posts in the archive. I'm sure there is plenty that will help me there.

[c_amos]

Glad to have you aboard. There are many more here that know much more then I. Some of these guys have been sailing these boats since before I was born... and have much to contribute.

I will be happy to help in any way I can. Good luck in your search.

[commanderpete]

I suspect quite a few people have felt the same as Willie.

They post, but receive little or no response. They get discouraged and drift off or just lurk. The cycle continues.

You really don't see many forums specific to one model of boat. If they have one it's often a ghost town, even if thousands of the boats were built.

The more active forums cover all the boats the manufacturer built, or aren't brand specific at all.

It takes more than just a few "regulars" to keep the place going. So, to all those people who enjoy browsing here----it wouldn't kill you to pipe in every once in a while.

My job around here is just to post silly pictures

[Commander 147]

My job around here is just to post silly pictures

And might I add that you do a darn good job of it. :-)

[CupOTea]

Don't feel badly Willbe - I just at the end of a 3 year Commander restoration which I couldn't have begun to do without the help of the people on this website - although I drift in an out of it. That said, I was in the yard last week getting ready to Life Caulk my mast base to the deck and even though I KNEW which way it went on, it just didn't look right to me. I jumped online at lunch hoping someone would put my glasses on for me but 72 people viewed my post before Bill threw a me a line. It happens. But you will benefit from every second you spend here and the hope is that you will add what you know. Good luck.

[bill@ariel231]

keep in mind some of the viewed posts are not by people... it's often google spider and other 'bots. if i look at the gallery page, there are 10,000+ hits on A-231's page, but i know there are not that many humans out there actually looking at our site. ;)

[Commander 147]

I know on the other forum I post on there are a large number of lurkers there also. While it is not uncommon for 150 people to read a post on that forum there are probably only 15 to 20 people that are regularily willing to give their opinions and assistance.

At any rate I know I can learn a lot just from the archives here that will help. So I will read those and try to pay back by offering my experiences that I believe might be helpful.

[mbd]

Yup. This forum is PACKED with tons of info and pictures. As someone said, I think you'll find it gets a bit more active in the Winter when some of us can't sail anymore.

And welcome aboard, by the way...