11ft2in AeroCraft Petrel Sailboat

So far I can find no information on this boat. There is a reasonable amount of info on the AeroCraft company and its canoes and outboard powered boats but can find nothing on this boat. It is 12 fooi 2 inch by 5 foot beam, sloop rigged with a 20 foot mast and a large jib ( for this size boat ) Would love some history. Will get some photos with boat rigged in a bit.

Added 4-13-2011
There is a 313 lightly engraved in the right rear rubrail cap casting but not on the other. Makes me think it might be a boat number and not a part number. but as it is very faint it could be nothing significant also.

The mainsail has a ghost of the number 189 on it where press on numbers once were. The sails were made in Canada by C.D.S. I haven't located any info on them either.

April 23rd, 2011 07:31 PM #14

That reference to an aluminum sail boat you can just make out in the photo of the price list on eBay looks real promising. The only other AeroCraft sailboat reference I've found so far is the ugly fiberglass tub in the 67 catalogue scans on FiberClassics. Thanks for the link.

Update:
I went for it and bought the 69 catalogue on eBay. I have looked at everything on FiberClassics doing my research and will get them scans of this cat. Hope this is it. Was starting to give up hope at finding this boat's history

Update 2, May 29
I just now opened the package. The 1969 color catalogue has no photograph of an aluminum sailboat or any mention of one. However, the 1969 price list sheet attached to the catalogue has a very clear text listing for " Aluminum Sail Boat, Petrel SB 12, 879.00 Complete with sails, Contact sales office for more information. "

Since there are no photos in the color catalogue I would guess this was the first year for the aluminum sail boat and was produced too late to be included in the color catalogue. But there are four fiberglass sail boats listed in the price sheet and none of them are shown in the color cat either. Browning Arms had recently bought AeroCraft also.

Added info: This boat seems to actually be the Petrel 12 designed by the famous Philip Rhodes in 1966 and built in some quantity by the Aluminum Company of Canada
http://astro.temple.edu/~bstavis/pr/petrel.htm
I assume it was distributed by AeroCraft through some deal with AlCan

====

May 3rd, 2011 10:35 PM #15
Default Re: Mystery AeroCraft Sailboat

Added 4-29-2011
Mystery Solved. Under the AeroCraft decal is actually a Petrel 12 designed by the famous Philip Rhodes in 1966. Thanks go out to "silver_bay" (see above) for the lead to the add on eBay I will post more photos as time goes on

I would still like confirmation of the original colors. I think that the hull was white and the deck was red. But I am totally stripping the paint you see in the photos above and thinking of leaving the outer hull bright aluminum under a clear polymer sealer

====

June 17th, 2011 01:45 PM #16

Finally got the boat in the water. Too late in the day and winds too light but hey it was salt water and any time out is good. Very stable, dry boat. Sails so flat in light winds you really want a bit more breeze then you would expect with most boats in the 12 foot range. Gonna try for another day out early next week.

Have stripped most of paint in the photos. You can see part of the massive 1/4" aluminum plate centerboard in the close up photo. Part of the high stability in this boat

First sail of my Petrel 12 sailboat designed in 1966 by world famous yacht designer Philip Rhodes. I'm not sure how many were produced but I know the number excedes 2000 and this was the 8th hull built. Originally owned by the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets at Dows Lake in Ottawa, Ontario, these boats are all aluminum and unsinkable and were built by ALCAN (Aluminum Company of Canada Ltd.) and sold in the U.S. under the name AeroCraft which was a Michigan company.

Owners' copyrights apply to all images.

Return to AeroCraft boats home page