Ariel 322 (at last)

[Rico]

A-322 is looking good! I'm get the idea that she'll be well taken care of... Don't worry too much about this being your first sailboat - the way these boats sail - you'll be hooked soon enough! It does not hurt to plan ahead...

Regarding the motor; It seems like you're headed towards repowering with an inboard diesel... If you do not have tides & currents to worry about; I'd say pull the seized A-4 out and use a small outboard (2-3 hp) to get you by. (You can always add some ballast to trim as needed) This will get you out in the water and you can look around to see what options are available. (e.g - if any other motors have similar mounts) in the meantime.

Refurbished A4s come up for sale ocasionally...

Oh - the bulbs are 12v. At least in most A/Cs I've run into.

[carl291]

7hp Farymann Diesel Marine Engine 18W + 2:1 trans NOS

Try looking at this link for a small diesel eng/trans combo, the price seems right, has a built in alternator, I don't know if I like that.
I'm sure the light bulbs are 12 volt, any RV store will sell them.
I would pull the A-4 on the hard, unless your plan is to deep six it in the ocean and call it a man made reef
Maybe this helps.

[Fox]

I'd say pull the seized A-4 out and use a small outboard (2-3 hp) to get you by. (You can always add some ballast to trim as needed).

Good idea, in theory, but unfortunately I have some nasty currents to fight against. The current under the bridge near my mooring is one of the strongest tidal currents in the world. I'm not sure even the a4 running 100% could get me though there with out waiting for the tides to change, guess I will have to just give it a shot. I was thinking of getting one of the nissan/tahatsu 6hp engines. They seem to be the best power to weight, and they arnt too expensive.

[ebb]

Surely the best testimonialed small diesel is the BETA.
It is also red.

It is a marinized Kubota tractor engine. Out of Britain, it's expensive.
Haven't heard of any Ariels having one installed. I know Admiral Bill wants to convert from OB.

Why not be the guniapig and show us how to do it?

[Fox]

I very well may be the guinea pig for this one, the idea of a kabota tractor engine sounds pretty appealing. Any how, the old A4 is now sitting on a plastic crate in the middle of the floor. My God those engines are heavy! I could hardly lift it the 2 foot off the floor to get it up on the crate. Now I just need to some how get it out of the boat. Who ever built that chart table in my boat has my gratitude, It lifts up and the right side of the stair supports lifts out as well, so pretty much it gives you access to the whole space between the bunks, it made it very easy to get the engine out of there, well except the having to crawl through the cockpit locker to get to the prop shaft. Anyhow, would it be ok to leave the prop shaft as it is? Im a bit concerned that with out the support of the transmission it may slide and cause a leak. Anyhow, I forgot my camera, but I will bring it tomorrow and take lots of pics. When I was climbing around back behind the engine, I noticed that some one glassed the hull to deck seam. looks like they did a good job too.

[ebb]

Deck to hull HAD to be glassed by Pearson with sumthung.

Little Gull's seams had strips of plain matt, and not very much of it, pasting the boat together.
When cleaning silicon out of the seam covered by the stainless molding with a Dremel tool, it seemed much TOO EASY to cut thru the bandaide.

The inside was covered everywhere with paint, even up into the cove - because I remember how hard is was scraping and handsanding in there.

It may be a clue to check to see if indeed a former owner tackled this job. There are plenty of areas, like the cockpit lockers, where it's normally impossible to reach the cove (the inside of the toerail.) Forepeak might be another and of course the stern locker.

There have been some novel remedies to the seam problem.

[Fox]

Well yet another picture-less update promise Ill bring my camera tomorrow. Anyhow still haven't gotten the engine out of the boat, I am going to buy some 2x4's and make a scaffolding to pull the engine up, then slide it onto a couple more boards and lower it down into my truck. On other fronts though I'm making lots of progress. I pulled the prop off, and slid the drive shaft out of the boat, I am going to plug the hole with a dowel and then glass the hell out of the back were the shaft used to go, at least this way I will be able to easily remove the glass and the plug if I decide to re-power later. After pricing the betta engine, I feel it may be a while till I have the funds to purchase one, so outboard for now. I also removed the old shut off valve for the water intake for the old engine. It was frozen open in a big way, so I am just going to replace it with a new one, and then for added security I will put a threaded cap on the other end. Honestly I would much rather put a proper sea cock on instead of that horrid thing that pearson put there, but time is running short, and I think that it would be a bigger job to retrofit a new fitting. I will probably go ahead and do it this fall though when she is hauled out for the winter, or maybe even glass over the old thru-hull. I have recruited the help of my father to re-finish the outside wood work. Its pretty far gone, but I am going to put many coats of tongue oil on it, I think that if enough soaks into the wood, it may actually look decent. I was just going to varnish it, but it is dried out to the point of pending dry rot, so I think the oil will be better for it. I am hoping to have her launched very soon, and I will continue all my fun projects afloat. Just gotta get the thru-hulls under control then into the drink she goes.

[Fox]

Well the Atomic 4 is now out of the boat, and sitting on a cooler in the cockpit! I just have to call around to some local salvage yards and find one that will take the engine. I ended up just making a beam out of 2 2x4's and laying it over the companion way entrance, it seemed plenty strong enough, and I guess it was, because a couple minutes later I had it winched up to the door. I could not get it high enough up to just slide it out, so I had to pick it up and half drag it into the cockpit, but I did it!, now it just a matter of chucking it overboard, and loading it into the truck. The blue tote is over it because Im technically not supposed to be doing any major work on the boat. The marina seems to think I should pay them top dollar to do work that I can do myself for free, yeh right on that one! I just have to be sneaky....