Professional BoatBuilder - April-May 2018

14 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER

ROVINGS

thickness. One day, while working on the dinghies in Bris-

tol, Dr. Press Veltman of the W.R. Grace Co. walked into the

shop, chatted up Pearson, and o ered the resources of his

company in several signi cant areas. Pearson told him of

problems with gelcoat cracking, even with premium mate-

rials from Glidden, Schenectady Paint & Varnish, and Nau-

gatuck. “He taught me how to blend titanium dioxide into

an inert polyester,” Pearson said. “We started making our

own gelcoat that was better in gloss and crack resistance

than anything on the market.” And when Pearson told

Veltman about his plans for the Triton, saying he was

If one had to choose the most in u-

ential person in modern composite

boatbuilding, you wouldn’t lose any

points naming Everett Pearson, who

died on Christmas Eve 2017 at age 84.

Pearson’s six decades in the boat-

ing business began while he was a

senior at Brown University majoring

in economics and was captain of the

football team. He and cousin Clint

Pearson made a plug for an 8' (2.4m)

 berglass dinghy and to produce it

rented space in an old textile plant on

the Bristol, Rhode Island, waterfront.

 e Cub Dinghy was followed by the

Plebe daysailer in 1957,  ve run-

abouts and the Pacer ski in 1958,

and in ’59, most notably, the Carl Alberg–designed 28' 6 "

(8.7m) Triton auxiliary sailboat, o en credited with launch-

ing the  berglass boat into respectability. No longer were

critics saying, “If God wanted  berglass boats, He would

have made  berglass trees.”  e idea for such a boat origi-

nated with Tom Potter, a marketer associated with another

boatbuilder in Rhode Island that was already trying to

promote the Block Island 40 (12.2m), and not very success-

fully. Potter approached Cape Cod Shipbuilding and Spark-

man & Stephens, who each told him the Triton was a bad

idea. When he asked the Pearson cousins, Everett later

related, “Being young and not knowing any better, we

said, ‘Sure.’ ” Over the next nine years they built 712

of them. Numerous other models in sail followed,

plus a few in power that didn’t sell as well.

I had the privilege of talking boats with Pearson

on a number of occasions over the ensuing years.

One of my strongest memories is recounted in my

book Heart of Glass, in which Pearson debunked the

popular notion that early  berglass builders relied

on wood boat scantlings to determine laminate

Everett Pearson: A Major Force in FRP

Pearson Yachts was founded in 1956 by (left to right) Fred Heald and cousins

Everett Pearson and Clinton Pearson.

Above—Pearson Yachts’  rst boats were

small dinghies and runabouts, such as the

12' (3.7m) Pacer, shown here on top of

Everett Pearson’s 1950s-era Plymouth.

Left—The wooden plug for the 28'6"

(8.7m) Pearson Triton auxiliary sailboat

was lofted from the shop  oor in the com-

pany’s  rst facility, an old textile plant on

the Bristol, Rhode Island, waterfront.

COURTESY

HEART OF GLASS

, BY DAN SPURR (ALL)

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