Quote:
Originally Posted by stevewrye
One little thing that has been amazing that we had put on our Boreal were wave brakes for the forward hatches. An old idea that is rarely used anymore but boy do they work wonderfully when going to weather!
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One of our requirements is to have a leakproof boat. People often comment that cruising should not be like camping. Anyone who has been camping will tell you that a leaking tent is the pits. Surprisingly, with a long rough
offshore passage very few boats are completely leak free.
Salt water leaks are much worse than rain when camping. If
salt water drips on foam
cushions the foam absorbs both the
salt and the water. You can dry them out, but the
salt remains. It requires a lot of freshwater and patience to get this salt out. The salt attracts moisture from the air and the
cushions stays permanently damp and eventually mouldy. Yuk.
No boat building material is perfect, but one of my dislikes about fibreglass is that there are so many bolts extending through the deck (the toe rail, stanchions, all fittings etc) that it is very hard to keep the boat completely waterproof. During rough
offshore sailing, these fittings are exposed to the constant force of water pressure from waves and coupled by flexing of the fibreglass,
leaks become common.
On metal boats the hull deck joint, stanchions and all the fittings can be welded on, or bolted into reinforced plates that are in turnwelded to the deck. There are few deck penetrations.
A weak spot that is left even in metal boats are
commercial pleasure boat hatches. Leaks can be fixed. The
seals can be replaced the plastic re-bedded the O rings on the handles replaced, but it is a lot of
work. It is also difficult to know if a
hatch has started leaking, it is not untill you get some wave pressure that you find out.
Repair offshore is not practical. The other problem with
commercial hatches is the plastic crazes in the tropics when exposed to UV.
Boreal have made some inroads into reducing the risk of leaks. They install wave deflectors around the front of the
hatch so that the seal is at least not subject to the very high direct water pressure when waves sweep over the deck. These small details show the boat was designed by people that actually go offshore sailing.
I cannot find a
photo of the Boreal set up. I did find this
photo of a Nordhavn owner who had these
stainless steel wave deflectors made to solve the problem on his boat. Of course it is even better to get these details right at the time of construction.
Owner installed wave breaks around the hatches on a Nordhavn:
K&M build in aluminium not only pleasure yachts like ours, but also coast guard
rescue boats. These latter boats typically have 'no nonsense' solutions to problems that occur in a tough work
environment.
The hatches used on these boats are welded aluminium with glass not plastic ports. The
dogs are
stainless steel handles (four on each hatch) that together with the sturdy hatch frame mean the lid can be clamped down with much more force. These would look out of place on many yachts, but of course they match the finish of the rest of the Bestevaers.
We have requested these instead of standard hatches. They will be raised to reduce direct water pressure. There will be some loops welded adjacent to the hatches for attaching
wind scoops, rain guards and Sunbrella covers.
It might seem silly to put so much effort into these details, but a non leaking boat is critical to comfort.
K&M have also incorporated some removable
security bars on some of their hatches and these will also be used. Most boats are incredibly easy to break into and with some thought this can be easily avoided.