PY for Arden 4

[DerekM]

anyone know of the PY for an Arden 4? Around 82 made and most apparently still afloat. An ageing long keeler with a 53% balast to weight ratio so obviously not a speed machine, but I enjoy following others around the cans and she gives them a run for their money in a good wind. Having a PY rating would add to the fun.

 

[Egbod]

Hi, have a look at the Byron website. They list a Arden Clansman with a fin keel and an inboard engine with a fixed 2 blade prop having a PN of 1107. You may find a similar boat to yours to give you some idea.
see- http://www.byronsoftware.org.uk/bycn/byboat.htm

 

[kds]

"ageing long keeler with a 53% balast to weight ratio "

I think you underate your boat - it was regarded as fast in its time and with a decent set of sails should certainly hold its own in a modern cruiser fleet on a PY of around 1120 ?
Ken

 

[Bodach na mara]

How good at maths are you? You could try the Clyde Cruising Club database at http://www.cyca-online.org.uk/cgi-bin/CSV_search.pl?database=webclasses
This will give you the time correction as 26 minutes to be subtracted in each hour of elapsed time. Now find a boat for which a PY is known. Unfortunately I do not know of any, and the numbers quoted seem very different from my memory (GP 14 was 102 I think) so I cannot give a worked example of the conversion. I did a small project on this at training college 42 years ago, so the conversion was within the scope of a trainee teacher.

 

[DerekM]

Thanks folks, I'll follow up the suggestion re the Byron site. In describing Iona as an ageing long keeler, I was in no way disparaging her. She is strongly built, a great sea boat well maintained over the years, and gives much pleasure. In a good wind, her turn of speed is impressive, and with her high ballast to weight ratio, other, much more recent and thus often lighter boats have to take a reef in just as we really get going! I suspect her rating will be higher than the Arden Clansman so once we have a py no. we may even upset a few of the regular racers!
Thanks again
Derek

 

[Aja]

One of George Hulley's finest.

He's still in business in Dumbarton if you need to chat to him about anything ...

There is also a CYCA to PY converter Here which should allow you to get racing!

Regards

Donald

 

[Steviecracknell]

Hi Derek,
I also have the good fortune of owning an Arden 4. I purchased her this year, and unfortunately requires a full restoration to resurrect her back to her former glory. At present I am sailing on the clyde, and find her to be an excellent sea boat that copes extremely well in rough seas, has the characteristics of a bigger boat, the heavy ballast obviously helps. I'm a bit disappointed there isn't a bigger following for such an iconic boat, ( in my opinion ) that was built on the clyde, by Mr Hulley and co. I will be sailing this season, and lifting her out in September to restore her, hopefully returning her back to the clyde next season. I don't race, but just to let you know, I've had 6.5 knots while sailing around Cumbrae on a broad reach, handled really well.

Cheers Stevie.

 

[DerekM]

Arden 4

Hi Stevie, just browsing through old posts on the Arden 4 and just remembered that I hadn't mentioned that sometime in the second half of the 60's one of the sailing magazines, I think it might have been Yachting Life, voted the Arden 4 the "Cruising Yacht of the Year". I have a feeling PBO has a service that can retreive copies of boat reviews including that one. Hope the refit went well and that you are still enjoying her as much as I am here on the Tay estuary. There are two of us berthed here in Tayport.
Good Sailing,
Derek

 

[Steviecracknell]

Arden 4

Thanks for the info. Check out my latest post, "Wish list", what do you think, is it worth the time and money to modify something that works perfectly well. By the way, I've just started laying up the big holes in the keel, (12 in total) it's definately been an experience.
Cheers Stevie.