Boat Overview
Stock #: NEW PICS 01/24/2019
Model: Orion
Type: Rare Blue-Water Cruiser
Designer: L. Francis Herreshoff
Year Built: 1978
Builder: Brinkley Boats at Greg Hudson & Company, Huntington, Long Island, New York
Current Price: Not specified
Sleeping Accommodations
- Sleeps four
- Main cabin: Two single bunks on either side
- V-berth forward: Sleeps two
- No galley as per tradition
- Head: Cedar bucket
Interior Features
- Floor: Varnished teak and holly
- Side trim and bulkheads: Varnished pine and teak
- Ice box: Custom built, finished in varnished teak with bi-fold top serving as a chart table
- Storage locker: Custom built with varnished teak bi-fold top and spacious shelving
- Sink: Stainless with foot pump (all plumbing replaced in 2012)
- Hanging locker
- Two shelved storage lockers; large hull locker and bookshelf along each cabin berth
- Newly installed bulkhead sconces above each berth for reading
- Ceiling lamp in v-berth and two in main cabin for nighttime lighting
- Custom built matching berth pillows and bumpers in traditional marine fabric and pattern
Deck and Hull
- Deck: White non-skid
- Topsides: Black (Awl-gripped in 2012)
- Bottom: Soda-blasted and sanded to bare fiberglass, professionally coated with 6 layers of paint (top-coats are Interlux micron CSC Green)
- Cabin top: 1" varnished teak with bronze oval opening window ports with screens
- Toe rail and cockpit seats/backs: Varnished teak
- Mast: Sitka spruce (professionally stripped and layered with 8 coats of varnish in 2010)
- All deck hardware: Bronze
- Lifeline stanchions and bases: Bronze
- Lifelines: Parcelled and seized with traditional tarred seizing
- Cockpit sole: Custom built teak floorboards
- Cockpit seats: Varnished teak locker covers with varnished seat backs in teak
- New tiller tender stored in starboard cockpit seat locker
Engine and Mechanical
- Type: Fresh Water Cooled
- Sea Strainer: Bronze Internal
- Exhaust System: Raw Water Cooled through Hose and FRP Water Lift Muffler
- Electrical System: Alternator
- Ventilation: Natural
- Reduction Gear: Volvo
- Engine Beds: Oak
- Instruments and Monitoring: New Stewart Warner Gauges
- Controls: Volvo Single Lever Cable
Running Gear
- Shaft: 1" Aquamet
- Coupling: Steel Flange
- Stuffing Box: Bronze/Flax Packing Gland
- Bearings: Cutlass Strut, Cast Bronze
- Propeller: 3 blade Maxi-Prop
Electronics
- All wiring replaced and new breaker panel in 2007
- VHF
- Speed
- Compass
- Knot Log Depth
- Furuno Chart Plotter
- Tiller mate (Raymarine)
- Custom Electric Windlass installed 2007
- Running Lights
- Anchor Light
- Interior Cabin lights
- 2 12 volt (DC) Batteries
- New engine panel in 2004
Rigging
- Sloop Rig with mast step on deck
- All hardware for mizzen mast and mizzen boom available (if desired)
- Professionally modified self-tending custom jib
- Roller Furling and Forestay Foil available in separate inventory if desired
Sails
- Dacron Mainsail (good condition, professionally cleaned and repaired every season)
- Three reef points on main
- Custom built (Sperry Sails) self-tending jib new in 2010
- Matching sail covers in traditional buff Sunbrella fabric
- All running rigging is traditional white 3-strand line appropriately sized
- Two cockpit winches, one on each side mounted outboard of the seat coaming
Cushions
- All interior cabin/berth cushions custom built [new] in 2007
- Cockpit cushions custom built [new] in 2007
- Covering: Buff Sunbrella
Anchoring
- Three anchors available
- Traditional Danforth installed on cabin top
- Custom bronze windlass designed and manufactured for Orion by Ideal Windlass in East Greenwich, CT
- Electric controls at the helm and foot switch forward next to the windlass
- 300 feet of 3/8 inch chain in chain locker fed through custom chain pipe with cover
- Bronze chain stopper and custom bronze bow roller
Other Equipment
- Plow and Fisherman's Anchors
- Fenders
- Horseshoe Ring
- Boat Hook
- Dock-lines
Additional Notes
Engine Make: Volvo diesel
The engine has two alternators; one each for the engine battery and the house battery. There is a Life-sling battery charger.
Recent Notes (Feb 2015) from Seller: The only features that might be added are a custom designed and installed Ideal electric winch with an all chain rode and deck step controls forward plus separate control at the helm. The propeller is a bronze three blade folding maxi-prop. These installations contribute to the fact that this little cruiser is very carefully maintained and is in showroom condition. The topsides were awl-gripped in the winter of 2012 and set off by the plentiful varnished teak trim, cabin-top, and spars. Orion is always one of the prettiest vessels in any harbor she visits.
I am fully aware that the market for this vessel is very limited. She is one of only three that has a fiberglass hull. Thousands of H-28's were built in wood as they were designed to be built. Those vessels are all over the world, especially in Australia and New Zealand. But they have no standing headroom and are confining. Orion has full standing headroom and very spacious storage and living space in the cabin because of the glass hull. It is a completely different boat below compared to the traditional wood build-out.
The other feature of the glass hull coupled with the period of her construction is that she is heavy for her size (12,000 pounds). That weight makes Orion the best heavy weather boat I have ever sailed. An experienced sailor and I sailed her west in Vineyard Sound and tacked through Quick's Hole into Buzzards Bay and up the bay to Marion Harbor in a 50 mph northeast gale that began the night before. The boat loved it but it was a wild ride.
The other feature of the weight is that she is slow until the wind picks up. Any sailor whose home environment has frequent strong wind and wants to be out in it will love this boat. Another feature of Orion that appealed to me and motivated me to purchase her is that she has almost none of the typical systems of small cruising sailboats; no head, no galley, no plumbing except a foot-pedaled fresh water pump. Her electronics are limited to cabin lights, running lights, and a few simple navigation instruments. All the wiring was completely replaced with a new panel in 2006. With the spacious and accommodating ice-box, Orion is a perfect weekender or a week if you are not cruising to uninhabited islands.
I have mounted an electric water pump on a piece of 5/8 thick plastic (for ease of handling) with a plastic shower head attached to a short piece of discharge hose and the intake hose pushed into the water tank fill pipe. I have a refreshing shower sitting on the cabin top at a sunny anchorage. (No plumbing; no systems; just the water pump that is stored in a locker!)
Her well-maintained condition makes her a MUST-SEE!!!
Contact Information
We are looking for people all over the country who share our love for boats. If you have a passion for our product and like the idea of working from home, please visit WhereFreedomTakesYou [dot] com to learn more. Please submit any and ALL offers - your offer may be accepted! Submit your offer today! At Pop Yachts, we will always provide you with a TRUE representation of every vessel we market. We encourage all buyers to schedule a survey for an independent analysis. Any offer to purchase is ALWAYS subject to satisfactory survey results. You have questions? We have answers. Call us to discuss this boat. Selling your boat has never been easier. At Pop Yachts, we literally sell thousands of units every year all over the country. Call us and we'll get started selling your boat today. Take a look at ALL 199 PICTURES of this vessel on our main website at POPYACHTS DOT COM. We appreciate that you took your time to look at our advertisement and we look forward to speaking with you!
