A-271 Michalla

[hawkinsp]

Alright, I've done it. I drilled a hole in the bottom of my Ariel. I'll have to admit that while I was preparing to do this I was wondering if this was yet another snipe hunt, or cow-tipping experience. You know, some rite of passage for the new kid on the block. But with encouragement from Frank and having read about this in the manual I decided that it would be better to repair a small hole in the bottom of the keel than to wait to see what freezing and thawing might do with any residual water in the keel.

Sooo, lacking the proper set-up, I carefully backed the trailer onto the curb to give me more clearance to drill from directly underneath.

Then I took a 12" long 5/16" bit since I had read both 1/4" and 3/8" and also because this was the only bit I had that was 12" long and I had drilled with a normal bit (3" or so) and had drawn nothing but dry glass.

I then measured forward 2" from the rudder shoe, gulped deeply and drilled away in search of a void full of water.

I found the void about 8 1/2" through solid fiberglass. I inserted the bit entirely into the void to be certain that I had found the void. I believe that I have. On the other hand I found no water. To be fair, the boat has been out of the water for about 2 months now and today was the first day that I noticed that there was not a drip hanging from the rudder shoe.So the water that was there, may have finally escaped. While under the boat I did notice a rather serious rot in the bottom of the rudder to which I will need to attend.

I would truly appreciate everyone's thoughts on what I am doing here.