Practical Boat Owner

Putting yourself in the doghouse

I bought my 1968 bilge keel Hurley 22 Spindrift around two years ago with the intention of preparing her for some single-handed offshore sailing.

Despite the moderate size of my Hurley, there was still a fair bit to do. New rigging, through-hulls, chainplate refurbishment, complete rewire, installing a compression post and fitting a Windvane self-steering gear. The list of jobs goes on and on as you can imagine.

One of the biggest changes visually was the little doghouse, or ‘solid dodger’

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