Before selling my Ariel to get into the International One
Design Class, my wife and I went for a sail with Carl
Alberg on his Commander 302 in Marblehead Harbor, MA. We went to his house
for drinks and then dinner
at the Boston YC. Carl recounted how the Pearsons
got a good start in building fiberglass boats with the
aid of the Portuguese from the Cape Verde Islands.
They had a terrible hurricane that damaged all of their
homes so the men came to Bristol, RI and built boats
to earn money to go back and rebuild their homes.
He pointed out that the Typhoon had to have its
freeboard raised 2 inches so that he could make
the cockpit self-bailing at the builders insistence and
against his wishes. He thought that that made
the boat less appealing aesthetically.
-- Milton Thrasher
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