Deep and seaworthy cockpits

[Nick_Pam]

AWB???

OPk - I'll show my relative newbie-ness........what's an AWB please???
Nick

POSTSCRIPT>>>>>
OK - so I hadn't read all the post when I typed my question.....please ignore me!!!

<hr width=100% size=1>Is it really 42???

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Nick_Pam on 05/07/2004 14:49 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[ranga]

I have a very deep cockpit (where we basically are standing at sea level and the cockpit combing is waist height...and I am 6'8'') and wondered also whether if it came to really bad conditions the amount of water it could hold would make me wish it were of the open draining type.

My concerns were tested on a 5 week trip from Cape Town to Fremantle where we encountered various gales, and were pooped quite bad a couple of times where the cockpit was basically full of water.

Results of test:
1. Even with what I thought were fairly small drains the water drained away within a couple of minutes.
2. We would have been pooped many more times had the stern been open and backside been wider.
3. Washboards needed to be in most of the time (never had to have them in ever before!)
4. The deep cockpit offers so much security in rough weather.
5. My greatest fear in the following seas in the gales was that we would surf (small rudder, hull shape etc). With a narrow stern, reducing sail to just the storm jib meant that the boat did not ever feel in the slightest that it would surf (even in the worst conditions) and I could sleep soundly.

We never had extreme conditions (nothing over F9), but what we did have made me happy to have a deep secure cockpit - with narrow stern.

<hr width=100% size=1>