Intro to the Boat: If you're looking for a general overview of the 424 design and the family of Pearson boats in this family (323, 365, 424 and 530), or where to obtain broader and more knowledgeable information on a Pearson 424, here are a few general references you should find helpful.

• Pearson 424 Newsletter - a semi-regular owners' group newsletter providing discussion of and suggested improvements for the 424. Contact Jane & Barry Cassell, 900 Swan Creek Rd, Ft. Washington, MD 20744, 301 203-4648 or jmcassell@aol.com.
• The Pearson Current - the newsletter of the National Pearson Yacht Owners Association (www.pearsoncurrent.com). Contact Bill Lawrence Publisher & President at 28 Vesey St., Suite 2172, New York NY 10007, 718 xxx-xxxx or pearsoncurrent@pipeline.com. This group sponsors seminars and offers a variety of other informational services; check the website. (Note: NPYOA recently sponsored a seminar on taking a production boat offshore and two of the speakers were 424 owners who had done just that, multiple times. You will probably find the speakers' comments of value if you have similar plans for a 424. The content should be accessible via the Current or on-line.
• Blue Water Sailing, November 1997 Issue: "The Pearson 424 is a sound trade wind boat" by George Day - a descriptive summary of the boat's design brief, strengths, weaknesses, and what a few knowledgeable owners have learned about the boat. Contact BWS at Day Communications, Inc. 5 Marina Plaza, Newport RI 02840, 888-800-7245 or daycomm@wsii.com.

Why we picked a 424 for East Coast and Caribbean cruising: We sailed an earlier boat in company with a 424 on a trek to the Caribbean, while it was being handled by a man and wife. Its low aspect, split rig seemed manageable, it had an elegant, traditional appearance to our eye, and gobs of room for either cruising and/or living aboard. Moreover, it had no liners inside (other than the shower stall) so access was reasonable, and the layout - U-shaped galley, chart table, comfy main cabin and cockpit, lots of ports and hatches - suited our preferences. 424's seem to be available from around $50K to well beyond $100K, depending on condition, level of fit-out and the desperation of the seller. We chose ours with an eye to moving aboard and also cruising her.

Modifications we've made to WHOOSH: First, this is very much a work in progress; please consider it simply a snapshot in time. Second, this isn't what anyone else SHOULD do with their 424, just choices we've made to date based on how we intend to use the boat. Our basic objectives are: a comfortable live-aboard lifestyle without large electrical generation requirements (and no separate generator), easily handled rig and self-steering capability, heavy duty anchoring system (with self-storing #1 chain rode), coastal and Caribbean passage capability and reasonable safety given these goals. Here's what we've done as of the date above, tho' it only scratches the surface.

1. An electrical upgrade with the help of Jack Rabbit Marine (and perhaps the longest boat project since Noah): 4 X 6V T-105 Trojan wet-cell golf cart batteries (local supply house @ $48 each) for 440 amp/hr capacity, coupled to a HiCap alternator, Link 2000R manager and a separate engine-starting battery. This is 'in process' so I can't report on its success (or failure, God forbid!) yet. We'll mount an AirMarine windcharger at the mizzen masthead (to preserve use of a mizzen staysail). They have a rep for being noisy but, before you condemn them, consider sanding each blade smooth, waxing them and carefully round the blade tips. If we were cruising Mexico, we might go with Arco solar panels but a windcharger seems the right choice for the Caribbean, based on our experiences with an Ampair 100 on the last cruise.
   
2. Air Conditioning: We installed a Mermaid Marine (Fort Myers, FL) 16,000 BTU heat pump unit in the hanging locker adjacent to the forward companionway, ducted thru insulated 4" ducting to each cabin. (If you were in Florida, you'd understand why I'm taking the time to discuss this mod!) Registers were made adjustable given the longer distance of some cabins from the unit. In Florida - in the summer - this is BARELY adequate, tho' with awnings up it works fine and I refuse to put two A/C units aboard what is supposed to be a cruising boat!
   
3. Refrigeration: We did two things in concert here, which seems to work well (even in Florida). First, I added additional insulation to the box's interior as we felt it was too big to be refrigerated on a reasonable electrical diet and we wanted to avoid being prisoners of running the engine daily (meaning the box must be energy efficient on DC refrigeration). I used exterior isocyanurate foam sheets and 'Good Stuff' spray foam from Home Depot and finished it off with PVC sheet (white, shiny, easily cleaned - ABS sheet would be another good choice). We chose an Isotherm DC-powered dual-speed holding plate-type refrigeration unit (distributed by Great Water in PA) which is water-cooled and runs at a higher, more powerful speed when it senses the engine is running and electricity is 'free'. We plumbed the water cooling system to our port fresh water tank, as we had success with that approach on our last boat - no thru-hull, little filtering needed, equal performance. I bent up an aluminum freezer 'box' that hangs on the holding plate. The icebox is now much smaller (a likely disappointment to some, I feel certain) but much more efficient, 'factory-like in appearance, and totally removable should we choose another approach at a later date.
   
4. Anchor Gear: The 424 we bought didn't have any ability to handle suitable ground tackle under cruising conditions, so we puzzled over this quite a bit. In the end, we chose a S/L 9555 Sea Tiger dual speed manual windlass, perhaps not the choice most would make given the selection of electric windlasses. We found this gear powerful and simple to use on our last boat, and wanted to avoid the complication and additional expense of an electric. The real question was how to mount the windlass and handle the ground tackle. In the end, we mounted a 1/4" stainless plate across the bow, thru-bolted on 3 sides to the caprail and stem. To this we mounted the 9555, the aft two 1/2" bolts (which take most of the windlass' stress) through bolted to the deck and a stainless backing plate. This is one of those 'you have to see it' things but it works well and is stout. The 150' of chain and 5/8" line on the #1 rode runs thru the plate and a deck pipe in the deck, and through a 4" PVC glassed-in tube between the deck and bottom of the anchor rode locker, depositing the chain onto a chain tray mounted on the overhead in the forepeak. Our goal was to get the chain to self stow and get if aft insofar as possible, so the chain slides aft, down the chain tray and self-stows just forward of the forward water tank. Finally, we mounted a 45# CQR anchor on a Windline stock anchor roller that is only cantilevered over the bow a few inches. A second parallel roller handles the #2 rode and Fortress or Danforth anchor, which is normally stowed in the anchor locker. This is an overly-lengthy description of a project that had several false starts and no easy solutions, but which is paramount to handling the boat safely.
   
5. Self-Steering: We're still working on this, as we have no autopilot installed and know we will want one for both the Waterway and motorsailing to windward when working our way through the islands. But we did add a windvane for extended sailing and chose a Sailomat 601. Almost everyone buys a Monitor but we've both seen and heard of weld failures with them, and I didn't care for the number of blocks required of their control lines. The Sailomat is another servo-oar vane but it is elegantly engineered, is very sensitive, and can be completely removed from the transom by slightly unscrewing a single bolt. If you're considering or already have davits, this is a vane that could co-exist with them so long as you got the dink away from the stern when using it.
   
6. After all that 'hardware' talk, let's mention software, namely Canvas: We found Steve White, a canvas designer/'artist' that works at JSI to install a sturdy dodger/bimini combination (in Florida, a bimini is not very optional) that would allow passage past the mizzen shrouds, be strong when up but removable in pieces, and which to some reasonable degree would co-exist with the mizzen. Many can stitch Sunbrella but it takes a gift to design the canvas components properly, and we were pleased greatly with the results. We ended up with Dark Navy sail covers and Cadet Grey dodger/bimini with Navy piping. The bits and pieces (windlass cover, etc.) were also in Dark Navy and we like the looks and function of the whole thing. It's made the cockpit 20 degrees cooler.
   
7. Small Pleasures: To date a few minor additions have had more impact than their cost or complexity would suggest, so they're worth mentioning. The first is DC lights by Alpenglow - a great product line of low-amperage, soft florescent overhead and reading lights. They seem expensive until you use them, and they do a good job of offsetting the dark, light-absorbing 424's interior. (Order direct from builder). The second is a Seagull IV water filter, which filters down to 1 micron and turns tainted water from the 424's fiberglass tanks into sweet tasting water that also makes darn good ice cubes. (Defender) The third was to revarnish both companionways (which looked terribly scruffy to begin with) and add Treadmaster pads on each step. The steps are far more functional and therefore safe now, and also look it. (JSI) The fourth was to remove the athwartships bulkhead above the engine and cut it horizontally into two pieces. Now access to the back side of the engine requires only pulling off the engine box lid and undoing two screws on the lower of the two bulkhead panels. And the fifth was to pick up an inexpensive cushioned seat with foldable cushioned back (made for the bow seat of flats fishing boats) and install it in place of the stool at the chart table. (West Marine)

There are a host of additional improvements that safety alone dictates but which we haven't tackled yet. Making the mid-cabin companionway hatch more watertight, adding hand holds down below and at the aft companionway, adding bails in the cockpit for safety harnesses, and so forth. US Sailing just released a paperback titled Safety Recommendations for Cruising Sailboats and it's as good a checklist of all the big and little things one should consider as we've seen - highly recommended. In time, other mods to WHOOSH will get added to this but, for now, these seem to be the ones worth writing about. We hope this has been helpful, but even more importantly, we hope you'll share what you've been doing with your 424 with us.

Jack & Patricia Tyler