Swimming pool on swan47?

Dear friends,

During our most recent trip (we are now 70 miles from Santiago de Cuba) from Santa Marta, Colombia to Santiago de Cuba we encountered some strong winds, about 30-35 knots true on a 40-60 degree windangle. The seas were quite high, about 3-4 meters.

There is a main deck on the Swan47 surrounded by a coaming. This acts as a swimming pool for all sorts of sealife: each wave ends in this swimmingpool.

On the aftside  of this pool we have a sprayhood to protect the cockpit and the entrance. Under the front side of the sprayhood we have holes under the mainsailtraveller to drain the swimming pool to the cockpit. The water in the pool is too much for the drainage canals in the cockpit and as a result the cockpit becomes very, very wet. 

So if there are lots of high waves, they finally end up in the cockpit.

Are there solutions for this problem?

Has anybody perhaps made drains on the side of the swimmingpool to the deck? Or other ideas??

Besides this problem, the 47 is a beast in this weather!

kind regards,

Jan, swan47, yulunga

Dear all,

Since I got no replay at all, perhaps I should explain  better what I mean: the the main deck is the area beteen the to entrances (two sprayhoods) surrounded by a coaming on both sides and the mainsheettraveller on the aftside.

This area has no drains, other then 2 holes on both sides under the traveller. And it acts as a swimming pool. And all the water in the pool end up in the cockpit, where the canals on the side are not able to deal with this amount of water resulting in a very wet cockpit.

Does any 47 owner has a solution for this?

jan,

yulunga 47/11

Dear Jan,

ops maybe no one has a better idea then the original solution, alas.

matteo (47/069 Vanessa)

Dear Jan,

You are meaning the so called bridge deck. I do not have this problem most probably because I faced very seldom your situation. Breaking fore or side waves or pitching invaded mainly the forward deck and the sides, in my experience of severe weather.

I have eliminated the aft sprayhood and I keep the original S&S design for the aft entrance. In my rare cases of water invading the bridge deck this had been not very much and was easily washed away because the boat was heeled, too.

Is the aft dodger in your case as large as covering only the width of the porthole, of course kept shut.? (This was, too, the original design as it shows off on the remaining rails of my old  dodger).

I have seen broader aft sprayhoods ( Lolita?) arriving until the coamings and I think they are a mistake.

You might, too, consider to shorten the length of the mainsail sheet rail,  but it is an expensive affair.

I would exclude, too, drainers yielding to the side deck (which is lower), although less expensive to fabricate.

Can you send a picture showing the aft area of the bridge deck?

Best regards, and following seas!

Matteo

Dear Matteo,

Thank you for your reply. Please see the picture of the sprayhood.

I know it is not original to have a sprayhood like this, but it is extremely comfortable.

We are now trying to find amway to keep it comfortable and less wet in conditions with more wind and more waves as described.

One way for sure is to reduce more sail. I think in conditions as we encountered our third reef still leaves us with too much sail.

Jan

yulunga/swan 47