Your extra weight showing up as a plowing problem - and sluggishness - is very frightening to me ! ! !

Where is your 'normal' waterline?

I had trouble translating the designed waterline (from the Manual drawings that are signed by Alberg) onto littlegull when I tried to establish it when painting the boottop. Never really found it to my satisfaction. Discovered the designed line was far below what my boat had been sailing with. Do we know where the actual waterline is on current active sailing Ariels? Is there a consensus? How can we measure and share that info? (I took my measure from the sheer of copyshop 'to scale' rendition of the Alberg
original. And converted it to the boat.)

Sluggish handling is not a usual description of Ariel attributes. 1000lbs cargo seems entirely reasonable!

50 years ago Ariel was described as a MORC racer/CRUISER.

When hauling for bottom work, the weight of the boat should be indicated by the crane or travel-life. Does the 5180lb stated Ariel weight include all the stuff of a fully found vessel? Understand a racing version would not carry heavyweight
anchors and chain, or a liferaft, or extra fuel.