The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site
The shelter provided by a good dodger and enclosure can make all the difference on an offshore voyaging sailboat, but there are also tradeoffs.
Phyllis and John share what they have learned after three iterations of dodger design and build finally produced a perfect result on Morgan’s Cloud.
After reading about our hard dodger, very experienced liveaboard voyagers Lane and Kay Finley sent along a detailed description of their hard dodger, complete with photographs. The advantage of theirs over ours is that it is all hard with glass windows; much stronger and pretty much maintenance free. On the other hand, I like the larger expanse of window, fewer blind spots and curved shape of ours.
Benafits and drawbacks of a cockpit enclosure for an offshore sailboat.
Considering a cockpit enclosure? Building one that a real sailor can love takes a deep fixation on getting the details right.