Custom minimalist dodger ideas

[Christian Williams]

I have a thing against dodgers (Ok, not your problem, I understand that).

HOwever, I also have a thing about rain pouring below even with the main hatch closed unless all four hatch boards are in, as a result of the aft cabin house slanting forward. Which is not a psychiatric problem, is my guess, but a water problem.

Some larger boats I've been on had a rather small companionway dodger which covered only the hatch, leaving uninhibited access to controls and good visibility forward.

I may make one of those to solve the rain problem. It would be designed to be removed and stowed in good weather, rather than folded down. A removable dodger.

Another solution I'm considering is a sheet of clear vinyl which simply covers the area of the hatchboards, and is held in place with Velcro. I had this on a boat long ago, and it was quite good for rain showers or brief squalls. But it was hard to put on from below. You really needed somebody in the cockpit to push the Velcro closed.

And about those four teak hatch boards: there must be a better way?

I've considered a single piece of acrylic. A bit unwieldy but easier to put in and out than hatchboards.

But then, you're hermetically sealed. So it ought to be two piece of acrylic, the top one only maybe four inches, so as to exhaust the scent of wet socks and Dinty Moore.

Ah, but then rains still pours in if you leave the top piece out.

Any better ideas or non-dodger solutions?

 

[Loren Beach]

"Small" Dodger Solution

I have a thing against dodgers (Ok, not your problem, I understand that).

HOwever, I also have a thing about rain pouring below even with the main hatch closed unless all four hatch boards are in, as a result of the aft cabin house slanting forward. Which is not a psychiatric problem, is my guess, but a water problem.

Some larger boats I've been on had a rather small companionway dodger which covered only the hatch, leaving uninhibited access to controls and good visibility forward.

I may make one of those to solve the rain problem. It would be designed to be removed and stowed in good weather, rather than folded down. A removable dodger.

Another solution I'm considering is a sheet of clear vinyl which simply covers the area of the hatchboards, and is held in place with Velcro. I had this on a boat long ago, and it was quite good for rain showers or brief squalls. But it was hard to put on from below. You really needed somebody in the cockpit to push the Velcro closed.

And about those four teak hatch boards: there must be a better way?

I've considered a single piece of acrylic. A bit unwieldy but easier to put in and out than hatchboards.

But then, you're hermetically sealed. So it ought to be two piece of acrylic, the top one only maybe four inches, so as to exhaust the scent of wet socks and Dinty Moore.

Ah, but then rains still pours in if you leave the top piece out.

Any better ideas or non-dodger solutions?

I replaced the four solid teak hatch boards some years ago with a one-piece board made out of honeycomb. Light weight and easy to store once I found a flat bulkhead to bracket it against.
I will post some pix of our small dodger.
(I have also seen a home-brew plastic shelter solution that was attached to the boom and to each side of the sliding hatch. Cumbersome and it did work, but was not easy to rig in a hurry and the guy could not use the main sail.)

Our present dodger dates to 1995, and pretty much copies the design of the one I built for our prior Niagara 26.
Into the future, we do plan on a full size "cruising dodger" to give us a lot more shelter for going up the coast. This one keep 98% of the rain out of the interior and allows easy access to the interior on a rainy day. We also have a zip-in bug screen for the back opening, and a sunbrella cover that drops over the whole thing. It's been wonderful to have for almost two decades.
In hot weather (what little of it that we get around here...), we unzip and remove all the windows.

Loren

 

[Guy Stevens]

A great idea was from Yves Gélinas

a simple dodger was constructed from canvas and vynil as ususal, but instad of the bows, he fitted the dodger with larger than normal casings where the bows would go. Inside these casings he fitted bycicyle tire innner tubes. The entire dodger wadded up and fit in a bag, and as he pointed out, the whole thing costs less than a single bow would have.

http://www.capehorn.com/sections/Pages/30ansAng.htm

Go down the page and you will find a photo of it.

"I wanted my dodger to whitstand a knockdown or a heavy sea falling aboard. The solution I came up with was to replace the stainless steel tubes of the frame with 2 inch dia. Dacron fire hose with a bicycle inner tube inside; blown with air, it becomes hard, but when hit by a sea, it collapses and pops up again. The ends of the tubes are capped with round PVC inserted into the tube and held with 3 hose clips at each end. I purchased screw-on tire valves, punched a hole near the end of the tube and screwed the valve in place. I need to blow it up only once a season, and after 20 years, it is still airtight." Yves

Check out the photos, I see no reason you couldn't do the same for a smaller one. (The one on Yves boat is not very large anyway).

Guy

 

[toddster]

I've seen a number of non-dodger alternatives to drop boards. I'm not sure that any of them provide better or even as-good protection against "getting pooped" than a drop board or two locked in place.

A common one is replacing the drop boards with double doors, some of which are marvels of craftsmanship and some just simple plywood affairs. These look handier to use than the drop boards, but I think that our cockpits are a little small for this - very unwieldy in the "open" position. E.g., on my boat, the helmsman would always have to move and the tiller lifted out of the way. So they wouldn't be much good when under way.

At the simple end of the spectrum, my dock-neighbor has sewn up a piece of sunbrella fabric to cover both the top and back of the companionway. It keeps the rain off the closed hatch and drop boards. They have snaps to hold it in place but velcro might work too. When they're on board and want to keep weather out of (or heat in) the cabin, the boards are removed and the hatch open, but the sunbrella cover is on. It's like a tent flap - easy to pass through, easy to keep closed. Another neighbor has one that only covers the drop-boards. I think it actually hangs from the back edge of the hatch and has a couple of snaps at the bottom corners.

These things are simple enough and easy enough to change out that I think we could build several different ones and try them out. One need not keep them all on board at one time. I just haven't got that far down the list yet.

As for venting the one-piece drop board, you just need to drill vent holes (or screen) and fashion a hood that fits over the vent.

 

[Loren Beach]

E-32-3 canvas and doors

I took some pix today of an E-32-3 with a dodger. It has the winter covers over the windows. I have done a delivery on that boat and the shelter was much appreciated during the night watch off the WA coast.

If you do not like the look of what I would call a "cruising dodger" this may not be what you want.
But for spray or rain, it is really nice.

I also took some shots of the his opening companionway doors. These are all teak and easily remove once you swing them open. They have to lift up about an inch for the pins to disengage, so are secure when the sliding hatch is pulled over the top and locked. (Well, about as secure as any hatch system ever is...)

Note that the way they are installed allows for leaving them off and optionally dropping the stock "drop boards" back in.

Loren

 

[Loren Beach]

More dodger and hatch board stuff

While at the YC today we took some shots of our boat. Everything is stripped off for the winter at present, and the dodger is still on with its "drop over" weather cover.

I took a pic of our composite hatch board. It weighs about 4# or so. Some day we might make another one, in two halves, to resemble the one on the E-32-3 I was also photographing.
The material is honeycomb paneling with glass cloth on each side, using epoxy. Easypoxy paint finished.

I have given it my personal strength test, jumping on it with only an inch of support under each side. It hardly flexed a bit. I doubt that any boarding sea could climb up above the bridge deck and smite it any harder.
:0

Cheers,
Loren

 

[Christian Williams]

What a good thread--it now shows just about all the options.

It reminds me again how different light-air southern Cal is from San Francisco Bay and all points North. Although we have plenty of dodgers, from here to San Deigo is a light air zone, and out of Marina del Rey, specifically, one rarely goes to windward except by choice. So cockpit shelter is less a necessity and more an interpretation of what's right or comfortable.

For my own purposes, a small version of Loren's dodger is probably where I will start. The notion of bicycle inner tubes as blow-up frame bows is fascinating, although mine would be so minimal as to make aluminum bows easy enough.

Toddster reminds me that I already have a Sunbrella hatch cover, designed just for UV protection, which would actyually work as a quick cover for an open companionway.

Since with a basic sewing machine I can make any prototype in an hour or two, it's very nice to see all the ideas laid out for proper consideration.

 

[Rick R.]

We are going the opposite direction and having a removable cruising dodger made for cold weather sailing in the northern Gulf. We currently have a canvas cover that is attached to the main hatch. It covers the open area when we are in rain or in a marina and want some easy privacy.

I'm pretty sure fellow Viking Larry Lee has the hatch doors on his 32-200.