Cockpits can become more functional with the addition of a table like the teak drop-leaf model mounted to the binnacle on this Beneteau 373.

Time was when yachtsmen and their ladies—if the boat was splendid—tripped below, after aperitifs on deck, to dine at a polished table, sometimes even gimbaled.

Big, modern boats—especially charter boats—sometimes have a long, narrow, fore-and-aft folding table in the middle of the cockpit…the kind of table about which the veteran sailor/author team named Dashew argue. Steve likes a small fold-down pedestal table; Linda likes a big long table for entertaining ("…a waste of space, money and weight," wrote Steve).

Unless it's raining, we owners of wee, tiller-steered boats still eat in the cockpit, off our knees—ignominiously and precariously—usually from bowls rather than plates. …