Fox, Congrats on your new Ariel,
and on one of the best plans I've heard!
We thrive on pix here!
Fox, Congrats on your new Ariel,
and on one of the best plans I've heard!
We thrive on pix here!
And please begin a thread in the Gallery forum for your new boat . . .
Ill try to get some picks asap. It will be a couple of weeks though, The boatyard she is at in cape cod, wont be able to move her to New Hampshire for another 3 week. I will probably go down to start cleaning her in a week or so, so I will defiantly get some pictures while I'm down there.
Congratulations, Fox! You say a couple of weeks until you can get to work on her...what do you have planned? Do you have a hull number yet? Are you planning on sailing her home or voyaging the asphalt ocean? Well, you know the concensus here, just take lots of photos to start with and everybody will kind of 'jump in'.
She is hull #322. As this is my first sailboat, I will be having her shipped to me via the good old road. As far as working on her goes, the first thing I need to do is, either fix or remove the original atomic 4 engine. The previous owners put an outboard mount on her and just left the inboard as is. I am not really sure what is wrong with it, but clearly it is just taking up space as is. I also want to re-bed all of the deck hardware. The deck seems in good shape, though there is a nasty spot were it looks like some one nearly ripped one of the life line posts off the deck. All of the teak is in rough shape, and will need a good refinishing. I was thinking that the old engine bay would make a good place to put a battery bank and possibly another water tank. I ultimately plan on making her in to a long range coastal cruiser to make an anualy trip down to Fla and the islands every fall, so the more storage on board the better. Also in her near future is a new mainsail, a new outboard engine, and a 55+ watt solar panel. I don't plan on focusing to much on making this boat pretty, just strong and functional. I know that the outboard mount on the back of the boat is not ideal, so I may eventually re-power her with a diesel or figure out some way to retrofit her with an outboard well.
*Edit* I will start a gallery thread as soon as I have a pic.
Last edited by Fox; 03-17-2009 at 10:29 AM.
Fox congrats on the second happiest day in a boat owners life.
IMHO.... I would spend a few bucks having the A4 looked at before you drop a big chunk of change on an outboard. Having inboard power is vastly superior and the cost of a new OB will get you pretty far along towards a complete rebuild of the A4. I find that often A4s that have been given up as worthless still have good compression and just need a carb rebuild and a clean fuel supply. Again, my humble opinion.
p.s. Its a very basic motor and not a bad first time "do it yourself" rebuild project. Marysville Marine is a great source for parts and also know how.
Last edited by Commander227; 03-18-2009 at 07:01 AM.
Your first sailboat? have you done much sailing before?