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Originally Posted by Idiens
The real pilot house test is whether you can sail them from the inside (get at the halyards, winches and sheets).
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It's tough to really sail from the inside of a pilothouse. Of course the sails can be up, and the vessel making way but the visibility is somewhat restricted to sail shape, catching those catpaws on a calm day and the feel of the spray. It would be an awful spot to try and place in a race.
On the flip slide, those blasted bug hatches can be escaped by closing the door. Charts can be left open on the table with a dependable laptop at the helm running "fill in the blank" chart plotter program, sharing the screen with a Captain Ron dvd. In thicker weather green water can splash over the pilothouse and aft cockpit and inside it's dry. It can be snowing on the deck with the witches wind howling but inside it's quiet and warm, so warm that it sometimes produces guilt, but one can get over that easily with a sip of warm soup and knowing that other vessels just won't venture out in these conditions. Cockpit enclosures are very nice, I have had them. But now only a bimini is needed for the aft helm.
I can not really sail as efficiently from inside of a pilothouse but the tradeoff can leave water behind the stern in conditions that only a fish could enjoy arirving at port not all beat up, half froze, wind and sunburned, and having more bug bites then Madonnas headboard has notches. It is a safer way, a more civilized way to sail, and I intend to keep my mate comfortable so that she enjoys our voyaging. I know way to many marriages whose mates no longer sail with them, for many reasons. I hope to circumvent that. I need her aboard, she is very dependable and has taken advanced boating classes with me and has logged as many sea hours as I. I am a very fortunate sailor.