Glassed or bolted/screwed?

[roythomas]

I think I may have been unclear. my scupper drains and thru hulls appear to be fine. I did not mean to imply my scuppers are draining to my bilge.

While crawling around inspecting my scuppers I simply noticed the plywood covering the aft bill underneath the cockpit (Cockpit sole?) was rotted. It looks like 1"or 3/4" plywood and I can see the sides of the plywood. This makes me think it may not be glassed in and easily replaced.

The previous owner had extended the boot stripe near the stern of the boat up to and including part of the motor well. This makes me think that for an extended period of time the boat was stern heavy which may lend credence to your comment about water in large quantities over an extended period of time. But you make the point of saying freshwater. Is freshwater more damaging than salt water?

And finally my original question do you have any knowledge if that plywood covering the aft bilge is screwed or glassed? Did it exist on an Ariel? I poured through the owners manual and could find nothing.

[Les]

The bilge cover is in my Ariel. It is glassed in; no mechanical fasteners at all. Looking at mine it appears anytime there is water in the cockpit lockers, it would flow over and through an opening in the cover and wick into the plywood fastened to the underside of the fiberglass. It doesn't appear to be too big of a job to cut it out if you have the pegboard removed and out of the way. And can fit into the cockpit locker.

[SkipperJer]

Without pictures its hard to imagine exactly what your problem is. I know, one of the more difficult tasks of boat ownership is sharing pictures with fellow owners but its worth the learning curve. There are few problems we haven't seen.