Easy Access

Why sweat and contort yourself if you don’t have to?

Issue 149: March/April 2023

“Every part of the hull should be easy to access!” I’ll forever remember those words from one of my offshore training courses decades back. Since then, I have crewed on countless boats both in- and offshore, as well as owned four boats myself, and have yet to find a vessel where that ideal is put into practice.

I currently live with my three kids and husband on our second Moody. While we love the English brand for its Bill Dixon design and perfect mix of comfort and safety, the focus is on sleek appearance, not practical access. When things go south, it happens regularly that we must drill, cut, or grind to gain access to fix our 29-year-old lady’s ouches.

Accessing Chainplates

As such, when the starboard chainplates needed re-embedding, moving away the settee cushions wasn’t enough to be able to attack the internal access with epoxy and fiberglass. This being a structural issue, it wasn’t an option to simply hope that what I would be able to stuff up through the tiny existing access hole was going to be enough to address the problem. I needed to see with both eyes and work with my arms at a functioning angle.

The solution was simple. I enlarged the hole with a grind cutter, which made access easy. The work was done quickly. Plus, now I can check up on it whenever I feel the need. Any other time, the settee cushions’ hard back neatly covers the access hole.

Holding Tank Switch

Another contortion issue almost cost me my shoulder joint. The divert handle for the holding tank was buried at least 3 feet forward of the already small cabinet door under the forward head’s sink. Just being able to grab it was one thing, but actually moving it when it seized up became impossible.

We cut a 12 x 10-inch rectangle in the fiberglass cover next to the toilet. This allowed us to solve the seized handle issue with some simple lube, though we have been left wondering how the whole mechanism had been installed in the first place. To keep access easy, we drilled a round hole in the cutout fiberglass rectangle for the divert handle to be able to poke through.

For aesthetics, we cut out some timber found in a back street in town to create a frame. After varnishing it, we glued it around the cutout rectangle with epoxy. Once dried, we drilled a hole in each corner and repositioned it in its initial place. For the divert handle to poke through the hole, we had to place an old slingshot from our kids behind the pipes to push the handle slightly more out of the cabinet. That done, the framed and holed rectangle was screwed on.

Now diverting to the holding tank takes just seconds, and if we ever need access to the adjacent piping — like when our 8-year-old decides to flush a pencil down the toilet and breaks the whole thing — it’s a matter of unscrewing four screws to be at least able to work in relative comfort while rejoicing in the glamour of raising boat kids.

More Access Ideas

Another idea to gain better access is still on my to-do list, inspired by a customization on a sister boat. Our aft walk-through on the port side is a bunk bed converted into storage, like on most Moody 44s, given that bunks are plentiful (eight in four cabins!) but storage is not. The aft 20 inches or so of the bunk space designed for the feet, which extends into a closed-off cabinet in the aft cabin, is a valuably sized storage area. However, access from the walk-through is tricky. It’s generally not possible without unhuman bodily twisting. Moreover, following Murphy’s Law, the spare engine oil or whatever other item one is looking for tends to be buried in the very back. In other words, a ton of other stuff needs to be pulled out first.

Simply cutting out a door in what already appears to be an aft cabin cupboard should turn access to those items from a time-intensive, sweaty task into the simple and quick opening of a door. The equivalent space on the starboard side is already a cupboard, so we can use its door as a template. And should the walk-through ever be used as a bunk again, 20 years down the road when the potential hordes of grandchildren may come along, this could be the perfect access to give a lucky one of them a nighttime foot massage in bed.

In summary, most boats don’t allow easy internal access to all parts of the hull or to some valuable storage areas and systems. We often found that rather than contorting ourselves, we are better off creating the needed access by cutting big enough holes where necessary. If access is required regularly, we fit a door, flap, or hinges, or a screwed-on panel for quarterly check-ups. That way we keep the yoga twists on the mat and the swearing and sweat to other occasions.

Dini Martinez has lived on boats on and off for most of her life, including work on superyachts, three years with a baby and a toddler around the Mediterranean, and years of coastal cruising around her homelands Down Under. Since 2021 she has been sailing the Caribbean with her family on a Moody 44, running yoga and tantra retreats. You can find out more about her on Instagram @Dini_Martinez and at DiniMartinez.com.

 

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