Curtain or Bulkhead?

[JWS]

I appreciate your opinion and experience on so many fronts when it comes to boat building. But I have to strongly disagree with that statement. Yes, anyone who is looking to break into boats and force entry could get in, but a locked door will usually deter the teenagers, the drunk guy who saw something shiny, the dude that needs to "borrow" something from you at 5 AM. The honest people. There's a reason that cliché is a cliché, because it's true.

Agreed. They’re not going into my locked boat when they can get into my neighbours boat with the curtain.

 

[BC Coast Pilot]

I have a 3 piece drop curtain on my 30’. The 2 before had curtains as well. Fire up the diesel heater and we can heat anyone out of the cabin with the curtains down. Once we start fishing, the curtains get rolled up. I even have my seats on swivels, so we can swivel the seats aft while trolling. I much prefer the open cabin to cockpit. View attachment 125098

This time, I had the upholsterer use C-channel around the top and sides of the curtains. Much better than snaps and twist locks,


If you get a bulkhead for the security of a locked door, you are fooling yourself. Give anyone a flat blade screwdriver and they can defeat the door lock. If a thief wants into any of our boats, access is not difficult.

Yup, 3 piece roll up with channel for me too! If its just a couple of us on a rainy day we just roll up the centre and the roll up just zippers into the flap. Those Hondas look fantastic! Got me thinkin. Don't listen to Rain City about security...He lives in Vancouver

 

[wdlfbio]

Agreed. They’re not going into my locked boat when they can get into my neighbours boat with the curtain.

Naw. They’ll steal from all of us. Until, we take em for a deep water fishing trip…

 

[wdlfbio]

I appreciate your opinion and experience on so many fronts when it comes to boat building. But I have to strongly disagree with that statement. Yes, anyone who is looking to break into boats and force entry could get in, but a locked door will usually deter the teenagers, the drunk guy who saw something shiny, the dude that needs to "borrow" something from you at 5 AM. The honest people. There's a reason that cliché is a cliché, because it's true.

But it’s Canada. Y’all are super nice and there’s no crime anyway…. .

Your point is certainly valid. I don’t leave shiny things laying about the boat either, so I reckon that neither of us give a thief any reason to come aboard anyway. Nice thing about our aluminum boats is that each buyer gets to chose whether they want a bulkhead or curtains. Not a choice most glass guys get .

The only time we left our gear out was in Tofino. Everyone on the dock left all their rods in the rocket launchers. Sure saved a lot of time before and after each trip, but was a bit uncomfortable at first.

 

[Blue Hewes]

Thanks for all the responses. I definitely see the appeal of an open back for fishing. And I’m definitely a fairly hard-core fisherman and my wife loves it as well but, my wife runs cold and I think she would prefer a solid bulkhead and would come out with me more if she was guaranteed to be warm.

Fishing with your spouse does require some strategy. We went with a bulkhead and rear steering station. She is often cold as well and likes to sit inside. Even when I’m in a T-shirt. What works for us is myself sitting out back running the boat and her sitting inside looking back at the rods. It’s like having spotter to call out the hits. We can chat with the door open. I can worry about maneuvering the boat, watching the sonar (have a unit in the back), adusting downriggers and don’t need a constant eye on the rods. When she calls out a hit I jump for the rod and she transitions to steering the boat until I get things under control. Works well especially when in combat fishing situations