Why do Mystery 35s not have spray hoods?

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Quandary

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Painting the inside of the porch today, blowing hooligans and sheeting down outside, when a couple of boats went by. First was a Mystery 35 closed up tight with rain lashing over the coach roof and a stoical helmsman dripping on the tiller. A much newer one went by the other way during the week in more benign conditions and it did not have a hood either. Unusual surely, for what is a relatively modern design? Even Sigma 33s tend to have hoods these days for when they go cruising, it must be a pain having to take the washboards out every time you want to light a fag.
So, is it because these boats are sailed by real old salts who will have no truck with feminine fripperies and smoke their pipe upside down or did someone make a dreadful mistake when they were positioning the winches?
 
Well, the one on display at Southampton had one. Bet the salesman is grateful for it this afternoon - it is p**ing down at the moment.

Could be, though that the owners ran out of money going down the extras list before they got to that item!
 
It has always amused me the way a lot of people think sprayhoods are essential; if they and dodgers were solid grp people would say ' what a shocking motor-sailer tub, think of the windage ! ' but somehow as it's soft fabric it's OK...I suspect the sort of people who buy sailors' boats like Mystery's are indeed a bit on the purist side.
 
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Seajet said:
It has always amused me the way a lot of people think sprayhoods are essential; if they and dodgers were solid grp people would say ' what a shocking motor-sailer tub, think of the windage ! ' but somehow as it's soft fabric it's OK...I suspect the sort of people who buy sailors' boats like Mystery's are indeed a bit on the purist side.
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I sailed for about twenty years before I owned a boat with a sprayhood: then, when we got our Sigma 38, we were returning down the N. Channel from our first Scottish series in her, racing had been cancelled and conditions were far from nice. We dragged it out and struggled in the howling wind to put it up as we rounded Skipness Point and even standing at the back of the cockpit I immediately found the benefit, it also meant that the off watch crew could go below without having to be shut in and it was easy to keep a constant supply of hot drinks coming out all night. Now on this boat I never take it off and it is only folded down when the wind is from behind or the sun is out. I suspect my wife would not want to face sailing far these days without it, but then conditions are probably a lot more benign on the East Coast. Because it is warm up here in summer when we go cruising the wash boards can stay out at night as long as the hood is up, I definitely would not buy a boat that needed to be shut up tight to keep the rain out.

I knew you guys could prove that some Mysterys have hoods but why not most of them?
 
Seajet said:
It has always amused me the way a lot of people think sprayhoods are essential; if they and dodgers were solid grp people would say ' what a shocking motor-sailer tub, think of the windage ! ' but somehow as it's soft fabric it's OK...I suspect the sort of people who buy sailors' boats like Mystery's are indeed a bit on the purist side.
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On a lot of boats if spray hoods were fibre glass they would be a lot cheaper to run. Most cruisers don't fold their hoods, so a GRP one would mean you didn't have to replace it every few years at exorbitant cost.

Mine is never folded. I do think on a cruising boat a spray hood is essential or at least very desirable, on the...any **** can be uncomfortable...principle.
 
Vara said:
On a lot of boats if spray hoods were fibre glass they would be a lot cheaper to run. Most cruisers don't fold their hoods, so a GRP one would mean you didn't have to replace it every few years at exorbitant cost.

Mine is never folded. I do think on a cruising boat a spray hood is essential or at least very desirable, on the...any **** can be uncomfortable...principle.
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Any **** can operate the boat as the designer intended without adding windage, you mean ? :rolleyes:

One thing's for sure, the idea that people who can afford Mystery's can't afford sprayhoods is laughable; the boats don't have a couple of treble bunk aft cabins either, it will appeal to a different sort of sailor, not ' Swmbo's choice of the boat show '.
 
Quandary said:
I sailed for about twenty years before I owned a boat with a sprayhood: then, when we got our Sigma 38, we were returning down the N. Channel from our first Scottish series in her, racing had been cancelled and conditions were far from nice. We dragged it out and struggled in the howling wind to put it up as we rounded Skipness Point and even standing at the back of the cockpit I immediately found the benefit, it also meant that the off watch crew could go below without having to be shut in and it was easy to keep a constant supply of hot drinks coming out all night. Now on this boat I never take it off and it is only folded down when the wind is from behind or the sun is out. I suspect my wife would not want to face sailing far these days without it, but then conditions are probably a lot more benign on the East Coast. Because it is warm up here in summer when we go cruising the wash boards can stay out at night as long as the hood is up, I definitely would not buy a boat that needed to be shut up tight to keep the rain out.

I knew you guys could prove that some Mysterys have hoods but why not most of them?
Click to expand...

Could it be that some owners of Mysterys and boats without spray hoods are either Misogynists or Masochists or both!

I am sure most spray hood critics are Mysogynists or have a penchent for cold showers! The additional warm comfort zone that even a small spray hood gives is enough to keep some couples sailing together when cold and damp affects their joints!

The only problems with a spray hood is its height is either too high for some or too low for others finding a compromise that works for visibility and comfort is sometimes difficult. The other problem is they can severley restrict movement forward especially on smaller boats which have narrow side decks.
 
TSB240 said:
Could it be that some owners of Mysterys and boats without spray hoods are either Misogynists or Masochists or both!

I am sure most spray hood critics are Mysogynists or have a penchent for cold showers! The additional warm comfort zone that even a small spray hood gives is enough to keep some couples sailing together when cold and damp affects their joints!

The only problems with a spray hood is its height is either too high for some or too low for others finding a compromise that works for visibility and comfort is sometimes difficult. The other problem is they can severley restrict movement forward especially on smaller boats which have narrow side decks.
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My chum with an Anderson 22 has one of those small sprayhoods which just goes over the main hatch, he doesn't use it.

Another chum has one on his Centaur and it's a pain, completely messes up vision from the cockpit.

I think you need to look up ' mysogenist ', even my ex' didn't like sprayhoods; we just use/d decent waterproofs. :)
 
The 'windage' idea is the sort of total ballox that you only find in here, we sail our Finngulf with the hood both up and down racing and cruising and there is no discernable difference in speed or vmg either upwind or down, (though our log only reads to a tenth of a knot). Admittedly the hood is narrower than average and we do not use dodgers. Because the boat is usually steered from the coaming it does not obstruct visibility either. The main reason to put it down is to increase cooling on a hot day.
There is always an obtuse viewpoint but if hoods were such a bad notion 95% of serious sailors would not be using them.
 
We do occasionally drop the sprayhood for day sailing and racing, but this is for convenience and visibility, not windage.
I would seriously consider a fixed windscreen, HR style, as I think it would give much better visibility than slightly wrinkled vinyl does.

If anybody wants to lend me their HR so that I can see whether this is true, that would be just fine!
 
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