<\/p>\n

The longer you cruise, the more important crew protection becomes. This applies to cold and wet, and to sun.<\/p>\n

Trade offs include:<\/p>\n

\n
• Access to running rigging and winches.<\/li>\n
• Headroom inside.<\/li>\n
• Sightlines from external helms over\/through the cockpit cover.<\/li>\n
• Heavy weather capability.<\/li>\n
• Aesthetics (placed last for this discussion).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  There are lots more details in our Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia<\/em>. A few photos follow of different approaches observed in Lerwick, Shetland Islands.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  The preceding photo and this (above) show a dodger integrated with a fixed windshield. This is a favorite Scandinavian approach. Works well in cool areas, but lack of air flow is a detriment in the tropics.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Another dodger\/windshield combo.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Both have side and aft access. The blue fabric will be extremely hot in the tropics.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  A more sea-going affair, with basic protection for two crew. Note the rolled up awning section at the aft end of the dodger which secures to the radar arch.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  The companionway hatch shown above is found on a lot of French yachts. It eliminates the vulnerability of washboards.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

  Fixed windshield, laced on sun\/rain cover, integrated with radar arch. Nice setup for moderate weather, but one good wave and the cockpit would be a tangle of stainless pipe. But for relatively moderate conditions it will work well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The longer you cruise, the more important crew protection becomes. This applies to cold and wet, and to sun. Trade …Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6356"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}