Ariel 387 -"Arthur"

[Tim Mertinooke]

The "step" in the aft section of your bilge is the end of the lead ballast. Pearson did a shoddy job fiberglassing this area on my former Ariel and I could see water leaking out of that "step" along the bottom of the bilge. I let it dry out completely and then coated it with thickened epoxy. This stopped the migration of water in and out. Your keel void/bilge looks great. It took me many nasty hours to remove all the gunk and two lead pigs to get it looking as good as yours.

I also coated the bottom section of the bilge with a lot of thin epoxy because I had water that was making it from the inside of the bilge out through the shoe. I have pictures on my old thread (Ariel #24) showing this. I don't know how it was doing it, but I did some experiments to prove it. Once I coated the bottom with about 1/4" of unthickened epoxy, I coated it with thickened. I never got around to fairing it and painting it with Bilgekote as I sold the boat, but that was the plan. My bilge was dry all summer on its mooring. Oh yeah, I also overdrilled the holes for the rudder shoe and strap, filled with epoxy and then re-drilled the original size. I also know for a fact that the original holes drilled by Pearson for the shoe and strap allowed water to enter the bilge. Lots of pictures on my old thread.

Keep up the good work!