Design and Construction
The Triton follows the Cruising Club of America rule, with low freeboard and a tall, rather ungainly cabin trunk needed to make headroom Cruising Club of America rule. The hull, deck, cabin trunk, cockpit, and toe-rail are integrally molded as a single fiberglass-reinforced polyester unit, and the deck carries balsa core. Hull thickness runs about 3/8-inch at the rail to perhaps 3/4-inch in the keel area, and a transducer hole cuts through roughly 5/8-inch of laminate. Earlier boats carried external ballast; from around hull #385 the ballast is cast lead lowered into the keel cavity and glassed over, which widened the keel. The builder claimed the below-waterline laminate was engineered so that a boat laid on its side with the entire weight on the keel and one square inch of hull would yield not more than 1/2 inch with no structural damage. Owners report the solid hull surviving a hurricane with only gouges, though some fibers were not completely wetted out and Practical Sailor found the deck weak in places, with areas parted from the hull. West Coast boats are all plastic while East Coast ones have wooden coamings and trim.
Rig and Handling
The Triton came with sloop or yawl options, the original sloop being a three-quarter fractional rig whose jumper struts make the boat easy to identify at a distance; a shorter masthead rig appeared later but did not perform as well. Yawl versions shortened the main mast two feet and the boom one foot. The long keel carries a well pared-away forefoot with the rudder beneath the helmsman, giving excellent directional stability and minimizing leeway, though there is a lot of wetted surface by modern standards. She heels rapidly to about 15 degrees then stiffens, is surprisingly quick for her short waterline which lengthens when heeled, and tracks well. With a large mainsail and small foretriangle she carries weather helm on working sails, and reverse handling is unpredictable because of the long keel and aperture-mounted propeller. The 30-hp Atomic 4 easily drives her at a little more than six knots.
Accommodations
Alberg noted that using fiberglass gave interior room about equal to a wooden 35-footer, and the boat accommodates a family of four to six. There is six-foot-plus headroom in the main cabin, though the step in the coachroof drops forward headroom well below six feet. The best interior feature is a pair of forward-facing opening portholes in the main cabin at that step. The head is private but small, and furniture is plywood under plastic veneer meant to look like teak. The icebox is plywood with only an inch or two of styrofoam and a side-loading door, though its upper shelf is reachable from the cockpit. Early boats had no headliner; later ones gained a gel-coated fiberglass liner in the main cabin, but the forward cabin in all but the last boats was left bare. A teak sole rests on wooden athwartship beams.
Known Issues
Some of the earliest Tritons had side-opening seat lockers dangerous unless sealed tightly. Early rigs used single lower shrouds that proved inadequate; after about hull #120 double lowers became standard with kits for existing owners, yet several rigging tang failures have been reported. Spreader sockets are aluminum sand castings that can break without warning. The deck-stepped mast sits on beams with insufficient load-carrying ability, and numerous owners report caving of the deck underneath; repair means unstepping the spar and fitting stouter beams. Internal-ballast boats show commonplace voids in the cavity. The bronze rudder shoe needs electrolysis checks, and the mahogany rudder with bronze drift pins cracks from wood expansion during haul-out, prompting many owners to build new rudders. A wet bilge rots the sole's supporting beams, and the main cabin windows sit on the border of too large, so storm shutters are worth fitting.
Refits and Ownership
Beyond rudder and mast-beam work, some Tritons have been repowered with Universal's four-cylinder diesel. The companionway ladder removes to expose the front of the Atomic 4 for fairly easy service. A few owners reshaped rudders by squaring and deepening the trailing edge to fight weather helm. The builder's claimed leakproof stuffing box and bronze seacocks speak to a simple, maintainable platform, and at least one Triton named Atom has circumnavigated with many others making safe ocean passages.
The Verdict
The Pearson Triton is a forgiving, seakindly small cruiser with genuine offshore credentials and a roomy cabin for its length, let down by specific structural soft spots and a rig that needs early-build scrutiny.
Pros
- Alberg CCA-rule hull with excellent tracking and a stiff, quick motion
- Interior volume comparable to a 35-foot wooden boat
- Proven trans-oceanic and circumnavigation record in a 28-foot package
Cons
- Deck weak and can part from hull; mast-support beams cave without reinforcement
- Early single lower shrouds, failing tangs, and breakable spreader sockets
- Rudder cracks on haul-out; side-opening lockers and large windows need modification
