BYYB Forums

I'm planning to use Phil Gowan's idea for seat hatches on my vacationer.  There will be two per seat, for a total of four.  I will eliminate the hatches on the seat fronts, as these hatches are located on the seating surface.  Here is a diagram and a photo of the setup.  The hatch acts like a lid on a shoebox to keep water out of the hole.

The problem is that the seats slope back from the center of the boat to the outboard sides.  In heavy rain, water will pool, rise higher than the "lip" on the hatch and get into the hold below.  How can I prevent this from happening? I'm thinking of using copper or brass tubing from that outboard spot where the water will pool to drain the water into the center of the cockpit, or overboard, like a scupper.  Any ideas or comments.

Dave

A well designed cockpit seat has a "waterway" along the outboard edge (side facing the hull). This is simply a shallow troth that permits water to collect and drain to the cockpit sole or overboard, without wetting the butts of those on the seats. Scuppers that drain overboard tend to also let water in when heavily heeled, unless crossed hoses under the cockpit (not possible on a Stevenson design), so draining aft through the transom or the cockpit sole, to the bilge or a pump are common alternatives. In a Stevenson design, you don't have a bilge, so draining to the cockpit sole where it can be pumped over the side is the simplest option. Draining through the transom is also a possibly, but you'll need to route some hoses under the aft deck (through the cockpit locker), to some thru hull fittings. This is the route I'd take, mostly be cause it's clean, neat and seaman like. You have to do this because the aft portions of the boat curve in at the transom, so the low point, where water will drain is in the forward end of the cockpit seats. This is where the drain would live, with a hose under the seat, lead aft to the transom thru hull.

Cockpit seat lockers also need some form of waterway, so boarding water doesn't fill them up. The picture above is one of many ways to do this. A really clever builder may incorporate the hatch draining system with the cockpit seat waterways, killing two birds with one thru hull.

I'd also add that all rainwater kept by the cabin roof and the deck flows into the cockpit (and into my lockers, cause they are not watertight).
This is a photo taken last week one hour after a 15 minutes hailstorm.
Gianluigi

Combings should prevent side deck and cabin roof rain from draining into the cockpit.

It's my opinion that this happens because my sides are higher than the original plan, where they are just over the deck. Rain water remain trapped by the deck curve and cannot escape over gunwales, therefore flows on seats and into the cockpit.
I'm going to drill some drain holes on the sides at deck level, this should reduce this problem, but not solve it, because holes can remain  clogged and cannot be wide enough to drain water so fast as necessary during a storm.

I would appreciate any advices to make lockers doors watertight, because from lokers water pours in the lazarete and somethime also find a water way to the cabin.
Gigi

My comings run the entire length of the cockpit.  This year I had occasion to have green water over my bow in some significant chop, and when the bow popped up out of the wave the water ran swiftly down the deck and out the stern with no water at all in the cockpit.  I don't know how high the comings would have to be to prevent rain from the cabin top and decks from running into the cockpit, but I bet it wouldn't be much. 

I also added a strip across the aft edge of the cabin top to protect that edge from chafe by my halyards and sheets that I led aft.  I found that by merely adjusting the sail I was taking off the finish at the edge of the bulkhead.  This had a secondary benefit.  As rain water flows aft, it is channeled off the roof to the deck and flows down the deck to the transom. 

When I built my weekender, I decided to compartmentalize the underside of the seats such that the cabin would take no water from the cockpit through that route.  I also sealed off the aft locker from the lazarette.  I sealed up everything under there to be watertight.  It is annoying to bail out the lockers, but even with the cockpit flooded to the seat tops, it is only the last 2 1/2 inches that need to be dug out of there. 

I know that some guys have been annoyed enough to seal off the lockers, but so far I haven't been convinced that this is necessary.

Al

One thing I can tell you is that the seat-FRONT hatches are no good. I glued mine shut and installed screw-out inspection ports, and water still gets into those lockers if it's left in the cockpit for too long. If I built my boat over again, there would be no hole in the "lazarette" bulkhead under the wheel, and there would be no seat front hatches; I would do the "lids" like in the above picture. I would also get rid of the toerail, and make the side sheets flush with the deck, and a separate toerail on little blocks, making scuppers. The coaming keeps water out of the cockpit for the most part, but it pools on the deck right under the aft window, so I am someday going to put a drain there that pipes overboard through the hull side.

I cut drain holes in all my bulkheads where the the floor and sides meet so any water that gets in those areas can be drain to the low spot which is the center of the cockpit unless my weight is added to the boat then it is further aft but still in the cockpit.  I figure that I can bail what I see but unseen water often gets left which gives it time to get through coatings into the wood.

That discussion of sealing everything or leaving it open reminds me of what a friend told me once about marine electronics. It is important to keep water away from electronics, soyou  put the stuff in a very tight box, seal every opening with double gaskets, fill with an inert gas, and what ever. But in the end, you have to drill a hole in the corner so that the water can run out.