Hatch cover
Rupert Holmes creates a quick, simple and effective shelter
How to make your own fixed companionway shelter
The plywood cuddy over the companionway of 36ft Rob Humphreys custom cruiserracer Zest took us just two days to make and fit, at a cost of less than £100. It’s a lot more substantial than a folding sprayhood, and a fraction of the price. It can also be easily removed when not needed.
Improving shelter on deck was an important topic when we were fitting out Zest for my partner Kass to sail singlehanded across the Atlantic in the 2017 OSTAR. But we had allowed the matter to rest, as the option to do nothing was a possibility: with a five-tonne displacement and overall length of just over 36ft, Zest is a drier boat than many and tends to ride over waves, rather than plough through them. The obvious solution, a sprayhood, did not seem ideal to us. Sprayhoods present a lot of windage and are vulnerable for serious ocean sailing. There are plenty that have been partially ripped off by giant waves, or had their framework crumpled over the companionway, trapping the occupants below deck.
However, the matter gained a new urgency after a chance conversation with friend Pip Hare, who said “I’ve been across the Atlantic with and without shelter – there’s a huge difference…”
With only a week left before departure for the start of the race in Plymouth, and other items still left on the jobs to-do list, it was clear any solution needed to be quick.
Dry cuddy
For a lone watchkeeper a shelter over the companionway is almost as good as a full sprayhood and is much easier to build. It will also be just as effective at helping to keep the interior of the boat dry in challenging weather. Fortunately, the sides of Zest’s existing hatch garage lent themselves to this purpose – they are made of chunky pieces of hardwood and angled such that the sides of the cuddy could neatly continue the same line. The sliding hatch terminates in a batten at the front end against which a good water tight seal could clearly be formed.
We debated the shape of the cuddy at length, particularly the angles of the forward-facing elements, and even whether the front should be curved. The latter was discounted on the grounds of time and complexity. Instead, two sloping forwardfacing flat panels seemed like a good plan. There was no need to keep the top exactly horizontal – in fact the slight forwardfacing slope helps to shed water when the
boat does bury her bow in a big sea.
So the plan was a simple one: first cut out two pieces of 9mm marine ply to form the sides of the cuddy and screw them to each side of the hatch garage. The top and front edges of these were cut at 45° so the final two panels would tend to sit in place as the glue set.
Planning and preparation
To check we had suitable dimensions – in particular sufficient headroom – and to get a feel for aesthetics, we first made a mock up in cardboard. This was easy to tweak until we were happy with the shape. This was then used as a template for marking out the plywood before cutting. A circular saw made quick work of cutting out each piece of the plywood.
We induced some curvature to pre-stress the side panels by pulling the two sides together near the top. To do this we used lashings through holes drilled in the area where the windows would eventually be. It was easy to adjust the tension until we were happy with the effect – it noticeably stiffened the structure.
The top sections were now ready to be glued in place, using epoxy thickened with a roughly 50-50 mix of microfibres and colloidal silica. For the front piece, we first taped over the area where it abutted the boat to avoid permanently epoxying the two together, as we wanted the cuddy to be removable.
Once the epoxy had set we removed the unit and took it back to the workshop for finishing. The first stage was to reinforce the corners to add strength.
The easy way of doing this is with wide fillets, using a strip of thin ply cut with the tip cut into a semicircle with a diameter of around 6cm. Given more time we’d have encased the entire structure in epoxy and cloth to give protection against impact damage, but instead settled for two coats of epoxy before painting.
Seeing out
The window cut-outs were made using a hole cutter for each corner, then a jigsaw between them. These were then sanded to a better straight line, and also to round the edge of the ply so that it would take the coating and paint. The aft edges of the cuddy were also sanded into a semi-circle.
The windows are of 5mm acrylic sheet, cut using an acrylic cutting blade in a circular saw and drilled for the fastenings. This thickness of acrylic would be too thin for coachroof windows of the same size, but those in the cuddy aren’t a factor in the boat’s watertight integrity.
We wanted the option to remove the cuddy, so it’s bedded on a polysulphide sealant that remains permanently sticky.
The final task was to create a pair of handles to make entering and leaving easier in a big sea. Initially I considered incorporating these into the ply, or bolting on metal handles, but eventually opted for the most simple, low tech and low cost solution of all. They are 8mm rope sleeved with clear plastic tube so they hold the correct shape and held in place with figure of eight knots on the outside of the cuddy.
Just over a year on, and with well over 5,000 miles covered, we’ve been very pleased and have liked it so much that to date it has stayed in place, even during the sunniest parts of this summer. There’s still a few hours’ worth of tidying up to do to bring the installation up to the high quality of build and finish of the rest of the boat. If I were to do it again, and had more time, I’d consider: n Using wedge-shaped battens instead of the fillets between the panels, which would enable the edges to be rounded over a wider radius to produce a visually more appealing shape. n Matching the forward edge of the windows to the slope of the front of the cuddy for a neater look. n Improving visibility ahead by extending the forward window downwards to the same level as the side windows.