This post may not make entire sense unless you have read the previous post, Lose the fridge.
The comments I received on the previous post warrant a bit of a further explanation of my plans for Kudu.
A popular suggestion (well, perhaps mentioned twice) was to fit a bilge pump in the cockpit so I could handle the boat as well as the pump in case of an emergency. This is a sound idea, and I may fit a small one in somehow, but the main reason I must have a bilge pump in the cabin is because I don’t intend to spend much time outside of it.
Having recently finished Mingming, Roger Taylor’s second book and one that’s entirely about singlehanded ocean sailing in a Corribee, I’ve made up my mind that I would feel safer if I too had a “padded cell”.
Mingming has no campanionway as such, with the washboards being replaced by a big chunk of wood (from an old table if I remember correctly from the first book), and the hatch being a Houdini deck hatch that seals the cabin and makes it a watertight capsule.
I’ve convinced myself that this is a sensible thing to do, although I will get some sea miles in with the modifications I’ve done to date before I make such a drastic change, just to make sure I can definitely sail the boat from the “hatch” position.
The ‘mind maker’ on this decision was the memory of the trip from Anstruther to St Andrews. There will be some footage of the sea I experienced off there on the OnKudu DVD (when it’s eventually finished), but suffice to say, it was a big sea, and Kudu took a lot of green water over the coachroof, which then made it’s way in to the cabin. It was by no means a storm, it was around about a force 7, but I’m fairly convinced that the sea was big enough to make even “big boat” sailors nervous.
If the boat were rolled, or involved in a sufficiently bad knock-down, then the hatch would let in masses amounts of water. Indeed, in a roll, I doubt she’d ever come back up again so I’d rather have the inconvenience of a non traditional companionway in exchange for security at sea.
Have I justified myself, or am I making a bad decision? I doubt I’m going to change my mind, but do feel free to try.
“If the boat were rolled, or involved in a sufficiently bad knock-down, then the hatch would let in masses amounts of water.” Also pondering this point. If Kudu suffered a knockdown of 90 degrees, the hatch might just stay out of it. At 100 degrees water would leak in slowly if closed and should not stay there long with little sail up. At 180 degrees upside down water would fill to a point like an upside down glass with a chip out of it at the brim. Sinking deeper would reduce the righting moment at this stage. Would be good to slow any ingress of water as you say to maximise the righting moment potential and recovery.
I have no experience in deep water sailing but would offer these bits of information…..
Last year a friend of mine who sails the same boat as me (Fantasie 19) had a knock down – he tells me that the mast was parallel to the sea, but that he took very little water below and the boat came up and emptied herself comfortably – scared him senseless but he has huge amounts of confidence in his boat now…
Mine has two bilge pumps – an electric in the bilges, backed up with a manual in the cockpit….. I must check whether I too have a Y fitting
Speaking purely personally – I would want to be able to get out a little more easily than you seem to be describing – one assumes sail changes and other maintenance needs to be done – sometimes in rough weather – I don’t want to be wriggling out when I need to get out in a hurry…
I think Roger Taylors decision makes sense for the sailing that he does.
But from reading his website he seems to set off, make an offshore passage, but never actually land anywhere until he arrives back home.
I imagine the sealed hatch would be a great inconvenience to someone like yourself who likes to visit the places he goes to, say you sail to the Caribbean, then its going to be a right pain when your day sailing and cruising the area… I’d try and come up with a removable solution so you can go back to standard if necessary!
Hey, just stumbled on to this site and am enjoying it. I like your simple approach. Just a couple of thoughts for the bilge pump (edit : Actually abit of a ramble…) The 12v pump can go on the end of the hand bilge pump line to reduce the number of holes in the boat, but I would run another skin fitting on the transom near the middle up high, no chance of sinking the boat if it’s well above the waterline. Have a softwood bung handy if your paranoid like me. Also you can use the same bilge line for the inside and outside pumps, as you can only use one at a time, It’s nice to be able to pump and steer at the same time, even just giving it the odd suck to check the bilge is emtpty can be reassuring on a dark night when the self steering misbehaves..Oh and make sure that the 12v pump outlet is well protected from backflooding. I use a ball valve rather than a non return, (put the switch right next to the valve) otherwise one day the non return will stick open and then I will have lots of water in the boat, probably when It’s rough and blowing hard.
With hatches make sure it is easy to get in and out, dropboards are dangerous I feel.. too hard shut quickly, so there is a tendancy to leave them open in marginal conditions. (yes I have been very wet for many days because of the misguided beleif that the top dropboard wasn’t needed quite yet!) I like a strong hinged or sliding door, and I think for living aboard you don’t want a small awkward hatch, also with a spray dodger (a must have on a livaboard boat) you can’t go up and out. Look at what brent swain does, or some of the french boats solutions. I fitted a door that hinged down onto the bridgedeck on my Warsash One Design “Reiger”. Was very good for the 5 years I lived on her, and got me across the Tasman sea in the middle of winter.
I have an aluminium door sideways hinged door on Snow Petrel, with a dome on the hatch, and another on the dodger to look around. This has been good, but I want to change it to a vertically sliding dropdown door for the next trip, just to reduce the space used up by the door in the cockpit.
enough from me (or maybe to much from me?)
cheers
Ben
PS Get the third reef, but it is amazing just how a small corner of a rolled up headsail can still work, but a storm jib on it’s own stay is better. I have a solent stay that can be set just behind the furler. On this I put my light wx headsail and my heavy wx spitfire jib, but on your size boat thats two more bulky damp salty sails to put somewhere. In reality my Roller does 99% of the work.
I’m with Rich on this – the MingMing companionway is all very well if all you do is deep ocean sailing, but you also live on Kudu in marinas and docks where big waves are not part of everyday life.
I think the answer is to modify the companionway so that a heavy timber inverted-L-shaped cover (with hatch in the top) can be bolted over it when you set off on a serious voyage. Add a bead of silicone too, it’ll only take a few minutes to run a knife round it when you get to the Azores. But when alongside, or making short coastal day-sails, you can revert to conventional hatch and washboards.
Only problem I can see is that you couldn’t easily stow the armoured cover below decks, so you might need somewhere on shore to keep it when static.
Pete
Ben, that was long enough to warrant it’s own blog! haha. Thanks for the tips. A skin fitting on the transom would be ideal, but it’s going to be an awful lot of work to put it in. I filled under the cockpit with foam, and getting it out again to route a pipe will mean a massive amount of work, and some destruction of what I’ve done already.
To Ben, Rich, and Pete,
I’m still unsure about the hatch set-up though. Doors can be burst open, and washboards can fall out (and due to the thickness of them on Kudu could easily get smashed to bits). The only sensible option for blue water with such a tiny freeboard is a sealed hatchway. I’d rather have the annoyance of having to climb in and out of the boat, than the utmost regret for that comfort as the cabin is exposed to a big nasty wave towering above.
If it becomes that much of a problem, I can always redesign it (from a nice sunny spot somewhere South of England). The sealed in hatch is easy to make, and I do not want, under any circumstances, to use ANY of the approaching season for boat building. I lost all of last season, and it’s not happening again.
Ben, I’m going to be rigging a solent stay myself, although I shall have to make a post about that with a scale drawing as I’m not entirely sure how to rig it (in geometry/balance terms).
Cheers folks.
Hi, Thanks for your reply,
Full positive floatation? Nice. Well worth the inconvenience of a lazarette full of foam.
Wonder if you could run the hatch at 45 degrees so you dont have to climb right up to the cabintop to get out, and then you could still have a spray dodger of sorts?
Anyway sounds like you have the right idea. Something I need to remember.. to stop working on the boat and go sailing.
All the best
Ben
I’m not talking about doors or washboards. I was basically suggesting that you build almost exactly what Mingming has, but make all the new part removable, as one solid item, including the hatch on the top.
Not removable as in “take it off in the morning and put it on at night”, but “removable” as in “spend a morning in Ponta Delgada undoing bolts and peeling off Sikaflex”.
Pete
Pete, gotcha, and good idea. I’ll try to design that in, if I can.
Nathan, I’m in the same thought process as your right now! I’m in a situation where I want to make my small boat able to withstand a sea landing in the cockpit but I will also be using it to liveaboard when I travel. (Hoping to get away this summer as work has decided I’m surplus to requirements!)
(Although I certainly will try and make sure this never happens!)
But I don’t want to make the boat a pain to use in port, I’m thinking of some sort of hinged system and either a bubble on the sliding hatch or a solid dodger.
Either way IMO a hatch garage is essential, this stops waves that come across the deck, as they so often do, from finding there way under the sliding hatch and then down into the cabin. A watertight boat that’s dry below will make all the difference in bad weather!
It obviously needs to be rugged, and I’m thinking of some sort of bar that can be bolted across when inside to keep the door well and truly shut!
I’ll let you know how the design process goes!