Organizing the Lazarette

[bacampbe]

Our Bene 31 has a nice, cavernous cockpit lazarette. Maybe too cavernous. It's got a couple of only moderately useful shelves. It is proving to be challenging to organize it, without having stuff piled on other stuff, and small stuff falling down where one would need to climb in to reach it. (I half expect to find a family of trolls down there.)

Any ideas on how to organize a large lazarette?

[sailingdog]

shelves, baskets and containers....depending on what you're organizing.

[dohenyboy]

I like to use milk crates (you can buy liners for them so little pieces do not fall through) to hold things like spare parts or items you do not need in a hurry. Plus you can stack other items on top. Cockpit lockers are handy for fender and line storage. At least for me. Or extra anchors.

[celenoglu]

Lazarettes are normally wells that you drop something in and forget them. One of my friends made shelves inside. The shelves are towards the side of the boat and a person can get in towards the middle of the boat. He even made a bed inside. This way he goes down and keep all goods stored tidy on the shelves. If there are too many to sleep on th boat, he can sleep in the lazarette (He has two ports which are good enough for light and fresh air.

[lshick]

Another trick that I've read about (but not tried) is to tie color-coded leashes to various objects you'd want to retrieve from the abyss. So "the gold line" will fish up the Whatzit. Attach the leashes along the outboard underside of the lazarette opening.

[Valiente]

Leashes or loops will work, particularly to fairly sturdy canvas bags or rucksacks, or, if you think it's going to be damp down there, to something less absorbant.

Run the loops or leashes (colour-coded is clever and can be done via tape or cable-tie) to small bungee loops on the locker side. Ideally, you have a bunch of sacks secured by loops descending into the gloom, and a big open space in the middle for PFDs and fenders, etc (light, bulky stuff).

If you put odd-sized or big tools (such as torque wrenches, pipe wrenches, spare yachtsman's anchors, deck scrubbers, etc.) down there, put them in closed-cell foam surrounds or some sort of padding, because they will move around in a bag and dent or chafe the fibreglass.

A final suggestion is a couple of stick-on LED "closet lights" on the underside of the lazarette or locker deck. Tap them on and you can get a dim, but general overall view of what's down there in an area that is usually poorly lit unless it's time for the noon sight.

[Vasco]

I have a large cockpit locker and two lazarettes. Anything that goes into a lazarette has a small line on it which is hitched to the line that stops the lazarette lid from falling right over. This way I can retrieve stuff (hoses, luggage,jerry cans etc. ) without climbing in or using a boat hook.

[Freesail99]

I be very interested in seeing some pictures of the ideas being used. My cockpit lazarette is very deep and I can not reach the bottom unless I over hang myself half way into it.