Arion |
Pearson Ariel #371 was named for the mythical super horse, Arion,
who was the offspring of Neptune, God of the sea and Demeter Goddess of the
earth. My interest in things nautical, things of the soil and horses made this name
a fitting choice for my lovingly restored, Alberg designed, classic sailing vessel. |
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Arion Refit 2010-2011
New Cockpit
Drains
Ever since I became Master of Arion one thing has troubled me
about Pearson's construction of this vessel. It is the cockpit
and sink drain using a fiberglass tube through hull and no
seacock. This major weak spot has water standing in clamped
plastic tubing all of the time with no way to turn it off should
there be a failure. When I saw some refits of this system in
which the drains were replaced running aft just under the
cockpit sole to the counter above the water line, it seemed
much more sensible.
This plan took five years of thinking, re-thinking and planning
and about two weeks of work time to complete. So far so good .
It rained since installation Arion is quite dry. Now let's look
at the process.

This is the old through hull on the Port side. The white
vertical pipe is the cockpit drain line. The white pipe entering
the picture from the right is the sink drain. The gray ribbed
pipe is for the hand bilge pump.
Two main problems to overcome were firstly, my inability to get
into the seat locker through the hatch. This forced me to do all
work from outside the actual refit area.
Secondly , a previous owner had modified the lazerette deck
by glassing in some
wood that needed to be removed. This was
time consuming but necessary.
The hole refilled with expanding foam.
Cutting away excess foam with a multi-tool.
Lazerette deck replaced, epoxied in place and waiting
to be covered with a sheet of fiberglass and more epoxy.
This is the hole in the lazarette deck with the old foam filler
removed. The new PVC drain pipe is glassed in place
The new through hulls all painted up and ready for splash. In
this photo the boat still needs bottom paint and
boot striping.
This refit was less difficult than I thought it would be but my
inability to work from the locker space made it quite high on
the annoyance scale and quite challenging from an engineering
point of view.
Now to see if my expectations have been met when she
splashes in May.
The new drain under the cockpit sole, going back through the
lazzerette bulkhead. I cut an over sized hole in the
center cockpit support . Then added and an additional
adjustable plywood support to get the pipe to the right
level.
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Ready to Go ! Spring 2011 |
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Spring.....2013 |
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