Sight lines from the helm on a sailboat add the requirement to watch sail trim to the need to see traffic or close under the bow when navigating with debris in the water. When there’s a raised house or large dodge in the equation, the evaluation process gets even tougher.

Take the yacht above. She will have a nicely protected inside steering station. Visibility at sea will be OK except for one factor we will get to shortly.

The aft cockpit helm will allow you a good view of the rig. But what about the house in front? Do you look through or over it?

We like hard dinks and carrying two different sorts of dinghies always makes sense (these folks have an inflatable on davits aft). But this forward dink is going to block a lot of the arc of vision from inside, and being forward it is somewhat vulnerable to headseas.

Similar issues above. The forward dinghy is vulnerable heading into big seas and blocks the view from inside.

A different approach to helm protection, this time with a clean foredeck and optimal sight lines from the cockpit.

Of course there are times when the dodger or wind screen will be coated with salt. Then you stand on the cockpit seat and look over the dodger minding the boom of course, or look down the side deck.

The photo does not do justice to this handsome cutter. Yes the house is a little bulky, but you have excellent sight lines all around and the motion won’t be too bad uphill (but it will be wetter here than further aft.

Our favorite. OK, sight lines to the water are not great, but this works for watchkeeping offshore and it looks so right. Besides, she is a ketch the looks of which have always been pleasing to us.