When talking shop among sailors or reading about safety at sea, ventilation is not a topic that comes up much. Evidently it’s secondary to things like angle of vanishing stability, survival equipment, and overboard rescue skills. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a big effect on safety and comfort on board.
Yacht designers have come up with various ways to keep a cabin ventilated even when all the hatches are closed since stale air and diesel fumes can contribute to seasickness, and carbon monoxide (CO) from things like cabin heaters can cause headaches at best and death at worst. Cowl vents through the deck are common in spaces where a little bit of rain or spray won’t be a big deal—places like the anchor locker or the lazarette. For the cabin, many boats have employed dorade vents since they were invented for the famous Sparkman & Stephens yacht . These are cowl vents
