The new ketch, built in Warren to a Herreshoff design,

has the worlds' largest one-piece hull of molded plastic.

STORY BY G. Y. LOVERIDGE.

PICTURES BY HARRY A. SCHEER AND EDWARD C. HANSON.

MORE than a year ago, a Warren yard began an experiment that may have an important effect on the building of boats for pleasure, commerce, and war. The product of the experiment, the 42-foot ketch Arion, was recently christened, and, when this issue of The Rhode Islander went to the printer, was expected to take part in yesterday's Off Soundings Club races off New London.

The significant feature is the hull, said to be the largest one-piece hull of reinforced plastic in the world. It has no frames; shape and strength depend entirely upon the material, a fabric spun from glass and impregnated with polyester resin. The 10,500-pound displacement is considerably less (about 5500 pounds) than that of a comparable boat of wood. The plastic is said to be proof against the damage done to wood by fresh and salt water, barnacles, worms, termites, and sun: Arion was built for Verner Z. Reed Jr. at the Anchorage, Inc., to a design by Sidney Herreshoff. Mr. Reed is commodore of the Ida Lewis Yacht Club in Newport, and treasurer of Anchorage Plastics Corp. The price was not disclosed, but it is estimated at about $25,000. Anchorage, Inc., has been building wooden boats for 25 years; Anchorage Plastics, a companion enterprise founded in 1948, has built about 500 reinforced plastic boats, most of them from 9 to 16 feet long, though two 36-footers for the Navy and one 24-footer for the Coast Guard have been built. Arion, according to Theodore F. Jones, secretary and general manager of Anchorage Plastics, was built "to prove a point" and he feels that it has been proved. Hulls of this sort he believes can be made as large as the facilities permit; though, for the present, he does not see a likelihood of anything longer than 100 feet for carrying personnel and cargo. Larger vessels for other uses will have to await further testing of the materials. "The hull was made in a female mold, with plywood frames, the spaces filled with plaster," Mr. Jones explained. "When the mold was completed the 'lay-up' began. We used successive layers of impregnated glass cloth, which looks and feels like white burlap. The cloth was pre-tailored to conform to the shape of the boat. "There are no stiffeners or frames of any kind in the hull. It is strengthened by varying the thickness in the proper places. At the sheer, or upper edge, the thickness is about 1/4 inch: It increases at the turn of the bilge to 1/2 inch and continues to increase-to about 1 inch at the keel-pad, where the lead keel bolts on. "Laying up the hull took about 10 days. A good wooden hull of the same size would have taken about 60 days, though it's not quite a fair comparison, because of the time it takes to make the mold. But the whole process is shorter, and the mold could be used to make five or six more hulls. "During the molding process, a bronze fitting in the stem, or bow, was imbedded for the head stay to be attached to, and the rudder post was molded in. When we took the hull from the mold, we just attached a chain…