Storage Upgrades
For a 1970s vintage cruising boat, the Pearson 424 came with better than average storage accommodations.  There are huge lockers behind the settee backs in the main cabin, large drawers under the aft cabin berth, and multiple drawers in the galley and forward cabin.  Still for extended cruising, and especially living on board, there can not be too much storage (that is not a true statement when it comes to optimal sailing performance - but that is not the subject of this page).
Below is some documentation on the storage enhancements I have made to Sarah.  Most, if not all, of these improvements were copied from other Pearson 424 owners.
Shower Locker. 
Click on picture to view at full resolutionOutboard of the fiberglass shower pan is a huge open space.  Most 424 owners have taken advantage of this unused space by installing a hatch in the shower pan.  I copied those installations on Sarah, using a Bomar access hatch.  It is necessary to use a hatch that seals water tight for obvious reasons, but it is not necessary for the hatch to be very strong.  The Bomar hatch I chose is probably overkill.
Click on picture to view at full resolutionBefore I can use this space I need to install a shelf, otherwise anything I put in there will slide under the shower and end up in the bilge.  In the meantime the hatch will give me access to the area behind the current shower mixer (really a sink faucet with a shower hose attached).  I intend to replace this faucet with a real shower mixer control, which should allow more accurate and quick setting of the water temperature.  Hopefully it will look a lot less klugey than the current arrangement.
  Mast Storage Baskets. 
Click on picture to view at full resolutionOne of the areas I have been repeatedly considering for its potential storage space is Main Mast in the cabin.  The dinning table surrounds the mast, which means the space above the table is largely unused space.  Especially the starboard side of the mast, which is not an effective walk space, and therefore anything hung on the mast would not interfere with movement through the cabin.  My plan has been to hang open baskets on the mast as produce and bakery product storage.  Until recently I had not been able to find any commercially available system that would work on the mast.  Just before my departure from Fort Pierce for the Bahamas, when finding additional storage space became critical, I noticed this storage system at the local Home Depot.  It is a wall-mounted storage system, normally for shelving.  However these baskets were designed for the same system, but only use one wall-mounted track.  This allowed me to hang them on a single mounting track on the side of the mast.

Click on picture to view at full resolutionThe track is mounted with machine screws secured to tapped holes in the mast wall.  The baskets slide into slots on the track.  To insure the baskets remain in the place, they are held into the track by a piece of shock cord running around the mast.
Click on picture to view at full resolutionI also used a set of short shock cord pieces to provided a hold-down over the open top of each basket.  Heavy items will not be placed in these baskets.  I intend to use them primarily for produce (onions, fresh fruit, potatoes) and bakery items (loaves of bread, sandwich rolls, sweet rolls, etc.).  I hope the use of these baskets will free up a lot of locker space for boxed and canned goods.
Under Shelf Storage Basket
Always looking for ways to increase the storage space on Sarah, I've tried several different ways to use the space at the foot of my berth in the aft cabin.  There is a deep foot well under the two large drawers on the aft bulkhead.
Previously I hung a couple of chart rolls with elastic cord in this space.  The well is tall enough that my size 11.5 feet didn't hit the chart rolls, even though I'm generally a thrashing sleeper.
In early June, 2008 I was in the Container Store (one of my favorite marine supplies stores) and noticed the Elfa under shelf basket system and realized the the shallow basket was no deeper than those chart rolls and would likely fit in the same space.
So I purchased a 45cm basket and the shelf mounts then installed the basket under the outboard drawer.
The basket is not a perfect fit.  It extends out from under the drawer by about 1 inch, but that is small enough that stuff will not easily fall out of the basket.
In the picture on the left I've filled this basket with underwear and socks.  The basket slides on runners.  There is a stop on the basket to keep if from sliding all the way out, off the runners.  I'll need to add some elastic cord to keep the basket secured under the drawer when at sea.
The picture on the right shows how much of the foot space the basket occupies.  I do not believe this will be a problem for me.  If I'm satisfied with this arrangement I may add another basket inboard of this one.
The first basket worked so well I've added a second.  This basket holds a full set of sheets and pillow cases.
Here you can see the runners on which the baskets are mounted.
Under Cabin Sole
There are two hatches in Sarah's cabin sole.  The aft one provides access to the Walter V-Drive and the engine drive train.  The forward hatch provides access to the bilge sump and the aft end of the encapsulated keel, where I have position most of the water pumps.  Between this hatch and the main mast step is a large area that is inaccesible.  This are is shown in the picture on the left.  Some of this space is occupied by the old shower sump, which is no longer in use but cannot easily be removed because of the lack of access.  I have long wanted to gain access to this area, but that would require cutting hatches into the cabin sole - something I don't have the skill to attempt on my own.
In March, 20 Sarah was hauled at Deaton's Yacht Services in Oriental, NC and I used this opportunity to have Deaton's cut the hatches in the cabin sole.  This seemed like the quickest and cheapest way to get the job done.  Deaton's would just cut out the hatches and I would finish them myself.  Someday I will realize there is no such thing as a quick and cheap piece of work on a boat.
In the picture on the right I have marked out the hatches I want cut beneath the dinning table, which has been removed.  This is to be three side-by-side hatches, each providing access to a portion of the area under the cabin sole.  When all three hatches are removed I should have almost un-restricted access to this new storage area.
In addition to these hatches I decided to also cut a hatch in the galley area of thecabin sole.  There is not a lot of storage space in this area, but the teak veneer has been delaminating for over a year and a hatch seemed like an easy way to remove that delaminated flooring.  Once again I was using the totally inappropriate word "easy" in a sentence describing a boat project.  I guess I'll never learn this lesson.
In this picture I have layed out the dimensions of the galley hatch.
Deaton's and I decided to start with the galley hatch.  Since I was not going to re-use this delaminated flooring any problems encountered could be overcome with brute force and no loss.  The boatwright began cutting out the hatch using a Bosch oscillating cutting tool.
After cutting through the flooring and trying to loosen the cut-out we discovered that Pearson had left a surprise for us.  As I was aware the flooring is made up of two layers of plywood.  The top layeer is 1/2'  plywood with the Teak and Holly veneer that is the finished surface of the floor.  Beneath that is a 3/4" plywood sub-floor that is structural part of the floor.  I had assumed that the two layers had been laminated together with glue and secured to the cross members beneath the floor with screws through both layers.  Thus, when those screws were removed and the flooring cut through the hatch sections should come free.
Not so, Pearson had secured the sub floor to the cross beams with screws, then layed the Teak veneer plywood on top of that and secured it with another set of screws.  So the Teak veneer plywood had to be removed before we could gain access to the screws holding the sub floor to the cross-beams.
Thankfully we started with the galley hatch for which I didn't need to retain the cut-out material.  Knowing the construction of this flooring will hopefully prevent inadverdant destruction of the panel in the table hatches and make that larger job go a little easier (again that word).
The picture on the left shows the galley hatch with the Teak veneer plywood remove and the sub floor exposed.
This picture shows the screw heads that secured the sub-floor to the cross beams.
Finally the hatch opening has been cut and I have access to the space on under this area of the cabin sole.  Not really that much space here, but the delaminated Teak veneer has been removed.
Now onto the hatches under the dinning table.
The next day work began on cutting out the hatches under the dining table.  Once again the way Pearson secured the two layers of the flooring made the job go more slowly than expected.  Also in this case I wanted to retain the cutout panels as the hatch material, so the boatwright was more carefull in removing the bungs and screws that secured the veneer plywood to the subfloor.
It took most of the morning to remove the cutout for the port side hatch.  Notice that the bungs and screws in the center panel have been removed.
By mid-afternoon all three panels had been cut out.
The inoperative shower drain sump, which appears to be glassed to the top of keel (thanks, Pearson).
When Mike Repass and were sailing to Portugal in 2005 we had very poor connections to Winlink and SailMail.  Finally in Horta we strung some radials off the antenna tuner and the SSB operation improved dramatically.  I always wondered why the radials were necessary.  Now I think I know.

That green mess on the right side of the picture is all that is left of the copper foil signal ground for the SSB.
Until I have finished the new hatches, this piece of plywood will suffice as a cover for the openings.