Sunday, November 17, 2019

Wide Pulpits

Working at the pointing end of monos and tris can be a real challenge.The deck pinches down to nothing, making reaching the anchor, attaching snubbers, or dealing with the furler really unpleasant. A simple solution is to bump the stanchions out a little.


But the World Sailing Off-Shore Rule says we can't do that:


Of course, Ian Farrier, designer of the F-22 didn't really care about that, since his boats are raced inshore and lack many of the railings the rule requires. Many trimarans do, since side rails are in the way and reasonably useless on trimarans (there is no reason to be far out on the tramp).

I can see that they would be easy to step through. If this were a larger boat and I were taking it off shore I'd run a strong Dyneema line across the bottom and fill in the space with 1-inch netting.

Compare that to the more conventional F-24 pulpit. Notice that I added short lifelines coming back at the aft corners because sometimes it felt a little exposed. They also reduce sail and sheet hang-ups. Fill the space with netting? I don't think so. There are times when tying up or anchoring when reaching through the pulpit is necessary.