Marty wrote in
:

That's true, generally when people come aboard mine they remark "Holy
crap! That's a long way down!"



The Amel Sharki has that effect, too. When you sit in the center
cockpit seats, the seat back/coaming and winches are level with your
shoulder blades. My feet barely touch the deck if I'm sitting back. If
you trip coming aboard it IS a long way down to that deck!

The other shocker is how far down it is to the engine room. There's a
hatch on both sides of the engine to access the front of the engine you
can't get to from lifting the whole cockpit deck top hatch. One side is
easy as it's the starboard passageway to the aft cabin. The engine room
hatch is a little below the deck level in a little well giving you a
seat. The PORT side, however, is another matter! There is a "trunk"
you must lower yourself into with no steps only a little bigger than a
fat man (me). The hatch to the port side of the engine is in the BOTTOM
of it, meaning one must crouch down with his knees into his ears to get
to it. When a 6' man stands up in this trunk, only the top half of his
head is above the level of the hatch above it (and the port lazerette)
that forms the port seat in the cockpit. It's very deep and a PITA to
get into/out of! Of course THAT's where the damned seawater impeller
must be changed from on the Perkins 4-105 tractor engine.

It's 5 steps more from cockpit deck level down to cabin deck level.
Standing in the cabin looking out the ports, you're eye is at the level
of the shoes of anyone standing on deck...far above.

In the sole of the cabin are several access hatches into the bilge, one
above the bilge sump everything but the head dumps into. This cavity is
like looking into a sewer through a manhole cover! There is NO WAY of
reaching anything to do with the bilge pump or its switch laying on your
belly over this hatch. You hand doesn't reach halfway down! You need a
grappling arm of some sort to get down there. I have no idea how you'd
get to the pump if the bilge were flooded. There is a large manual
diaphram junk pump located under the steps to the cockpit, its handle
fits into a slot in the second step. Pump out the bilge, first, I
suppose. It has 3 electric pumps, one large diaphram trash pump that
sucks out the kitchen food that gets down the sink and two automatic
RULE monsters that could double for jet propulsion if the batteries hold
up, the biggest pumps RULE makes. When you open the tap on the sinks,
or take a shower, you simply start the trash pump to pump it over the
side.

I don't know what's living way down in her bilge. I've never been
growled at. I'm amazed how clean it stays with all that dishwater
dumping into there and being pumped out. And, oddly, it doesn't stink
like other boats with standing bilge water. "Let Dawn move stink out of
your bilge!"