In his book, Nigel Calders Cruising Handbook, Calder takes a detailed look at both the necessary and desirable features of the belowdecks. Heres some of his advice:
Regardless of its layout, a cruising boat must be designed to keep things in their assigned places. This means that once closed, all cabinets, drawers, and hatches must remain closed, regardless of the angle of heel or the extent to which the boat is pounding.
Cabinet doors commonly have finger latches – the kind of spring-loaded catch that is accessed through a hole in the door. I positively hate these. What happens if the boat makes a sudden lurch just as you poke your finger through the hole to open the door? If ever there was a finger-breaker, this is it. Much to be preferred are button latches (although these need to be spring-loaded to prevent them vibrating open) or any other type of latch that is operated from outside the door (our Pacific Seacraft 40 has push button latches).
Drawers are typically held shut by machining an indent into the base of the drawer that fits over a raised rail in the supporting framework. To open the drawer, it is lifted and pulled out. This simple approach is quite effective until a boat starts to pound hard, at which time the G-forces can sometimes lift the drawer. If it is on the windward side, it may fly open and dump itself and its contents on the cabinsole. Because of this, drawers opening in an athwartships direction should have back-up barrel bolts or some other means of locking them shut. Accidents are less likely to happen with drawers opening in a fore and aft direction; on these drawers, no additional hardware is necessary.
Many drawers also have finger holes to open them. These are not as bad as on cabinet doors; nevertheless, proper drawer pulls are much nicer. Wider drawers are likely to have two drawer pulls, one on each side. Unfortunately, this often means that two hands are needed to open the drawer, which makes it difficult to open in rough weather when it is necessary to hang onto the boat with one hand. It is preferable to have a single drawer pull in the center of the drawer.
All locker-access hatches within the boat should be locked up in place to prevent them from flying off in a knockdown. In particular, hatches in cabinsoles tend to be heavy and are potentially quite dangerous if the boat gets thrown on its beam ends or rolled beyond this. In addition to the sole hatches, there are numerous locker lids beneath and behind settee berths and in other locations. They are generally not nearly as heavy as sole hatches, although there may be a substantial weight of contents inside the locker itself. On an ocean-voyaging boat, they too should be locked in place. For coastal cruising it is desirable, but rarely done – and, in reality, it is unlikely that conditions will warrant the necessity of fitting locks. (We have none on our boat; if extreme conditions seem possible, we can always use duct tape to hold the lids in place.)
What is not debatable is the need to strap down all heavy items on the boat. Particular attention needs to be given to water and fuel tanks (which are frequently poorly held in place), batteries (which are frequently nowhere near adequately restrained), and stoves (many of which can jump out of their mounts in a knock-down). An often-overlooked item (including on our new boat) is the icebox lid, which is usually heavy. If not secured in place with a hinge, it too needs locking down; there are numerous reports of unsecured icebox lids getting thrown across boats – even a frozen chicken flight can do significant damage!
For more detailed advice on what to look for in and on a boat for your cruising, purchase Nigel Calders Cruising Handbook fromPractical Sailor.
