Ronald Raygun wrote:


as our boats were made for charter and almost all the
hatches are configured to open forward.


This is *UK*.rec.sailing. *Our* charter regs require hatches to hinge
at the front. Mind you, these regs are fairly young, not more than
about 15 years old. I expect you lot across the pond don't even have
regs which apply to recreational charter craft and not to recreational
non-charter craft.


U.S. regs don't have much for bare boat charters, and its not a large
business in the states. Even small crewed boats often under "6-pak"
rules (so-called because the operator's license is only valid up to 6
passengers) which are pretty easy for a production boat to meet. For
more passengers, a vessel must be "inspected" which is considerably
more strict, and pretty much requires that a boat is designed for that
purpose.

FWIW, I don't recall ever seeing rear facing hatches on a recreational
sailboat, except aft hatches. My boat has 4 forward facing hatches
forward of the mast. It was designed and built in Canada, an a number
of them are in charter service.



Of course it may be that since they are old, they still considered
that if people didn't close the hatches before they got underway, they
deserved wet bedding rather than try to legislate it out for them.


Our charter rules also require hatches to be labelled with a notice
"NOT TO BE OPENED AT SEA".


Does that apply to all hatches, or just those up forward? I have
hatches 8 feet above the waterline that can't take water in seas under
about 4 feet. I usually close them in rougher weather to avoid
catching spray, but they only really need to be dogged down in seas
over 8 feet.