Adding a deck saloon

[Sojourner]

You gonna sail the carribe and you want a pilot house/deck salon?? whyyyyyyyy .... those boats (pilot houses esp) are popular up north here in europe for a reason. The weather is garbage half the year. You want a huge cockpit with a FULL ENCLOSURE, both plastic sides for rain and screen for bugs. You'll be outside a lot of the time. Big windows on boats in the tropics seem to me like lunacy, despite the popularity....altho much of that might be the charter market glut / dock queen preening thing. Think nonstop sun + high humidity + nice big windows = the definition of a greenhouse. Doesn't sound comfy to me.

Our amel center cockpit has a full enclosure, and we delivered her last year and just now sailed her across the Med in the middle of winter. In sweatpants playing cards in the cockpit. You don't need more than that for cold protection. What I'd be getting instead is a full boat shade made up. That goes over our enclosure (with everything rolled up but the top), and is like a giant airscoop airconditioner in the summer. Between building a cockpit enclosure and the sun cover, that'll be enough of a project

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, rma.

[rma]

Thanks, everyone for your insight, I really do appreciate all of your feedback. Honestly, I was hoping you would all talk me out of it. In the end, I would rather be sailing than working on a boat. I'll keep looking for a more modest project and hopefully be on the water sooner!