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From: Donal Philby
Date: 03 Jul 2008
Time: 12:53:48 -0400
Remote Name: 70.67.83.68
I was recently perusing the Coin Collection designs, both for insight on my own near-finished refurbishing of our 38 footer and looking into the future for a boat that, as the years add up (and my sense of omnipotence and immortality is cracking around the edges), would allow confident cruising, even ocean voyaging into a ripe old age. On both my current design and the Coin Collection I find that I want more compartments accessible from on deck that don’t open to the living space. I’d love places you could open in the rain and wash away the salt encrustations on both gear and compartment. Some modern boats have anchor wells in the foredeck, and that seems a valuable idea. Steve Dashew’s idea for a jib compartment was excellent. No need to bag the sail. I’d love a compartment to toss in a wet nylon sail, mesh bags with anchor or shore lines (that often smell), fenders, fishing gear, spare anchors and chain (that can dent up a nice interior), jerry jugs (that often leak and smell), a rolled up rubber dinghy, perhaps, along with sail covers and awnings. Tom McN gave me the courage to flush the cockpit and that gained us a cargo hold with a flush hatch for access. It might be possible, though difficult (electrical wiring and gear), to seal this off and add a separate bilge pump. I did build good sized seat/deck boxes in the cockpit and those work well for small stuff. Older working boats had centered cargo holds that would do some of that duty, but at the cost of splitting up the living space. Certainly in most modern production boats, all this is given scant attention. Looking back, I realize I sometimes succeeded and sometimes failed to think through the conflicts of the living, working and storage systems while keeping in mind wind, rain, snow and lots of salt water and the benefits of a comfortable, dry living space.