Ariel

Name of Boat	Ariel
Sail Number	C23
Location of Boat	Portland
Owner's Name	Garry Kerr

History
Built Year	1927
Builder	JR Jones
Designer	JR Jones
History	Originally built for the Keillor brothers, Charles and Andrew. They were stevedores and used the boat mostly for day trips and excursions on the bay with passengers visiting from the country. Jack Arkell bought the boat in 1933 and changed the gunter rig to the original couta boat lug-rigged main with its single halyard. This enabled him to work the boat single-handed, which he did until he retired in 1973, one of the last fishermen to still use a couta boat under sail. He worked cray pots as well as fishing for barracouta, and did everything as he was first taught, not moving with the times. He was always hauling the pots by hand and took the hooks off the barracouta by "arming' them (i.e. putting them under one arm and unhooking with the other hand). He did not bother to use any unhooking rail, or any other improvements. Jack changed the topside colour from white to black to hide the smudges that came off his tarred dinghy. ARIEL reverted to being a pleasure boat after Jack Arkell sold the vessel in 1979, and since 2006 is again rigged with a gunter mainsail yard, the original sail plan.

Boat Details
	Overall Stem Trans	79.200m	259' 10.1"
	Maximum Draft	10.700m	35' 1.3"
	Ballast Material	Cast iron
	Engine Make	Yanmar