Cockpit Footwell

Seawinds were designed with large cockpit footwells. If confronted with a survival storm, we plan to lay to a series drogue, exposing our stern to breaking waves. This makes a strong, small volume cockpit essential. 

Our new design accomplished this by overbuilding our new companionway into the forward portion of our cockpit, and adding a series drogue box in the aft portion. Between these two, we laid a new plywood/fiberglass sole. This fit overtop the hole we cutout when removing the engine. Everything is structurally reinforced by our new cockpit locker bulkheads and dividers. Now our stern is much stronger and feels secure.

Original footwell

Large volume would be slow to shed water

Engine removal, footwell cutout

Drains moved aft

New companionway bulkhead decreases forward volume

New series drogue box partition decreases aft volume

Filling engine control holes

Footwell plywood heavily fiberglassed

New series drogue box

Finished footwell volume, reduced by half

New design at sea