Introducing Ariel #187 "Eight Bells"

Congrats - she looks fantastic! Lots more pics please!

I wonder if "ggarratt" and "agarratt" are the first multi-generation Ariel owners on the forum? :)

Thank you for the birthday wishes!!!

Eight Bells finally came out of the water for the winter last Wednesday. All sorts of things have changed for us since we bought her (Gill bought a house, and also became an aunt for the first time, as well as having to attend to that old problem - work!), and we find that the number of times that good weather coincides with our free days here in Maine is limited, so we didn't take Eight Bells out as far or as often as we had expected.

But boy, did we enjoy the times we did have her out. She sails beautifully. We still have a lot of learning to do - I don't think the mainsail is setting quite right, we have to figure that out. We found and fixed a few loose and corroded connections in the electronics, and they all now work properly.

I'm sorry we didn't get the interior pictures - the boat was on a mooring all summer so we only visited when we were going sailing, and we never remembered to take the interior photos! Although she is ashore now, she isn't yet covered over, and we'll try to remember the camera when we go to work on her!

Here is a photo of her on the mooring on a beautiful fall evening, after her last trip before coming out of the water. We are looking forward to next year!

Tony

That's a nice, very safe, pennant lenght. I could use a little more scope down here at Willard Beach but I'd be amidships of somebody . . . .looks like a lot of space in your mooring field.

Ed

Nice to see your post. I also bid on 8 Bells before the auction and looked her over well. One thing I noticed was that the arch or strongback under where the mast was stepped had compressed. Something to look at. I bought Ariel # 50 down in Florida and currently sail her a lot. Good luck, Bart

Thanks for the comment, Bart. I had had my eye on that. Actually we no longer own Eight Bells. We sold her towards the end of last season, because we used her so little. I mentioned after the 2009 season that we had taken her out far less than we expected to, and in 2010 it didn't change - added to which we had some engine troubles and a lot of fog. In the whole season, until we sold her at the end of August she only went out on one "fun" sail - as opposed to the trip in the fog and rain from the launching ramp to the mooring, the trip up to the boatyard nursing the engine, and so on. We were spending more time looking after her, checking her on the mooring, etc., than we were using her! Now Gillian is engaged and planning her wedding, as well as very involved with work, so although we look back on Eight Bells nostalgically, selling her was the right thing to do!

Gillian will pass on your comments to the new owner, though!

Many thanks to everyone for all the encouragement you gave us,

Tony