Most of the painting and staining is now done (probably all of it in fact, I'm sick of paint) so I have fitted the spray hood back on. They are ugly things, but very welcome when you need it. I have sailed with it in place, which is possible, but tricky in confined areas. The view is fairly restricted. It does keep the spray off if you are motoring into the wind.
There is a huge amount of space under the hood. I have planned to fit a tent hoop over the rear of the cockpit to hold an additional cockpit awning, but I am not sure it is really necessary. The hood covers half the cockpit as it is.
One trick I have carried over from my old boat is to have cleats at the midpoint on the side decks, with permanently fitted bow mooring lines coming back to them. I can moor just with the loose end of the line from that cleat, or unbelay it and pass it to someone for a tow (I've done that a few times when engines have failed). If I am single handed it menas I never have to go on the fore deck. My BayCruiser has got little closed fairleads in the bow which are perfectly sited to allow this, but I don't think they are present on the second boat.
No comments:
Post a Comment