Sailing inyourfootsteps.com

Main companion way mosquito netting

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What is the issue?
Mosquitoes can be a scourge and you will want to keep them out of the boat to be comfortable at night. Hatches are easy to cover, but the main companionway can present a challenge.

Why address this?
Mosquito bites are nasty and just the sound of one buzzing around in the cabin in the early hours is enough to drive you insane.

How to address this?
After devising many alternate companionway approaches we settled on the setup presented in figures 1 and 2.
The most effective seal is created by specifically tailored frames. However these can be unwieldy to step through and represent another large stowage item for an already overcrowded yacht. They are also subject to ripping when stored.
Our system utilised the main hatch’s tracks to trap rods in a seam plus a shock cord snapping over the lid handle. This completely seals the top of the hatch and the body netting falling flush over the bulkhead seals the front. Coming in and out just requires the crew member lifting and dropping the net back down again.
The net tends to bag down into the companionway at the front. A baton can be left on the top front edge to keep it up but generally we never bothered.
The key advantage of this system was the compact storage space and speed of set-up. All that was required to store the net was to wrap it around the encased rods and pop it into a sleeve. Assembly was a matter of flicking it out, inserting it into the tracks and snapping the finishing shock cord over the hatch. With the aid of a sewing machine it is simple to make and for a negligible cost.

With thanks to:
Michael Harpur, Yacht Obsession.

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