Pilothouses

[buhrly]

Are pilothouses required equipment for heading north? Say BC and south west Alaska. Or are they more personal preference? May limit they boat search. Thanks Jeremy

[cchesley]

Nope. Not required. Plenty of folks head north in small open boats, large cruising boats, no pilothouse. But those who can enjoy themselves when it's raining for a number of days in a row, or when the cold wind blows briskly across the Straits, or when they end up in a pretty cove that has a surplus of hungry skeeters, well, they seem to be the ones who have pilothouses or significant cockpit protection.

If you can enjoy those challenges without such things then I'd say again... Nope, not required.

[James S]

Originally Posted by cchesley

Nope. Not required. Plenty of folks head north in small open boats, large cruising boats, no pilothouse. But those who can enjoy themselves when it's raining for a number of days in a row, or when the cold wind blows briskly across the Straits, or when they end up in a pretty cove that has a surplus of hungry skeeters, well, they seem to be the ones who have pilothouses or significant cockpit protection.

If you can enjoy those challenges without such things then I'd say again... Nope, not required.

I'd agree 100%
For me...if I was going to be doing a lot of cruising in those areas I'd prefer a boat with a pilot house....but then I've gotten fairly soft over the years.

[eyschulman]

If you do a pilot house boat heat with wipers and a way to defog windshild helpful in northwest. As far as comfort goes a motor sailor or efficient motor boat with some kind of stabalization works well in northwest.

[buhrly]

Like the comfort(and no skeeters) but still want a true sailboat. And not to suffer too much if we went south. Seems like alot of the pilothouses are listed as motorsailers.

[buhrly]

Is there a down side to the pilothouse boats? How come everyone doesn't have one?

[jkleins]

Originally Posted by buhrly

Is there a down side to the pilothouse boats? How come everyone doesn't have one?

They can be hotter if you don't shade and ventilate them well. They take up the space of a rear berth in smaller sized boats. Some are designed so as to require the boom to be raised and therefore smaller main area. I can't think of a lot of other down sides.

I couldn't believe how much better I felt after a long passage with the indoor steering/watch station though, so I could go on and on about the good things.

Jim

[Livia]

If we were staying in the PNW, we would have gone with a pilot house. Because we knew after a few years we were going tropical, we put on a bimini with panels for a full enclosure. It's sooooo nice in the winter at anchor (we hang out *outside*, just imagine!) and when motoring.

Our mainsheet comes into the cockpit behind the dodger so we do not have the panels up when sailing (bimini only, or if sailing off the wind we might have the rear panes up which break the wind).

It looks like this: SV Estrellita 5.10b: Full Enclosure

And at the photo at the top of the blog you can see it while we are sailing.

Iverson (Tacoma/Seattle) did the work.

[cchesley]

Mostly, those who have pilothouses will stay with them. Well, that might not be entirely true, but for sure they will have times when they wish they had.

Sadly, few sailing vessels are designed with sailing protection given as an initial design requirement. It would be nice to see more with an integrated design rather than having to do the aftermarket add on. But, most make do. Traditions in the sailing world take many years to evolve.

Here's our integrated version of a pilothouse. I will not go without and this isn't a motorsailer, well, it can be, but it isn't.

[barnakiel]

Maybe they are not required, but very nice to have one.

I sailed tropical Pacific in 2004 and hated not having one.

b.

[shadow]

I am hoping to find a nice pilothouse or long range motorsailer. One of our biggest requirements is to have an open area with plenty of natural light and visibility. The only option was to look at CATS and we did but, we love the look and feel of older mono's.. We love being out there on the water and sailing but why if we could avoid being wind and weather beaten, then I'm all for it!!

Unfortunately, most of the decent sized pilothouses are a little pricey but, the search continues!! But, they are our first choice!!

[eyschulman]

The thing about the NW is that much of the summer has large areas with little wind and you end up powering the rest of the year is damp and often damp with light wind and when the wind does come up it may be nasty in an open cockpit. I have lived on east coast and sailed in VI and would not do pilot house if I was young again but NW is another story. Six to eight hours out in a wet cockpit is no fun. The other big advantage of a pilot house is that you can do continuous navigation in a nice dry warm invironment and with all the rocks and fog thats a big plus.

[scook1]

I would certainly recommend a pilot house for that area of the country. Also, some pilot house sailboats have other design features that would favor that climate.
Spencer

[eyschulman]

Fisher made a line of motor sailors from 25-45 ft they come up used the 37 is a good NW boat-A more sail boat oriented type boat would be a Bob Perry valiant 40 with pilot house. There where several other local NW designed pilot H boats that pop up in local sailing mags. NW sailing and 48 degrees.





bob

[hummingway]

I love my Cooper 416. Built in Vancouver designed Stan Huntingford. The Cooper 353 is another nice pilothouse but I haven't sailed on that one. The 416 is very spacious and bright and sails well. Mine has a full bimini as well so I am completely spoiled!