REVERSIBLE WEATHER CLOTH
©
2013 Tor Pinney - All Rights Reserved
A simple fabric curtain
that you can switch from one side of the cockpit
to the other will help keep you dry when the spray is flying.
When sailing to weather
offshore in a blow, cresting waves can send buckets of seawater
flying into the cockpit. Repeated faces-full of salt water gets
real old, real fast. You have to wear a full suit of foul
weather gear just to sit out there.
Some people pay big bucks to
install clear side curtains all the way around, turning the
cockpit into a cozy cabin. I tend to stay in the tropics, so I
don't need a full cockpit enclosure. Instead, I've come up with
a cheap, practical way to keep my crew and cockpit cushions dry
while sailing to windward offshore.
My weather cloth, as I call
it, is simply a heavy-duty Sunbrella panel with lots of snaps, a
few grommets, and a couple of vinyl windows in it. It snaps in
place along the windward edge of Silverheels' bimini top
and the outboard base of her cockpit coaming. The forward edge
snaps to the spray dodger. Aft I simply lash it to the bimini
support frame. I only set it up on long windward tacks at sea,
which can last for days. When it is time to tack, moving the
weather cloth to the other side of the cockpit only takes a
minute, even in a blow.
It's easy to incorporate
slits or cutouts in the panel to accommodate winch handles,
sheets and so on. Adding one or two vinyl windows so
watch-keepers can check the windward horizon without getting a
face full of spray is definitely worthwhile.
Now, every time a sea crest
smacks into the weather cloth, I feel a smug glow of gratitude
to be sitting dry and comfy in my sheltered cockpit.
~
End ~
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