Aries 32 - Thistledown
On May 28th 2005 I bought thistledown, an aries 32. I will be outfitting this boat for cruising. She is currently berthed in Sausalito. You can find pictures by following the links to the right, as well as the mass emails I've been sending while cruising.
The aries 32 is a heavy displacement full keel double ender designed by Thomas Gilmer, and built by rougwater yachts. Thomas Gilmer was the designer of the allied seawind, the first fiberglass boat to circumnavigate.
My aries 32 was built in 1975 (by the numbers on the hull), but the ad when I bought it said 1976. Maybe the ad was wrong, or maybe it was built in 75 and launched in 76. The hull is made of fiberglass, and the decks are fiberglass covered plywood. These boats (from what I can tell) typically came with wooden deck stepped spars. I've seen at least one with a rotten mast; this one has an aluminum rig, which aparently was installed to replace the wooden spars in 1993.
These are the specs I've found for the aries 32 (by searching around on the net)
| displacement | 14500 lbs |
| lod | 31'8"' |
| PHRF | 240-243 |
| beam | 9'6" |
| draft | 5'5" |
| lwl | 26' |
| ballast | 7,000 lbs (from brokers listing) |
| builder | roughwater yachts? I've also seen "C.C. Chen" |
| designer | Thomas C. Gilmer |
| engine (mine anyways, and seems to be typical) | westerbeke 30, a 25 hp westerbeke four-91. This is an old leyland british taxicab engine. |
Here is the site of a sistership:
Rhapsody
I've read that the roughwater 33 is actually the same boat with a different name. Here is a review from sailnet.com of a roughwater 33. I've actually read that the roughwater 33, Southern Cross 31, and Weatherly 32 are all actually the same hull, same designer, built in the same factory as the aries 32, but with different decks. Can anyone verify this claim? I see two different factories in listings just for aries 32's, so I doubt the factory part.. but they are all thomas gilmer designs... and the hulls certainly look about the same.