Boat tests

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CJU

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I have just been rereading some +10yr boat tests and 'no way out from the aft cabin other than past the cooker' was always mentioned as a minus point. However it never gets a mention now, is this because it is no longer important or maybe there has never been a recorded incident of someone being trapped in an aft cabin by fire, so it isn't seen as necessary.
Also it seems aft facing nav stations are not very well thought of but does anyone know why, is it because of amateur sailors inability to orientate themselves or is it just uncomfortable at sea?

Any thoughts?
 
I don't really know, but two guesses on the aft cabin thing:

1) Big aft cabins were relatively newer, reviewers didn't really approve but couldn't point to much concrete reason why not, fire escape was a convenient excuse.

2) Maybe aft cabins now are forced by the RCD or similar to have an escape route (through lockers etc) so the issue doesn't arise.

Pete
 
Fashion! Certain ideas get into the discourse and everybody runs with them. Journalists like to have something to write about! Then something else comes in and crowds them out. Don't think there is any requirement for exit from cabins - you could argue it "makes sense" but you would probably be hard pressed to find any evidence of anybody dying because they were trapped in a cabin and could not get out.

The chart table may have a basis in fact in that some could be disorientated by facing the opposite way to motion while concentrating on detailed chart work. Also many aft facing tables use a berth as a seat with no back rest. Personally I prefer my chart table forward facing with a bulkhead for a back rest. However nowadays very little time is spent hunched of a chart worrying about where you are, so probably not a big issue.
 
It's easy to forget just how much time could be spent down below poring over a chart in pre-GPS days. Anything with an inboard often had a bit of a diesel or petrol whiff below too. One of the reasons I was often appointed nav duties was because I'm (touchwood) fairly resilient to mal-de-mer - it certainly wasn't for my navigation abilities. I seem to remember a lot more fry-ups in youth than in these health conscious days which may form part of the reluctance to be shut off by a galley. Nowadays the galley seems to be used for rabbit food a lot of the time.:(:(
 
How about the idea that it's not nice to squeeze, half naked, past a frying-pan full of sausages on your way to the loo? :D
Now that muesli has replaced fry-ups, it's less of an issue.
 
CJU said:
I have just been rereading some +10yr boat tests and 'no way out from the aft cabin other than past the cooker' was always mentioned as a minus point. However it never gets a mention now, is this because it is no longer important or maybe there has never been a recorded incident of someone being trapped in an aft cabin by fire, so it isn't seen as necessary.
Also it seems aft facing nav stations are not very well thought of but does anyone know why, is it because of amateur sailors inability to orientate themselves or is it just uncomfortable at sea?

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Sigma 38's!
 
Tranona said:
Fashion! Certain ideas get into the discourse and everybody runs with them. Journalists like to have something to write about....
Click to expand...


Glass size was a major gripe in the 70s and 80s. You would often read:

".....such large ports could be in serious danger of being stove in, in an open seaway" or perhaps:

".......the window glass is small and well suited to the man thinking of offshore passage making"

I am sure this is one of the main reasons why Sadlers (and many others) got lumbered with letter box size glazing. It has gone crackers now; don't know what these chaps would make of that Moody with the patio doors.
 
I guess there's an elementy of fashion here but speaking for myself I used to have a check list of things to look out for (physical list at first, mental after the first 10 years) which would include all sorts of things. After a while I stopped beating my head against a brick wall over certain things because a boat test that repeats the same stirctures month after month gets pretty dull and however much I/we complained, it seldom seemed to change anything.

Aft cabin access was a regular moan but when twin after cabins became popular you are a bit stuck - one had to go past the galley. And which would you prefer, teh very unlikely possibility of being trapped by a galley fire or regularly preparing food within a foot or two of the heads. Also, more boats have after cabin escape hatches these days

Large glass windows ere another regular gripe but improved building methods and stronger glass have made this less of an issue.

Access to seacocks and the engine, upward opening lockers, unfiddled locker shelves, poor grab handles and pillars, inadequate cooker gimballing; there were all sorts of things which were regular bugbears. In the end we felt that a better answer was to mention various recurring problems from time to time when a particularly bad example came up just to remind readers, and then to do regular features on good design where we could go into more detail about why some ideas were good and some bad.

On the subject of aft facing chart tables, personally I never had a problem with these but others did and it was accepted wisdom that aft and side facing tables were not such a good idea. Orientation of chart with direction of travel was the chief reason but I know few people who really turned left instead of right. I rather liked outward facing tables - they are easier to stand at, usually bigger and have a good area for mounting instruments. Aft facing tables have the advantage that the navigator and helm could more easily make eye contact and also hear each other better.
 
Current boat has an escape hatch into the cockpit but this was dropped on later models as apparently water could get in via the seals and owners objected to being dripped on.

There is another downside to them which is that in summer the crew - who beds down in there - shuts the door into the cabin for privacy and to shut out my snoring - then opens the hatch cover which leaves a total mantrap in the cockpit if you're half asleep. She damn near had a large crew member join her by mistake when he had his eyes shut and was ambling ashore for certain personal needs.
 
I think we each have different ideas of what feature will stop us buying a given craft. I admit that safety is something we have tended to take for granted, relying on the quality of the designer and builder.

For me, a major need has been to be able to move around the boat easily, and so have chosen boats with adequate decks and easy access to the saloon from the cockpit. This means that I have a boat with little in the way of a bridge deck, though I have the option of bolting the lower washboard in place, which I sometimes do. I have been on well-reviewed boats at boat shows where you have to be something of a gymnast to get from deck to cockpit and cockpit to cabin - often a significant problem with centre-cockpits.

We had an aft-facing chart table for many years in a Mystere. This wasn't perfect, but something of a luxury at the time and I can't remember ever having a problem orientating myself.
 
I have a 1984 Nauticat 43 with a large aft cabin but no deck hatch. In the event of a fire I would have to grab the 3 large fire extinguishers I keep in there (I am paranoid) and fight my way out. I am very conscious of this and I noted than many owners of similar boats have fitted a deck hatch of sufficient size to allow escape, and I plan to do so.

I was discussing this point with the lovely folk at Southerly at LIBS whilst wishing I could afford the new 420, and the chaps there were saying that the RCD says that any cabin that is a certain distance from a deck access point must have an escape hatch (he couldn't remember what this distance is).
 
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