Med deck cockpit design?

[Rome Neumann]

The boat I am close to buying (Nauticat 515 from 2010) has a “Med deck” cockpit (steering wheel forward in the cockpit just to the left of the companion way) rather than an “Ocean deck” cockpit (steering wheel centered at the back of the cockpit). In addition, the cockpit is an “open cockpit” design with a low entrance from the stern, rather than a more traditional “wrap around” or bathtub design. Because I hope to do considerable blue water cruising with this boat, does anyone have negative, or positive, experience with this type of cockpit? Many thanks in advance --

[PamlicoTraveler]

It looks strange - I have never seen that type of design before. If you had a strong dodger it could be OK, but I think it would take some getting used to.

[Sailmonkey]

Put a hard dodger on it becomes more similar to an amel.

[Rome Neumann]

Dear PamlicoTraveler and Sailmonkey, Thank you very much for your replies. This "Med deck" cockpit design seems to have been popular with the Nauticat 515 owners, because all the more recent builds adopted it. I will have a sea trial to try it out before buying. But from what a number of cruisers have told me, with an autopilot and a (relatively) large boat, not that much time is actually spent at the Wheel, so just as well to have it tucked to one side and free up the cockpit space. (There is also a wheel inside the pilot house for bad weather.)


BTW, a hard spray shield is definitely on my to do list. Thanks!!