Climbing back into a boat from
the water is something that most sailors must have thought about at some time,
whether it is simply getting back on board after a swim or back on board after
falling overboard. While climbing back in after a swim is hard enough, climbing
back in after falling overboard when fully clothed and after your life jacket
has inflated must be neigh on impossible.
Tra Bhui has high sides for a
Drascombe. The overhang at the stern precludes the use of the outboard well as
a useable footwell, so anyone climbing back in would face a very real, challenge
indeed.
For reasons of safety and
convenience a ladder of some sort was required. To my mind the only effective
ladder is a rigid one and one which can be properly secured to the boat.
While there are numerous “rope”
type ladders on the market, none of the ones that I have seen adequately address
the issue of the rungs moving under the boat when you try and stand on them.
While rope ladders may offer a means of getting back into the boat for a
youngster in a swimming costume, they were not a solution that would give me
the confidence of being able to get back into the boat myself if I was fully
clothed, nor would they really make it any easier if I was recovering someone
else.
Ladder Mark 1
A few years ago Douglas Hopwood came up with a design for a
collapsible wooden ladder that he had used successfully on his own Drascombe
Appuskidu see: - http://www.hopwood.uk.net/Drascombe%20projects/Boarding%20Ladder.htm
This appeared to be a pretty good
solution and one which I thought I could adapt and make work on Tra Bhui.
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| Cutting the side section out of marine ply |
The idea of the ladder is that it
folds flat and can be stored on edge just inside the gunwale, between main sheet
horse and the stern of the boat. If required the ladder could be reached from
the water and lifted into position. The top of the ladder would hook over the
Gunwale and the ladders profile would
match that of the hull thus preventing it from swinging under the boat when
anyone stood on its lower rungs.
Using some off cut 8 mm plywood I
made up some templates of Tra Bhui’s hull as the two legs of the ladder would
need to be slightly different if each was to be scribed to fit snuggly against
the hull as not only does the hull taper in three dimensions, but the rubbing
strip around the hull closes in on itself.
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| Starting to round the edges |
With the templates made I transferred
the pattern onto some 20 mm marine ply.
After cutting out the plywood, priming and painting it (yellow to match
the hull) I assembled the ladder and tried it on Tra Bhui.
While the ladder fitted well it
was not as long as I would have liked (the length is governed by the distance
available for storage between the main sheet horse and the stern), it took up a
lot of room when stored on deck and made getting into the rear port hatch a bit
of a mission and it was hard to reach from the water due to the physical height
of Tra Bhui.
It was a solution, but it did not
really suit the Gig. I felt there must
be a better solution to the problem of getting back into the boat from the
water.
N.B. The ladder
I made was not made from Douglas Hopwood’s plans. I am sure Douglas’s ladders
work well and no doubt suit certain Drascombes better than others; I simply
picked up on his concept and made a larger one for the Gig.
Ladder Mark 2
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| Mark 2 Ladder |
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| Ladder stowed and ready for use |
The ladder is simply secured by 4
stainless steel bolts through the hull just below the Gunwale. A teak spacer
holds the ladder clear of the rubbing strip. To release it, it is simply a
matter of undoing two half hitches. The ladder then simply drops into the
water. By placing the ladder beside the
end of the main sheet horse the load on the hull is dispersed on both sides of
the boat and the horse provides a handy handhold when using the ladder.
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| Add caption |
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