Ariel #105 "Ava"

[Greg]

My first view of her...a diamond the the rough.

[Greg]

Halfway home...my Sis's barnyard.

[Greg]

Passengers...

[ebb]

Gorgeous. Lucky guy!

Here's to Ava's makeover!

[Tony G]

How did I miss these photos!?! Wow! That hull shines like brand new and doesn't show any dings or anything. Are you sure the decks need repairs?

[Greg]

The shine belies the peely and badly applied paint. I have removed most of it along with LOTS of fairing filler only to find that the gelcoat beneath is really in pretty good shape. I think the old girl has lost quite a few pounds in the process. I started out just peeling the transom paint off, thinking it was because of someone having re-named her in the past by just painting over vinyl lettering. It came off in big sheets with just my fingers. Some of the peels went around the corners onto the sides of the hull, so I started scratching with a razor blade and found the all the paint, except that which was on the filler was quite loose. I got most of it off in an afternoon. The rest has succumbed to some persistent work with the sander. Dusty and dirty overhead work, but satisfying. I found out that most of the dings and scrapes were in the paint...the old gelcoat is hard as nails and doesn't scratch easily at all, in fact, under the badly adhered paint it was shiny as a new penny. Apparently no one had taken the time to rough it up enough for the paint to stick (or maybe they didn't have the heart to take a power tool th that lovely hull).

It's raining pitchforks and hammer-handles right now or I would be rolling primer. It's gonna be a dark blue...kinda like Steve's Sirocco, a beautiful boat to my eyes.