A section of one of the original plan sheets showing the original cockpit concept.

When ‘Morgane’ was designed she was drawn with a small cockpit, a deck hatch as an entrance companionway, and an aft cabin. This would have given a deep and protected cockpit with a high bridge-deck (the black line on the drawing) between the cockpit and the companionway. Getting from the cockpit to the companionway would have been scary in any kind of seaway.

As far as I know she wasn’t built like this; instead the builders dropped the bridge deck to the same level as the cockpit seats and sloped the companionway hatch (red lines on drawing). This made a much more protected bridge deck but made building the aft cabin impractical as it removed the head-room in the access way behind the engine. They instead opted for a hatch in the deck outboard, over where you see the double bed in the plan, and formed a lazarette (a useful place on a boat where you store junk broadly equivalent to a garden shed!). Read more ›