Enclosures; Why??

[psk125]

Originally Posted by billknny

WHY do people enclose their cockpits?

I understand COMPLETELY if you are sailing in far northern latitudes where extending the season a few weeks is a big deal, but I am talking about people sailing in the Bahamas for god's sake!

We have the capability of fully enclosing our cockpit, and we do-- but only when sailing downwind, in the rain. But as soon as the weather clears, we feel like hothouse orchids, and the aft curtain is stripped down for the air. Yet we see many boats sailing with the cockpit wrapped up like a little greenhouse. I sweat just looking at them.

I just don't understand the appeal. We certainly like our shade from the sun, but when sailing at night, we always fold down the dodger (it takes 30 secs on our boat) to bask under the night sky. It's awesome and beautiful The idea of sailing in an isinglass box... YUCH!
If nature has such little appeal, I think maybe you took up the wrong hobby?

To get back to the original topic...
While understanding the need for enclosure to retain heat while sailing in northern latitudes, perhaps the OP fails to comprehend that perhaps the offending enclosures are AIR CONDITIONED, and are retaining coolth while sailing in the south?

[Hudson Force]

Originally Posted by psk125

To get back to the original topic...
While understanding the need for enclosure to retain heat while sailing in northern latitudes, perhaps the OP fails to comprehend that perhaps the offending enclosures are AIR CONDITIONED, and are retaining coolth while sailing in the south?

We rarely used our full enclosure, but as mentioned above by psk125, we did use the panels to air condition our cockpit while in still air at the dock in Florida. We kept jobs and a home marina slip in the hot South working 190 days of each year before retiring. With a walk-over to our children's cabins aft and efficient AC systems fore and aft the enclosure was great.

We never closed the cockpit sailing or anchored out until we were retired and started cruising north. We were never well adapted to the cold and sometimes enclosed our cockpit in New England Fall and Spring.

[Reefmagnet]

Ha! Funny enough I was just thinking this same thing last night while sitting out the back, having a few drinks with the missus and and looking at the stars and our adjacent marina neighbours. Now, this is in the context of cruising within the tropics but I was looking around at some of the boats near me in the marina and wandering why anyone would own a boat - which essentially is a tool that puts one front and centre with nature - and then go to great efforts to insulate themselves as much as possible from said nature? Don't get me wrong, we have bimini that looks like it came off a covered wagon from the wild west, but the idea of being fully encapsulated just seems odd. The effects on windage alone would dissuade me from considering deploying such a horrid accessory.



Aside from the times squalls are blowing the rain sideways and one is invariably trapped in the cockpit in their underwear exposed to the wind chill trying to keep the boat out of trouble (which has never happened to me ) I cannot think of one valid reason to turn a cockpit into a greenhouse unless the cabin of the boat is for some reason a place to be avoided.


Having said that, I'm pretty sure I will change my tune very quickly when sailing in areas with ambient temps below 20C, but for the moment I'm definitely in the "no reason to have one" camp.

[Lost Horizons]

Originally Posted by billknny

WHY do people enclose their cockpits?

Because pilothouse sailboats are in short supply.

[jmh2002]

Because there is only one thing worse than being cold on a boat, and that's being cold AND wet...

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Reefmagnet

Aside from the times squalls are blowing the rain sideways and one is invariably trapped in the cockpit in their underwear exposed to the wind chill trying to keep the boat out of trouble (which has never happened to me ) I cannot think of one valid reason to turn a cockpit into a greenhouse unless the cabin of the boat is for some reason a place to be avoided.

Most boats leaving for the islands from NZ do so at the end of May to avoid tail-end cyclones. By this time it’s starting to be quite cool through the night. My boat and many like mine, is not a pilot house and it’s rather hard to maintain a decent watch from down below. Like yours mine is a centre cockpit, by design quite wet at sea.

So being in a cold, wet space day-sailing from this anchorage to that is maybe OK but when exposed to squally conditions for days at a time, the desire to stay warm and dry becomes compelling. I know that there is great weather gear around but being dressed in a comfy tracksuit sitting amongst warm, dry cushions/squabs beats HD weather gear and hard benches all day long.

Also, in South Pacific islands you can be in an anchorage exposed to the trades that can blow for weeks at 25kn, being able to stay above decks rather than huddled in the saloon (no matter how luxurious) has considerable appeal for me. Unless of course one enjoys sitting in consistent 25kn all day long.

And as I said in an earlier post, I can convert my full enclosure to emulate your open bimini (and back) in 10 minutes when the conditions are appropriate. What’s not to like?

To each his own, I guess.

[Ita]

Originally Posted by CassidyNZ

Most boats leaving for the islands from NZ do so at the end of May to avoid tail-end cyclones. By this time it’s starting to be quite cool through the night. My boat and many like mine, is not a pilot house and it’s rather hard to maintain a decent watch from down below. Like yours mine is a centre cockpit, by design quite wet at sea.



So being in a cold, wet space day-sailing from this anchorage to that is maybe OK but when exposed to squally conditions for days at a time, the desire to stay warm and dry becomes compelling. I know that there is great weather gear around but being dressed in a comfy tracksuit sitting amongst warm, dry cushions/squabs beats HD weather gear and hard benches all day long.



Also, in South Pacific islands you can be in an anchorage exposed to the trades that can blow for weeks at 25kn, being able to stay above decks rather than huddled in the saloon (no matter how luxurious) has considerable appeal for me. Unless of course one enjoys sitting in consistent 25kn all day long.



And as I said in an earlier post, I can convert my full enclosure to emulate your open bimini (and back) in 10 minutes when the conditions are appropriate. What’s not to like?



To each his own, I guess.

Do you have pictures?

[CassidyNZ]

Originally Posted by Ita

Do you have pictures?

Not a recent, or great quality one but this will give an idea. I have since made a solid GRP roof to replace the vinyl one shown here. The picture shows the side panel rolled up. Each of 8 panels zip to the roof and to each other and can be individually removed as is weather-appropriate.

But to be fair, we normally roll up just the two sides and the back panel which gives good ventilation but controls wind/rain blowing in from the front when lying to our mooring or an anchor.

Honestly, if this canopy were to be removed, I would cancel any passage on this boat without further thought.

[Bill Youmans]

CassidyNZ’s list hits the mark for me, up here on Lake Superior with average
Yearly water temp of 40 deg F. 55 deg F summer. Enclosures keep the bugs out with roll down Screens all around and flys-mosquitoes can be bad to keep you in the cabin otherwise On a warm summer night. Enclosure Turns our spacious cockpit into a another salon. I turn it into a dodger-Bimini combo in 5 minutes.

[Charlespeck]

Just put up the side needed to stop chilly air or rain from bugging me in my glorious cockpit/porch when at anchor. The real reason is because I wish to and now shall amuse myself wondering who else may be troubling themselves over my life choices. Such ruminations give me joy as I toy with them.
Or as someone else humorously mentioned I may wonder if they are grits and butter folks or grits & milk types, or shock of shocks may not even eat grits!

[BenBowSirocco]

Something has surprised me during my pilothouse/deck saloon shopping spree lately has been that most of them come with fully enclosed cockpits as well. Some with hard dodgers even..

I have emailed a couple of owners of pilothouse sailboats asking their overall experience with the vessel, sailing performance, previous vessels owned etc, but when I ask about the cockpit enclosure the couple people who have replied have avoided the question. But one said "The pilot house has terrible visibility forward unless your towing the dinghy".. Now I ask: what is the point of that?!

[swordds]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

I'll never understand why some people like grits. Do you know of an appropriate forum to pose the question ?

I love grits, I practically live on them. But I can’t understand why anyone eats oatmeal.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by swordds

I love grits, I practically live on them. But I can’t understand why anyone eats oatmeal.

Oatmeal is just nasty, gooey sticky yuck, like something that is way overcooked or gone bad.
Or maybe wallpaper paste?

But back to the enclosure thing, we just moved over to Long Island, wind was 20 kts right on the nose, to make any way I had to fall off 30 deg to make 5 kts, so apparent wind of course was 25 kts 30 degrees off of the bow, so we were taking significant water on occasion over the bow on the windward side.
Now I could have put on foul weather gear and just gotten wet, but instead I rolled down the enclose side and stayed in my shorts and tee shirt.
Why would anyone not want to be able to do that? What’s with this gotta be tough to be a sailor stuff?
We do it for fun, getting salt water sprayed in your face isn’t

[Happ]

I have several friends that have them. They live aboard and find it expands the interior of the boat. More importantly when they are moving the boat either north or south it is far more comfortable to get out of the weather on passages. It also makes it very pleasant to have dinner in the cockpit without constantly swatting flies. I don’t think I would have anything other than a dodger if I didn’t live aboard.

[Gingersnap]

Right now, as retired liveaboards, our enclosure helps against the cold elements and floating coronavirus and allow us to enjoy the scenery while being shelter-in lockdown.