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.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   
  Ready to Go !      Spring 2011  
     
   
  Spring.....2013