Hatch Boards In A Storm

Several years ago I messed up one day while single-handing Snickerdoodle.  I could see that there was a good breeze about half a mile ahead going in the direction I wanted to sail.  So, I rigged my cruising spinnaker and headed for the breeze.  Unfortunately, the breeze was quite a bit stronger than I’d planned on and when the spinnaker filled, the boat was “rail down” in a second.  Water was flowing on the side decks and windows.  A third of the spinnaker was in the water; AND the sheet was under water.  About that time, Snickerdoodle rounded up and spilled the wind out of the spinnaker.  Of course, the boat righted and the spinnaker was a huge flag now flapping in the breeze.

“OK,” I thought.  “Now I’ll get going.”  So, I steered the boat downwind again.  Almost immediately, Snickerdoodle again was over on her side with the spinnaker in the water.  This time, the water was actually coming over the coaming and into the cockpit.  “Not good.” I thought.  And, I doused the spinnaker with the “Chute Scoop”; hoisted a jib and sailed down the lake.

Later, I began thinking about the water flowing over the coaming; and realized that with the hatch-boards out of the companionway that if we’d heeled much more there would have been a real chance that water would have found its way below into the cabin of the boat - - the chance of sinking becomes very real.  So, how can I prevent this from happening?

Of course, the easy answer is to simply put the hatch-boards in their slides.  But, if there is a lot of water on the boards, they might float out of the slides.  How can that be prevented?

My solution was to purchase four barrel bolt door latches…… you know the ones that you might have on a door so that the door can be locked quickly and simply by sliding the barrel into a hole or bracket.  I installed the barrel bolts near the upper corners of the bottom two (I have three) hatch-boards (photos above).  And, I drilled a quarter inch hole in the teak framing to correspond with the barrel bolts (photo above).  

Now, if it’s blowing “stink” with lots of wave action, it’s easy to lock the bottom hatch-board (or even the bottom two) and not worry that the board might float out in a knockdown.