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Ariel #66 is now owned by Eric Mcleod of 6-7 Berwick, Ontario, Canada.

Asking $1 because this is a PROJECT BOAT.

This is a project boat that had been neglected before we purchased her. Unfortunately just don't have the time now to finish the restoration. She has a sound hull, a good suit of sails, and a variety of other equipment (porta-potti, spinnaker poles, class/association burgee, manual, etc.), but she needs some TLC.

Pictures can be seen here...
http://www.pearsonariel.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=118

She's located on Cape Cod in Massachusetts; contact Brent at 508-540-5662 or cat boat brent (all one word) at yahoo dot com.

Somehow I think we've had this discussion before...

Ahh...here it is; page 52 in the Manual on removing the factory-installed water tank, "It may also be a good idea to keep at least 20 pounds of gear...to compensate for the missing tank and maintain proper balance." The specs for the Ariel indicated a 21-gallon water tank; at 8 lbs/gallon that would be 168lbs.

Of course, this is assuming that the water tank has been removed, which doesn't seem to be the case w/Solsken (Theis, correct me if I'm wrong).

What about you, Dave? Your 175 lbs seems to be right-on, but is that with or without a full water tank?

Brent

Scott,

This is genius!

I'm not one to question the experience of Theis, but the whole lifeline/stanchion issue has had me scratching my head. I'd rather do without them because of the cost, trouble, looks, etc., but even with jacklines and good weather, I'm sure I'd feel better if there was something to keep the kids aboard.

Scott, your solution seems perfect! I was thinking of pin rails anyway as a place to mount the running lights (The current lights need to be replaced with the rest of the electrical system, but their placement and style just doesn't appeal to me, and I don't want to run anything up the mast if I can help it).

BTW...love the pics. You've given me a few more ideas...

Brent

Has anyone fabricated the mast step in the manual.

Not yet, but it is on my list to do.

I was going to replace the original stanchions on #66 with the Matella aluminum stanchions. My thought was that because they are lighter, stronger and higher (I think you can get them up to 33" or 36") than the original, it would be a good piece of safety equipment.

That was before reality hit.

At about $100 a pop, they are a bit too pricey for my blood, especially since the wife (God bless her) said, "Let's just use jacklines."

Whether or not we have lifelines, the kids will be secured to a jackline when going forward. Since my wife can do without stanchions, so can I, as it is one less thing I have to buy and install.

Mike,

We do have termites; never thought of tar paper--I'll give it a try.

BTW...I'd be willing to trade ya--#66 hasn't touched water in over twelve years

Thanks Tony; it does.  :-)

This has been too long coming; we purchased #66 about 1-1/2 years ago and she still hasn't touched the water.


You know Bill, I've thought about leaving the shed after it's all done as winter storage. However, I purposely avoided the use of anything resembling a permanent foundation so that I wouldn't be tempted to let this project drag on for years!

The frames are standard 2x4's resting right on the ground. I'm not certain how long they'll last, but a year is all I need. I think ;-)

No shed has any value without a roof :-)

I bought this tarp for $50-$60 at Ocean State Job Lot. I'm not sure how long it will last, but I did get it up just before the rain this weekend, so #66 is dry for the first time in decades...

Now I can get to work on the deck core, the hatches, the windows...

From the side you can see that the rear of the shed did not go together as well as the front.

The ground here is relatively flat, so I opted to just rest the frames right on the soil. Some ended up hanging in the air an inch or so--it isn't perfectly flat. I'm going to go back and attach some short support pieces to the bottom of these frames so everyone supports the structure.

At the rear, the ground slopes up enough to throw everything off. I struggled with the last set of frames--it was 3-4" too high to line up properly. I ended up digging shallow holes under the frames to get them level with the rest of the shed.

It doesn't look as pretty as the front half, but it is sturdy and stable.

A nice frontal view...

It took a few days over the course of a few weeks, but I finally finished.

The frames are about 3' on center; the whole shed is 33' long x 12' wide. The ends overhang the boat about 3' at the front and 5' at the rear. There is only about 2' of space at the widest point of beam, but it is not a squeeze. With the shape of the Ariel, it rapidly opens up as you move fore and aft.

Once the first frame set was up, I secured it to the "A" frame and proceeded to raise the rest of the frames. I used the shed frames from that point on, since they were both taller than the "A" frame and closer to the frames being raised.

You'll notice that the horizontal stringers are lower here than in the previous pic; the first frame was a little high (I had overestimated the amount of headroom I needed) so I cut them down by 18". The ground here was pretty level, so aligning them wasn't too difficult.

The hard part was getting that first frame set up and over the pulpit. I actually had to secure the frames to the pulpit and readjust the line before I could get them vertical.

But, voila!

#66 came with a number of old blocks. I used several with the "A" frame to help pull the shed frame up as shown here. I probably could have used the winches, but I had already removed them.

The "A" frame was secured to the stanchions at the sides and a line ran from the stemhead to a cleat at the stern.