Am I alone ? Knowing cockpit lockers are a mess ?

[Refueler]

I turn out the ropes ... fenders ... junk that gets put in ... sort - discard useless ....

Only takes a short period, before its a mess again !!

Am I alone ??

 

[rotrax]

I keep mine up to scratch, but have the advantage of two floor lockers big enough to hold 10 large fenders each. I can get inside them easily to grease the steering and autohelm ram. One has the fenders, the other the inflateable pumps, dinghy and kyack paddles, brushes for cleaning and fishing gear.

I have two side lockers, one holds the shorepower cable, water hose, step-I'm a Shorthouse-a kneeling cusion and cleaning/polishing gear and has the shorepower and genset inlets and the RCD, the other the warps, cordage, spare fuel and motoring cone and anchor ball.

At the start of the season a good muck out and restow. Might restow or re-arrange during sailing if required, but not often.

 

[LiftyK]

I use a tall plastic bin (pedal bin with the top removed). It holds all the loose items that do not stack nicely. When looking for something it is easy to pull out the bin, rest it on the cockpit floor and then search in comfort.

 

[rogerthebodger]

I have fender baskets to hold the fenders on the side of my pulpit and pushpit.

https://flic.kr/p/WYNDw8

I also have line holders on the inside of my pushpit to keep all lines tidy.

I also have an anchor line reel mounted on my pulpit to keep my anchor line tidy. Chain in anchors locker

https://flic.kr/p/WHVPnJ

My cockpit lockers are still as mess full of other junk.

 

[ashtead]

Our large inflatable ,deflated in bag forms in effect the floor of one of our stern lockers and then crates and cans can stand on top -means you can lift out each crate which has a handle on top . A few small mini crates for items like hose connectors, brushes and spare power connectors.

 

[johnalison]

My cockpit locker is a model of orderliness. The things I use least are on top and the things I need are buried underneath them.

 

[Refueler]

I use a tall plastic bin (pedal bin with the top removed). It holds all the loose items that do not stack nicely. When looking for something it is easy to pull out the bin, rest it on the cockpit floor and then search in comfort.

My 38 has a bin in the transom locker ... its a pain ! and seriously thinking to get rid of it ...

The idea of it is good - but it takes more space than its contents.

 

[Thistle]

I have a couple of plastic crates and a couple of buckets. Keeps everything neat and tidy and I could pretty much find what I want in the dark if I had to.

 

[Refueler]

Boat is recent to my ownership ... so this is one of the areas that will evolve into my way of doing things .....

 

[shan]

We used these in our boat: Amazon.co.uk

Kept everything neat and tidy and they are stackable:

 

[Clancy Moped]

They are just not full enough to stop stuff moving around.

 

[LiftyK]

My 38 has a bin in the transom locker ... its a pain ! and seriously thinking to get rid of it ...

The idea of it is good - but it takes more space than its contents.

Fair enough. I’m fortunate that my bin is full and it takes up the entire vertical space in my deep locker.

 

[Refueler]

Fair enough. I’m fortunate that my bin is full and it takes up the entire vertical space in my deep locker.

The transom is that older style where it tapers aft .... large volume / floor area

The locker is huge spanning the aft cross-section ...

Its more than enough to have a dinghy rolled up and more ... but the bin is tall and can only sit in the fwd under bench section - closing off half of the locker. If anything is put in - then bin ... the bin has to be removed to get at the gear behind.

 

[Baggywrinkle]

As a rule, the bigger the locker, the more difficult it is to keep it organised. Was on an owner version of the Bav37 this summer and it had a huge cockpit locker instead of the port aft cabin ... 2 electric bikes, numerous buckets, fuel cans, ropes, anchors, stern platform ladder, dinghy pump, oil, tools, hose, shore power cable etc. etc. etc. ... it was a disaster and I hated having to fish anything out of it. If anything was dislodged it would fall to the bottom of the locker which entailed putting my entire upper body into the locker to try and reach it, or actualy climbing in to retrieve the wayward item from the bottom of the locker.

My own boat had 2 moderately sized cockpit lockers which were much more easy to organise. I knew where everything was and it was all easy to get to. Big enough for fenders, mooring lines, spare anchor + chain, buckets, hose, pressure washer, shore power, snorkelling gear, spare fuel cans, spare ropes - I didn't put anything in them that wasn't regularly used. "That might come in handy" or "Maybe I'll find a use for that" is a recipe for a cluttered and overweight boat IMO.

 

[scozzy]

Like houses,garages, sheds.....bigger they are the more c*** you end up with in them!

 

[Refueler]

Like houses,garages, sheds.....bigger they are the more c*** you end up with in them!

I'm one of lifes hoarders ... 'that will come in handy one day !'

 

[wingcommander]

I'm one of lifes hoarders ... 'that will come in handy one day !'

They only come in handy the day after you have disposed of it.

 

[john_morris_uk]

As a rule, the bigger the locker, the more difficult it is to keep it organised. Was on an owner version of the Bav37 this summer and it had a huge cockpit locker instead of the port aft cabin ... 2 electric bikes, numerous buckets, fuel cans, ropes, anchors, stern platform ladder, dinghy pump, oil, tools, hose, shore power cable etc. etc. etc. ... it was a disaster and I hated having to fish anything out of it. If anything was dislodged it would fall to the bottom of the locker which entailed putting my entire upper body into the locker to try and reach it, or actualy climbing in to retrieve the wayward item from the bottom of the locker.

My own boat had 2 moderately sized cockpit lockers which were much more easy to organise. I knew where everything was and it was all easy to get to. Big enough for fenders, mooring lines, spare anchor + chain, buckets, hose, pressure washer, shore power, snorkelling gear, spare fuel cans, spare ropes - I didn't put anything in them that wasn't regularly used. "That might come in handy" or "Maybe I'll find a use for that" is a recipe for a cluttered and overweight boat IMO.

Oh how true.

We have one cockpit locker that’s enormous. It’s so big that when it’s empty I can easily stand up with 1/2 metre of head room above me and I’m over 6’2”. It’s supposed to be organised but to get at some things a lot of other things have to come out.

Here is it with generator.

Here it is with generator but without other detritus.



We coil and hang all lines on toggles on the bulkhead within easy reach. This is one of the few things that usually works ok.

My main gripe is that the kedge is buried and I mean buried.

 

[B27]

I have a typical small boat with a chinaspacher in the locker.
In theory, my dinghy and outboard will go in the locker, but I don't run the heater with the outboard in there.
The fenders will go in the locker if either the dinghy or outboard are elsewhere.
The dinghy is sometimes lashed on deck, or in the cabin when we're not aboard.

The positive of all this is that the locker gets emptied and sorted quite often.
Most other 'stuff' has been re-homed around the boat.

 

[Kettlewell]

One of my to-do items this winter is to dig through my single huge cockpit locker to find out what is actually in there! I haven't been to the bottom in a long time. Obviously I don't use that stuff on a regular basis, but I find with stuff like that the day after I remove it from the boat is when I need it. A fellow boater once remarked to me that the purpose of carrying spare engine parts was to eliminate the need for that particular part because it is guaranteed the one that breaks is the one you don't have onboard. I suspect it is the same for the stuff in the bottom of my cockpit locker.