The most awkward space you've had to climb into?

[DownWest]

Getting at the pedistal steering in 'Woodwind' (Andrew Braye's old boat) inching down the quarter berth until one could just touch the cranks, to try and figure out why there was a slight clunk on switching tacks. Had to be dragged out by my ankles. Never again.

Many barked knuckles from changing R4 starter motors. Still have the cut-n-welded spanners to make it less bloody.

 

[alahol2]

The anchor locker. Top access is impossible after age of 8 at least for the whole body and blood rush makes thought impossible with just head and shoulders.

And trying to grind out encapsulated nuts at full arms stretch. Three days work and a week to recover.

 

[maxi77]

No. 5 torpedo tube on a Swiftsure class submarine because it angles a bit downwards.

But that's probably the wrong sort of boat.

The back end of Warspites fin, though I agree slopey down tubes are not good, had one on RMAS Whitehead

 

[rosssavage]

B747-400 stab fuel tank, as the nominated skinny apprentice. Easy to get in (right to the tip of the tailplane) but absolutely b***dy impossible to get out again!!

On boats, got stuck in the engine room of an Ocean 42 when working alone. Always take my mobile with me now!!

 

[chewi]

We have a derrick at club that we use for stepping masts. The aluminium base has become perforated with age , so the buoyancy now comes from filling the 8 chambers with 600 25litre barrels.
Guess who climbed in through from one chamber to the next and kicked them all in place ..

 

[Tam Lin]

Realised that I am getting old when I had trouble getting into the bath yesterday for the first time in years and years! (Not allowed to shower at the moment due to minor op.)

 

[chubby]

No sailors expand: got into stern locker before Christmas a few years ago to get the Eber out, after Christmas couldn`t get back in to refit!

Cockpit lockers shrink!
Every year it gets more difficult to get into mine, even more tricky to get out.
A job I've been dreading is fitting a heater exhaust into the transom of my UFO 31. Can I hire a trained gibbon from somewhere?

 

[chewi]

No sailors expand: got into stern locker before Christmas a few years ago to get the Eber out, after Christmas couldn`t get back in to refit!

No sailors expand.
or
No! Sailors expand?

Punctuation is....
the difference between knowing your s**t and knowing you're s**t!

 

[saltylegs]

I have expanded a bit since the mid 80's but back then i decided to play hide and seek on an Impala on the trip to Cork week, Whenever they gave up (or thinking I must have gone overboard) I climbed out of the closed anchor well and roller skated down the deck (I get bored easily).

 

[Davegriff]

And trying to grind out encapsulated nuts at full arms stretch.

Ooooer!

 

[Seajet]

The anchor locker of an Anderson 22; there's a certain modification which has to be carried out, the only fault on the boats - but fortunately most are done now.

It involves lying on the foredeck on one's back with head and shoulders inverted inside the locker, then attacking very solid grp with a Dremel or similar - as if doing my boat wasn't bad enough I stupidly offered to do someone elses, nearly killed me.

However anyone who has worked on a Hawker Hunter ( Sydney Camm may have designed good aircraft but had no consideration for working on them ) and later did plumbing for 5 years gets to try a lot of unpleasantly confined spaces.

 

[michael_w]

Changing the oil filter on a mate's Najad 460. Had to lie on the saloon sole and I could just reach the filter with my fingertips. All the maintenance items on the engine are inaccessible. If the numbskull interior designers had reversed the layout of the boat a hatch could have been fitted easily. This is a newish boat FFS!

 

[laika]

Interesting phenomenon of working in confined spaces at this time of year. Last night I was expending a lot of energy on reconnecting all the heads plumbing. Got very warm and,as did the confined space around me but then very odd feeling walking back through a freezing cabin to get hose clips/sockets/screwdrivers. I imagine it's what that sauna/plunge pool thing is like...

 

[onesea]

Despatch skinny early teenage son into the gap so he can lie across the tank and reach. Job jobbed!
I hope I never have to get there again 'cos he wont fit there now, nor will his little sister.

At least you realized, unlike my farther. I spend 20 minutes of my youth kicking and fighting to get out of a cockpit locker that I had been in the previous years. I had grown I was stuck!

One of the things that attracted me to present boat was that I can get to all the spaces without to much difficulty. Although the much requited paint will be a different story...

 

[jac]

Think there might be a market here for yoga / escapology classes for boat owners.

 

[sailorgirl]

The Skipper proving he can undo the bolts that hold the windless in place

 

[DownWest]

A local forumite was in the cockpit locker of his Westerly, when the lid shut....and latched. No phone and nobody near. He realised he had a screwdriver and managed to unscrew the access panel to the engine compartment and somehow squeeze round the engine and out the other side. About two hours work.

 

[jellyellie]

A local forumite was in the cockpit locker of his Westerly, when the lid shut....and latched. No phone and nobody near. He realised he had a screwdriver and managed to unscrew the access panel to the engine compartment and somehow squeeze round the engine and out the other side. About two hours work.

Blimey, that's quite a good one! My favourite so far!

 

[VO5]

That is why cockpit locker lids should be fitted with a lanyard, so it is made secure in the open position without risk of it slamming shut.

 

[Kelpie]

Another front-tank-of-a-Wayfarer here. I wanted to do some fibgreglass work and stupidly wriggled in with a bottle of acetone and a rag. I wriggled back out extremely quickly when I realised my mistake!