Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

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Hulukupu
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Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Hulukupu »

The best first guess wins a beer at the Kona Brew Pub...

Last weekend I examined a full-keel monohull with a deck-stepped mast said to have arrived in Hawaii via the Cape of Good Hope. It is advertised as a 1962 Pearson Triton (west coast), but is not.

One can track it down on Craigslist (http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/boa/2010938331.html), but here are the details:

She is the same size as a Triton (more or less) with hull lines akin to Alberg designs.
There are no combing boards, toe rails or cockpit lockers (a la a J24).
The rudder post rises through the lazarette.
The propeller shaft passes out of the hull to the port of the keel-hung rudder.

Sorry no pictures beyond Craigslist.

The owner reports the hull number as: BNV225BR
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Tim
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Tim »

Going harpooning?
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Hulukupu
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Hulukupu »

Oh yes, it is cutter-rigged with an ample bow pulpit : )
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Rachel
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Rachel »

I'm going to say a Columbia 29 (original version, S & S, early 1960s).

That said, I can't remember if they had the prop shaft coming out to the side of the rudder; going to go check that. I may have to come back and amend my guess.

Edit:
Rats, I had a feeling that prop shaft was going to knock it out as a Columbia 29... drawings confirm that the prop comes out on centerline in that boat.

Question: When you say no coamings, do you mean they aren't wood? That there might have been wooden ones that are missing? Or that they are there but they are fiberglass?

Another thing is that it almost looks like it has an outward turning hull/deck flange, but I can't tell for sure.

Back to wracking my brain.

Rachel

PS: Other boats that went through my mind:

Seafarer Ranger 29: Does have side exiting prop, and forward port. Wooden coamings could be missing. However the rudder post does not exit through the lazarette.

Tartan 27: Too small, but they kind of look big, and the decks are on a level with the cockpit benches in the first iteration. Also the rudder post comes up through the lazarette and they have a similar looking hull/deck flange area. No side exiting prop though.

Doesn't look like an Islander. Not a Tripp design.

My next thought, because I'm not that familiar with them but they did make a few similar looking "not that many off" sailboats: Chris Craft.
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Rachel
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Rachel »

Now I'm replying to my own posts; does that mean anything?

But.... "arrived via Cape of Good Hope" ... that just caught my eye and I am now thinking maybe it is a British boat of similar vintage. The name Elizabethan 29 comes to mind, but I will have to go scope it out.

Edit: Okay, the ports are obviously all wrong. I still wonder if it isn't a British boat, and I feel like I have seen one that looks similar, but... can't think of the name

These threads are fun :)

R.
Hulukupu
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Hulukupu »

Thanks very much for wracking your brain, Rachel!

I'll try to answer your questions the best I can and add a few more details:

The are no cockpit benches, per se. There is a small cockpit well for one's feet and you sit on the deck- it looks like a J-24 to me. There don't look to have ever been coaming boards of any kind, wooden or otherwise. There is a substantial lazarette. Access to below the cockpit and lazarette is from either side within the main cabin where there is sort of a cross between setees and quarter berths with large access pathways aft.

The decks appear to be plywood cored fiberglass and, yes, it does have an outward turning hull-deck flange.

In the cabin, cabinetry and a minimal galley are amidships; there is a place forward where a head was removed and then a v-berth with two opening bronze side ports (more substantial than in any Triton I've seen) and the forward port that might be an add-on. The v-berth looks to have been used for tankage and storage primarily. Two foreward bulkheads appear to have been crafted from 2X lumber.

The auxillary is a Volvo Penta MD 2010. It is situated beneath the companion way under a removable wooden dome. The engine compartment is spacious. There's no bulkhead at the companionway to complicate moving aft. Access to the engine, prop shaft and stuffing box would make a typical Triton owner green with envy.

The cutter rigging looks like an add-on. The heavy-duty aluminum bow pulpit or "harpoon station" is balanced aesthetically (I guess) by an equally substantial stern pulpit with attached swim ladder (no place to put a windvane, that I could see).

I also thought of Columbia and Tartan, but ruled out the common production ones, at least. There's a rotten Tripp 30 here that I recently explored and so can rule it out as well.

The Seafarer Ranger 29 sounds interesting (what sort of keel does it have?) and I've not seen any pictures of Chris Crafts.

I agree that the Cape Hope story suggests it may have come from Europe and I first looked at older UK "Tridents", thinking that as the boat changed hands it may have become "Pearsonized" to "Triton". But the lines of the hull sure look like a Alberg design. How many variants of Cape Dory's were produced?
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Rachel
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Rachel »

Thanks for the additional details. The cockpit arrangement does not mesh with any of the US-built plastic classics (similar to a Triton) that I can think of.
Hulukupu wrote: The Seafarer Ranger 29 sounds interesting (what sort of keel does it have?) and I've not seen any pictures of Chris Crafts.
The Ranger is a Rhodes/Jannace designed early 60's boat, and has a cutaway "full" keel, very similar to the Triton. The ballast is external (on all of them). However many things don't match up at all with this boat, including fundamentals like the hull/deck flange, the cockpit arrangement, and rudder post/cockpit interface.

I no longer think it's likely to be a Chris Craft either, now that you've said more about the cockpit set-up.
Hulukupu wrote:But the lines of the hull sure look like a Alberg design. How many variants of Cape Dory's were produced?
I'm nearly certain that none of the Alberg/Cape Dorys had a cockpit arrangement like you describe, and they also don't have outward turning hull/deck flanges. Although I agree that the lines could look "Albergish," I also think they could look like any number of other similar boats from the era.

Rachel
Last edited by Rachel on Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Quetzalsailor
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Quetzalsailor »

Careful Rachel, none of the rest of us answer our own posts... :-) (My very first emoticon!)

This thing looks British to me. Those oversized ports did it for me.
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Hulukupu »

The closest I've come in terms of deck/cabin layout is the S&S Gulfstream 30 (http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=4777). It is described as a "fin-keel" but the diagram shows a full-keel and the rudder post rising through a large lazarette. The cockpit is small and the cabin layout matches the "Triton". Alas, it looks like it has combing boards and a prop centered behind the rudder.

I also found an interesting description of John Dockrell purchasing a S&S 38 mold and shipping it to England to start a production facility there in 1972 (http://sailboatdata.com/view_builder.asp?Builder_ID=364).

Is there a UK version of Plastic Classics Forum?
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Tim
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Tim »

Don't let the prop shaft location be a deciding factor in determining the builder of any boat. Shaft location is one of the things that one does find modified to a non-standard just often enough that it's a poor criterion for making any real determinations. For example, see the photo of a Triton below, modified to include a side-exiting shaft and folding propeller.

Things can be, and are, modified on many boats. Often, the modifications are drastic. These modifications can take away many of the things we think we know about any given boat. Cockpits, port location/style, shafting, rudders...these are all things that easily changed.

The one picture we have isn't nearly enough to make an intelligent guess on the make of the harpoon boat, unfortunately. From the description, it sounds like a flea market-sourced horror show with many modifications; the more mods there are, the less we can rely on anything we think we know about any given model of boat.
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Hulukupu
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Hulukupu »

Well put. I had not seen a Triton with an offset prop shaft until now. It appears as though one would loose some thrust to the rudder in this configuration.

Are plywood-cored fiberglass decks as prone to rot as balsa-cored ones? This boat's decks seemed solid enough to land a whale or two.
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Tim
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Tim »

Any deck that leaks is prone to potential damage from water.

Any deck that doesn't leak is likely to remain sound.

Keep the water out. It's not the core's fault (whatever material it may be)!
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stone
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by stone »

I cant tell from the pic but is that a full or fin keel? My 30' Chris has an outward turning hull flange. It does look similiar to this 26' Chris Craft.
http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=578
Hulukupu
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Re: Mystery monohull- Pearson Triton- Not

Post by Hulukupu »

The keel is like a Triton's with a large cutaway forefoot (that you can see in the photo) and the rudder attached to the trailing edge.
It looks more like the picture of the Chris Craft 30 (http://sailboatdata.com/viewrecord.asp?class_id=1342) but lacks the combing boards, cockpit benches and second set of forward portlights.
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