Looking for an Ariel

[Tony G]

Jon

I agree whole heartedly with Bill.  It is amazing what just a little elbow grease will do to brighten up a boat-or just about anything as far as that goes.  You seem like an itelligent enough guy to understand that maintenance just has to be done.  There's a sort of entropy out there when applied to a boat that will yeild a derelict.  If it goes too far...well that's a bummer.  But catch it before that point and it's some hard work and pride of ownership.  I knew nothing of boat maintenance, epoxy and the like until I got started.  It's not insurmountable if one find it a worthwhile task.

Having said that, you do need to know what you are getting into.  Not everyone desires to toil for hours bringing a near-gone back to it's previous glorious state.  It looks like you know the common weak spots on the Ariel so if you head back to see her give them a good going over with a critical eye.  It's nothing personal against the current owner to assess the boat's condition in it's present state.  At this point, emotions aside, it's purely business.

Believe me, I know how difficult it can be to keep the spirits bright when you have to deal with freezing rain, ice, snow, wind chills, bitter cold, etc., etc..

[bill@ariel231]

As for annual maintenace, a-231 was refit. 10yrs ago with a recored. deck, new diesel, 'glassed rudder, mast beam and fiberglass mast step, paint and standing rigging. My annual prep for the season differs from my friends with new (ie. 5 to 20 year old) boats only to the extent that the varnish on the coamings and rubrail may need attention and I plan to repaint the decks and hull about every 3 to 5 years.

[carl291]

Jon, check this out on :Atlanta GA Craigslist:
 
Jan 15 - Triton Sailboat for Sail: Lake Lanier, Georgia - $2500 -[SIZE=-1] (Flowery Branch, Ga)[/SIZE] pic <<boats
 
I may know of a mover to help you on this boat, let me know .
Carl

[Jon]

Carl,

Thank you for the info on the Triton.   I sent this seller and email requesting more info and hopefully some photos.    I'll let you all know what i find if she replies.

thank you again.

Jon

[joe]

adn therefore, the honor of my vessel.  Jon says that Sirocco (as you all know her) appears to have been totally neglected since I bought her in 2006, I had no idea Jon was there in Maryland the day I picked her up.  He also states that her brightwork has not been touched in three years, again didn't know he had seen her in 2006.  He also states that she looks like ****, by which I imagine he means sh%t, again, didn't know he saw her the day I bought her.  Now, some fact and background.  Attached is a picture of how she looked on 09-06-06, the day I bought her and had her put on a trailer for her trip to OK.  As anyone can clearly see, she looks nothing like the beautiful pics that Steve, the man from whom I bought her, had posted on this very site.  Did Steve deceive me?  Certainly not, he is an honorable man.  He and I communicated a great deal before I drove to Maryland to look at her.  He informed me up front that the pics were about three years old and that she had been on the hard, in the elements for the three previous years and that her paint was dull, her varnish was dried out, cracked, and flaking.  He also told me up front that the interior was damp and musty.  THe three years in the rain, on the hard were VERY unkind to her ass you can clearly see from the attached pic.  The real story though is her interior.  Her interior wood had a great deal of rot.  The starboard settee back cushion was eaten up inside by a type of fungus. Much of the wiring had been attacked by mice and wasps and had a great deal of corrosion as well.  Her hoses were rotted or "critter-attacked" usually in places you would not see, of course.  Did Steve know about all of this?  I doubt it.  He was quite honest with me about her current condition just as I have been with Jon.  But many of her problems are things that you would not know or find in a boat on the hard.  I've never met anyone who ran their engine when their boat was sitting on stands.  Likewise, why would you run your nav and running lights while sitting on stands?  I submit to you that actually, Sirocco is in MUCH better shape now than when I bought her.  Her rotted hoses have been replaced, her engine was repaired (then her starter went out again)  all of the corroded 12V wiring, shore powere wiring, charger, and inverter have been removed as has all of the interior wood that was rotted.  She now has no mold or fungus.  I could certainly go on but I believe that I have made my point.  People should find out the facts of an issue before making negative comments about someone.  

In reply to Mike's post of 1-20-09:

Mike, i took a lead from you, did much digging and some research and read all of the posts from prior owners on this site and then I contacted the owner of Sirocco here in Oklahoma.  We exchanged emails over the last several days and he commented that Sirocco, whose name is now something else, was berthed on Lake Oolagah, a fine local sailing lake and that with a few changes from when he acquired her, she was pretty much the same and  in great shape.  We agreed to meet to see her today around 1 PM.  So, off I went, through 40 miles of freezing rain, then basically skated along 100 yards or so of frozen dock to find a boat that appears to have been totally neglected since Joe acquired her in 2006.

Seriously, Joe is a really nice fella, and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting him, but his boat looks like ****.   The gorgeous coamings and brightware worn by Sirocco have been completely untouched in 3 years, the steps and compact galley area are gone and to enter the cabin you have to step from the cockpit onto a battery that sits next to the uncovered Atomic.  The Atomic looks to be a mess.   It's filthy and untagged wires are everywhere and none of the electric works.   There is brown water in the bilge and the boat is filthy overall.   The owner reports that the starter on the Atomic isn't working and he has hung a Tohatsu on a bracket over the stern.   I didn't even bother to lift the lazarette to see if it was being used as a head....to hell with that....i thought.

Freezing rain was falling and ice was forming on the decks as we sat in the cabin, so I didn't get to skate forward and check all of the stansions or the mast and standing rigging, but the stansions were loose and the deck was cracking all around the chain plates and places where the rigging attaches to the deck.

As a potential buyer I was shocked and, in a way, heart broken.  I had hoped to find a boat that had been well cared for and perhaps even a bit more updated.   That idea made complete sense to me and had that been the case, I would have been willing to haul out the checkbook and do business.   As it turned out, that gorgeous Sirocco is a filthy mess and she is in need of a complete refit.  

I haven't written it off completely, but I'm 90% sure that I won't even bother to think of her again.  If i were to buy this boat I would have to haul it, redo the interior and hope that a starter is all that is wrong with the Atomic.   She needs to be inspected for soft spots on the deck....and I suspect there are many...then repaired and then painted from bow to stern.   I'm not experienced enough to engage in that kind of repair, but i do know how to take care of things.   It was a sad day.

All in all, as a potential first time sailboat owner, I have done a lot of looking, made a lot of calls and run a lot of cold trails in search of a boat.   I am not daunted by my discovery of this mess, but I cannot understand how or why anyone could permit such a beautiful boat to suffer such neglect.  There are a lot of boats on the market but to my way of thinking, it makes no sense to buy a beautiful refitted classic and permit it to fall into such disrepair.  

I just don't get it.   thankfully most of the men and women on this site are conscientious owners who take a great deal of pride in their restored classics.   The rest of them should be so lucky to have a sense of value that would inspire them to do likewise.

Thanks again for your help.   I'll keep looking, but I suspect that I'm going to hang in there with Tim Lackey and find a boat that I can bring to beauty and then keep her there.

jon

[joe]

I've never met anyone who bought a good old boat with no intention of turning her into a first class "Bristol Fashion" yacht.  I had many plans for Sirocco (as you all know her).  When I bought her in September 2006, I worked only 60 hours per week, lots of time off.  Just as for many of you, things have changed.  I am now working between 90-97 hours per week.  On the extremely rare day off, if the weather isn't too bad, I will go out for a sail.  Unfortunately, I've been able to only about once every 8 or 9 weeks.  Why do I work so much when I own such a fine boat to sail?  I am deep in the financial crisis just like millions of others, perhaps many of you all and I am trying to keep the creditors at bay, just as I'm sure many of you are.  We all have big dreams for our boats but, as they say, "life intrudes".  And I will not fix any cosmetic issues until ALL of the importatn issues have been tended to.

[carl291]

Good morning Joe,
The scathing report of your vessel's condition did seem a bit harsh, however as was mentioned by Bill 231 and Tony G and I'm sure thought by many others, my self included, Gee I wish our boats only had those few issues when we bought ours.
I have a yard full of "recreational vehicles" and projects that are being neglected right now, because of economics so in the immortal words of President Clinton " I feel your pain"
Good Luck, Carl

[SkipperJer]

Jon,
If you're still looking for an Ariel there is one in the process of being reclaimed in Maryland.  The previous owner turned the title over to the owner of the yard where I keep my boat to settle his outstanding bill.  He's moved on to other forms of recreation.  The boat is essentially sound but needed the usual: new paint on the bottom and topsides, some deck core replaced and the interior cleaned up. All the wood trim is now in his basement being refinished and varnished.  The bottom and topsides have been sanded and will be painted in the spring.

The yard owner sails an Ariel himself.  His was another derelict that he reclaimed for his own use.  He wins on Wednesday nights regularly in his gem of a boat.  The one he is working on now is an outboard model, does not have a trailer, and is quite a distance from your home but you'd gain some influence on how it will be finished and I promise you, the work being done on this boat will be first class.

If you're interested, send me a private message and I'll put you in touch with the yard owner.

[joe]

Thank you very much Carl:), From a hull, deck, and mechanical standpoint, I would put my boat up against nearly any other ( as long as nav lights are not required) LOL.  I was asked by one of the folks at the marina last year why I don't intend to rewire the nav and running lights; I responded that Oologah is a sizeable lake but that you can see rock no matter where in the lake you are.  I learned LONG ago along the coast of Nova Scotia in an old CD 28 that sailing in the dark anywhere within the sight of land is not a very brilliant thing to do and I now therefore choose to not sail at night unless the nearest land is so far away that I would not be able to see it if I were standing at the top of the mast using HUGE binoculars:D

Good morning Joe,
The scathing report of your vessel's condition did seem a bit harsh, however as was mentioned by Bill 231 and Tony G and I'm sure thought by many others, my self included, Gee I wish our boats only had those few issues when we bought ours.
I have a yard full of "recreational vehicles" and projects that are being neglected right now, because of economics so in the immortal words of President Clinton " I feel your pain"
Good Luck, Carl