Ariel #24

[bill@ariel231]

Tim

I think you found the propeller aperture.. At least that's where my prop is located.

I've read that all hulls had the cut out for an inboard prop. The factory then faired-in a separate piece to fill in the aperture if the boat was built as an outboard. The blue fairing compound on the seam appears to match lower section of the yellow outline in the picture attached (from A-409). From some other observations on this site this is another wet spot although it shouldn't result in water reaching the bilge. It will possibly lead to freeze/thaw damage if water is traped in there. I suspect you will find more of that blue fairing about 1 foot above the spot you found.

while the rudder is out, you may want to clean out and fair the slot where the rudder meets the trailing edge of the keel. on my boat there were a couple of thin spots in that slot where the rudder had chafed against the hull opening up a couple small holes.

good luck,
bill