Posted by Laurence Monkhouse on February 23, 2007 at 10:50:32 from 80.3.128.6 user Laurence_.
In Reply to: Re: The GOBLIN posted by Mike Field on February 23, 2007 at 08:05:41:
Self draining cockpits are in many ways yet another example of 'Health and Safety' mentality prevailing over common sense.
Certainly they are essential in many circumstances - if you propose to go Ocean Racing, if you are sailing round Cape Horn. But many of us don't do that sort of thing, and for normal family use a big cockpit has huge advantages.
Over the past 40 years we have had two 22 foot yachts. The late lamented wooden one had a huge cockpit which would comfortably hold half a dozen people if needed - as it was quite often. Yes, when it had been raining during the week the first thing we did when we went on board was to pump her out. Yes, occasionally we needed to pump her at sea, but we went through some quite bad weather without significant amounts of water coming on board.
Our present plastic boat has a tiny self draining cockpit - if more than three people are sailing somebody has to go down below or sit on the foredeck. Moreover those sitting high up in the cockpit - the floor of which has to be above sea level to drain - are much more exposed to the wind, spray and rain than in the old boat.
The new boat suits our present life style - she is less labour intensive, and these days usually there are only the two of us sailing. We never need to pump her at all because rain and spray drain out into the sea. But despite these advantages the real love of our lives was the old one, and the big cockpit was perhaps her greatest attraction.
It really would take a very long time for Goblin/Nancy Blackett to fill up with rain water - her cockpit is actually quite small. And twice in WD they took green water into the cockpit without any serious effect on the seaworthiness of the boat - a small amount of pumping was all that was needed. Arguably it would have been more dangerous for that amount of water to be held weighing down the stern while it trickled through the bathplug sized drains of a self draining cockpit rather than swiftly finding its way to a more central point in the bilge from where it could be pumped out at leisure.