Seriously looking for an Ariel to buy in the Great Lakes region

[Porter Wayfare]

Greetings from a new member in Michigan.

My sailing experience began in the 60s on an ore freighter out of Chicago. I currently sail a Wayfarer dinghy but my wife says if we're going out for a couple of weeks at a time, we need a cabin. Oh, well, I'm just lucky, I guess.

I could use a little luck and help with finding a nice Ariel--something we can use right away. I have a career's worth of land-based building skills although I don't really want to take on a project. I want to sail the Georgian Bay. If anyone knows of anything, please pass it my way.

I called on the Ariel in CT mentioned further down in this forum. It sold two months ago for $2,800! Such a deal. The seller took the time to tell me all about how nice she was! And I listened! My heart!

I also ran across three Ariels in Detroit that while not basket cases yet, they each certainly do have one foot in the basket. They are hull numbers 39, 135 and 297. Very soft decks all around. Some holes where stanchions pulled out. Badly neglected, I'd say.

But there has got to be something! Here's hoping. Thanks for your help.

Porter

[Ariel 109]

Greetings Porter, welcome aboard!

I grew up sailing a Wayfarer in the Detroit area back in the Seventies. Forget the Ariel. Get yourself a boom tent and some sleeping bags, pack the wife aboard and head to Georgian Bay. I remember seeing Frank Dye lecture on sailing his Wayfarer from Great Britain to Iceland at one of the Wayfarer fleet meetings back then. His grainy 16mm films of his voyages were astonishing and made a big impression.

Frank Dye:

"Offshore cruising in an open boat can be hard, cold, wet, lonely and occasionally miserable, but it is exhilarating too. To take an open dinghy across a hundred miles of sea, taking weather as it comes; to know that you have only yourself and your mate to rely on in an emergency; to see the beauty of dawn creep across the ever restless and dangerous ocean; to make a safe landfall - is wonderful and all of these things develop a self-reliance that is missing from the modern, mechanical, safety-conscious civilised world."

Good luck finding an Ariel. I wouldn't be too picky about condition. They are extremely well made where it matters and very easy to work on.

Ben

[Porter Wayfare]

Ben,
So you have visited the church of Frank Dye I see. Me too. Boom tent: check. Sleeping bags: check. Pressure cooker: check. Two weeks or longer? Not so check.

Ah, but you have an Ariel. I have a beautiful wood Wayfarer. We could trade and you could get some of that "weather as it comes" and my wife and I could cruise up close to shore in The Massasauga Provincial Park and not die from loss of blood to the skeets. I think Frank might have written about that in a later chapter.

But I know what you mean. Dinghy sailing is such an immediate experience. You can touch the water anytime.

[Porter Wayfare]

Hull #397 is for sale on the Potomac River. Anybody know anything about that boat?

[Ariel 109]

Ah, a wooden Wayfarer, absolute bliss! You are undeniably a person of exquisite taste! A tempting trade, but another wooden boat entering my life would result in grievous bodily harm to my person.

[Porter Wayfare]

I didn't mean a trade for very long. Certainly not long enough to hurt either of us.

[carl291]

Porter Welcome, It's great when you come across a boat you make a note of the hull number. Tell us how you ran across 3 boats in Detroit f you don't mind.

[Porter Wayfare]

Well, you know how looking for a boat can become kind of obsessive? I had just gotten back from a 2,808 mile trip to pick up a "Bristol" Alberg 22 in Nova Scotia. Yes, I had a surveyor look at it before I went out. The trailer it was on was advertised as "new" so I didn't key on it too much. Turns out the trailer was an old dilapidated home-made piece of junk. I couldn't find anything to replace it, and so I returned sans voilier. All this (and that is not all) is to give you a picture of a descending boat search fatigue.

Not feeling inclined to drive anymore, I bored into the internet which has its own sort of fatigue, where I found this: http://usedboatsofdetroit.com/ Have a look around. In that link you will find an Ariel for sale years ago. I called and went to see it at the most interesting "Detroit Boat Works Boatyard," proprietor Stephen Hume: http://seaport.findthebest.com/l/599...at-Works-Wharf Some color background can be gotten at http://www.detroitblog.org/?p=867 I recommend that link, although it doesn't really do the place justice.

Yes, there is a huge tugboat. I worked on ore freighters in the 60s and I mean this tug is huge. There is also the hook and ladder truck. There is more stuff there than you can believe. There is the Ariel I went to see with another Ariel tied up one boat away. They are allowed to "freeze in" to the Detroit river in winter. My sister who went with me wondered why he didn't put all the bicycles together. Instead there seemed to be one leaning against every other thing in the yard.

Writing this, I realize I have to go back.

On the way out of the boatyard we passed another boatyard, Worthy Marine. There was an Ariel on a cradle facing the front fence. This Ariel, #297, is in a bit worse shape than the two at The Detroit Boat Works Boatyard.

I hope that answers your question. I'll try to get some pictures next time.

Porter

[Crazer]

I looked at that boat in CT. I didn't buy it and I've regretted it ever since. I had to buy two boats to make up for it, a Triton and a Sea Sprite 23. Keep looking, something will show up in good time. They're out there.

[Ariel 109]

I think one needs to keep in perspective the fact that Ariels / Commanders are a half century old. Every single one of them is a project boat. They also have the declining interest in sailing, aging demographics and recession working against them. I think we can all foresee that the huge glut of unwanted and neglected sailboats from the sailing boom of the sixties and seventies will one day be over. As Baron Rothschild said "The time to buy is when there's blood in the streets."

I think a new fashion in sailboat design today is the return to boats that allow one to entertain a few hour of escape, pleasure and fantasy. The Ariel / Commanders are pretty boats, descended in style from the golden age of yachting and fit this bill completely.

PS, It is possible to sail a boat with soft decks that contain gaping holes covered with peeling paint, ha!

Ben

[Ariel 109]

"There is no such thing as absolute certainty, but there is assurance sufficient for the purposes of human life." John Stuart Mill

Jackie, one of the nice things about the Ariel is it can be a pretty dry boat at 20-25 knots. The high deck house comes is handy for blocking the wind and water. I hope you find a nice boat soon.

Ben

[Commander 147]

There are a lot of shipping compaines out there that haul boats all the time. I bought my commander in Vermont and had it brought down to Florida for $850.00. If you want to find a boat that is in really good condition sometimes you have to go out of your comfort zone to find it.

No I'm not the person who sent you the ad but I'm sure the person that sent it to you was just trying to help.

[carl291]

Porter, Have you looked at this boat in Detroit MI 26' Pearson Ariel Sailboat on Ebay

[Porter Wayfare]

Yes. See my post of 5-3-12 for the whole story. It was one of the two boats at the Detroit Boat Works Boat yard. Quite a place. The pictures in the Craigslist ad are not representative of the condition of the boat I saw. I fail to understand how someone can think that misrepresenting what you have for sale helps sell it. But I guess our culture has plenty of examples: that's advertising.

[RicknSue]

Not sure if you are still looking, but we just bought a Pearson 30 and it's unlikely I will keep our Ariel(although its great, the bigger boat factors better into our future plans). Its in Lorain,OH, and it is mostly flawless. A-101. Outboard model with newer Evinrude 9.9 electric start, new brightsides paint and Micron 66 bottom paint. Green topsides, Hatteres Off White deck, CDI roller furler, AM/FM/CD/Ipod stereo, Origo electric/alchohol two burner stove, Garmin 2010 plotter, double battery bank AGM and wet (apprx 150 amp hours), brand new marine head and tank and lines (never had it before), frresh water tank is in and will be plumbed soon.Sails in good shape, one small rip in headsail UV cover that could be repaired.Dockage availble for rest of this summer, or delivery to Michigan could be arranged. Let me know if you would like more info or pictures, etc .