Warning: Offensive Material! #248 :(

I went and took photos this afternoon. She's a sad sight. It bugs me no end that a good boat gets treated like this. Here are a few pics, the rest are on my site:

Ariel #248 - Sad and neglected

After I took the photos, I slid her companionway hatch shut. It's been open for who knows how many years. Long enough for a sapling to grow up and around her stern. See the hose dangling from her cockpit? That black spiral line is a vine.

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/ph...G_1864_web.JPG

Yes, that is an engine, nearly covered by water ballast...

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/ph...G_1886_web.JPG

Interior -

http://liquid-epiphany.com/images/ph...IMG_1888_w.JPG

Sigh. :confused: :mad:

She can be beautiful again.

I know it sounds crazy, and it will of course be a lot of work. The thing about it is that you know up front what you are getting into.

Look at some of the wonderful boats here, that have been stripped down to bare nothing in the process of being re-created. In many cases the owners simply paid for fittings that were to be removed and discarded.

Depending on what you want to do with it, this might be just the boat to work with.

Well, I've been mighty inspired by the work I've seen at this site. This place is one of the best, if not the best, owners restoration sites I've seen. Some of the work shown here is incredible. Any boat I end up with, I've planned to do a fairly comprehensive refit of - I like knowing whats keeping me off of the ocean bottom in an intimate way. :)

In that respect, #248 would be a great candidate - she'd need a total refit just to be barely sailable. BUT the guy who owns that yard is a greedy jerk (I know - I worked there for a short time), and I seriously doubt he would sell it for what it is worth (assuming he knows that what it is worth, and in the state it is in that is not much at all). The last time I went and looked at it, the vulture swooped out of his dingey lair and accosted me, asking me if I wanted to buy her. I told him I knew I could find an Ariel in pretty good sail-away condition for $2-3K, and that for her, knowing the effort and time and money it would take to get her back in decent shape, I'd give him $200. :D He left me alone after that.

Perspective: The spot in this "marina" where #248 sits, and the conditions of the grounds there that you see in the pics are just exactly like they are in the rest of this place. It's a short step away from a graveyard. His docks are in no better shape. He used to be the only game in town, between Chas SC and Wilmington NC on the ICW, and so he's made his money. Now, the place just falls into disrepair, and he'll eventually sell it to some condo developers, I'm sure. Woe be unto the boat which finds itself in that yard, if you know what I mean.

Where she is is a bad place to be. Stuck between disrespect, neglect, and a greedy arsehole. I haven't ruled her out - if I could get her for what I am willing to pay, I'd give her a new life. But Davids "Nemesis" sounds like a much better start to me, based on what I read in his For Sale post.

Holy crap! He should pay YOU to haul her away!!

LOL, mbd. I kind of feel the same way. If he'd taken the $200 offer, he'd probably have gotten another $300 or so in yard rent while I drained her and let her dry enough to get her ready for moving. Such is greed...

A couple of notes about the photos: The ground-off area port forward reveals a number of cracks. I took some close ups of them, they seem to be fairly substantial, and possibly deep. It almost looks like she had a major impact on the forequarter, and, in another place on the same side, like maybe she fell off of the pilings she is propped on.

Looking at the pilings, the hull is deformed slightly in that area, not surprising considering she's probably been in that spot well in excess of 5 years (based on the 4" diameter tree growing up around her port stern quarter). The starboard piling rests against a rectangular area that looks to be an old repair.

The forward edge of the keel has taken some hard knocks. One of her bow cleats is broken in half, so she has obviously led a hard life.

Her rudder swings easily, and the shoe looks like it is in good shape. There is a strap around the rudder post about 12" up - is that common? I haven't checked Gallery photos to see if it is, or if instead it is a kludge added on by some DPO.

The hull is weeping. I don't blame it. The interior photos show that the water is berth-deep in the cabin. Not surprising, since the companionway hatch was wide open (I shut it before I left - it was all I could do - like giving a dying man a cigarette in an old WWII movie). Also noticeable in the interior shots are several fire extinguishers, and what looks to be soot stains on her roof. Maybe the DPO practiced animal sacrifice? I dunno. All the cabinetry seems to be there, although like the rest of the boat, much the worse for wear.

The mast has steps - which I like - but the boom is not evident, the "yard" owner told me he has her sails, maybe thats where the boom is. The mast step - I don't think I've seen one like that on an Ariel before. I did look for sag in the cabintop, but there was none evident. However, the mast was not stepped, and I was taking my life into my hands almost just by clambering up there to get the inside shots, so I didn't go forward or get to check for sponginess anywhere.

I guess that covers most of it, along with the pics....

FYI - the strap is production. The forward ports are not.

Also, I would have to assume that with all that water standing in the bilge, the hull laminate is saturated. :( (Pearson did not seal the fiberglass in the bilge area.)

You might want to tap the rudder shoe with a hammer to test for soundness. Electrolysis eats 'em from the inside out.

Another option for finding an inexpensive Ariel is to check the boat donation programs in your area. The Boy Scouts, Stanford University and other groups here in Northern California have such programs. Several boats in the local fleet were once residence in such programs. As I recall, the asking price for the boats was around $2500, but they actually sailed away for $1500.