yacht boat locker

16 Awesome Storage Ideas to Transform Your Boat

Let’s face it: With all the gear and equipment you need to have for a good time out at sea, a boat can be a cluttered, busy place. Whether it’s charts and safety equipment or essentials for making your boat feel like home, your boat can quickly feel like a messy floating storage unit if it’s not organized properly.

That being said, organizing your gear and belongings on a boat is a bit trickier than when on land. In reality, just because your organization system works in your home doesn’t mean it will work on your boat. In fact, it probably won’t.

If keeping your boat organized feels like an insurmountable task, we understand. Thankfully, we have some tips and tricks for keeping your boat clean and orderly without breaking the bank or driving you bonkers. Interested in learning how to keep your recreational boat organized? Let’s get started!

1. Waterproof Storage Bags

2. marine rope organizer, 3. cargo nets, 4. door hanger, 5. plastic storage bins, 6. in-drawer organizers, 7. hanging baskets, 8. helm organizers, 9. cup holders, 10. shoe organizer, 11. magnetic strips, 12. in-stair drawers, 13. wall racks, 14. t-top organizer, 15. wall rails, 16. compression packing cubes, start with the blueprints, make a list, start organizing, install additional storage, storage ideas for your boat.

Okay, now that you understand how storage is different on a boat compared to on land, let’s dive into the world of boat storage ideas. It turns out that there’s a whole lot of different ways to store essentials and small luxuries on a boat, it’s just about making your space work for your needs. Not sure where to start? Here are some ideas:

If you’re looking to store gear on deck, a storage bag is a solid option. These water, rot, and mildew-resistant bags usually sling over a railing and feature a number of pockets, which keep your essential supplies easily accessible.

Earth Pak are my favorite storage bags for organizing gear above deck. They have a fold down top which makes them completely waterproof. The one here is available in 50L or 70L sizes.

This is the boat organizer you didn’t know you needed until now. The rope organizer is ideal for capturing all those anchor lines lying around on deck.

It’s made from durable fabric that’s coated to be water repellent so you don’t need to worry about mold or rot occurring on the material. In fact, the manufacturers reckon it will last longer than your boat itself.

If you buy this product from Surf Monkey Gear, you can even get it customized with your name (or even the name of your boat!).

Cargo nets are a fantastic way to keep equipment organized within a hatch or locker as they can secure items to the frame of the boat to prevent them from rolling around. Alternatively, a cargo net could be placed in a good location to hold onto inflatables, lifejackets, and the like while on the water.

Make use of the space on the back of your cabin door with a handy door organizer or hanging pockets. The hooks at the top will allow it to hang over any door without additional hardware.

There are plenty of options available with sizes for all sorts of boats. This Simple Houseware hanger is one example which is 36 1/4″ with four pockets.

If you find some bright and colorful pockets, you can make it look stylish whilst still providing valuable boat interior storage.

If you have a lot of small items that need organizing, a plastic storage bin can make it easy to keep all your gear in one place. These plastic storage devices are perfect for keeping smaller gadgets in place inside a larger cabinet or can be used on their own. Plus, they’re easy to clean and often come with holes so they can quickly drain water away from wet gear when necessary.

Drawers are great ways to store your essential items, but they can get messy pretty darn quickly. Drawer dividers can help you keep your boat’s built-in storage units even more organized so you can quickly find the item you need.

These days, drawer dividers come in a whole slew of different shapes and sizes so you can organize even the most cluttered of drawers. This example here is shown with make-up, but can be used for utensils, food, stationery, toys, or anything else you need onboard.

While a boat might have limited drawer and cabinet space, we often have plenty of room for over-the-head storage. Indeed, overhead spaces are often the least utilized locations for storage, despite the fact that they can be a fantastic way to maximize a space’s efficiency.

If you’re looking for more storage space in your galley or cabin areas, consider using a hanging basket or storage hammocks to organize some of your gear. Some storage hammocks, such as the one shown here can be used to store fruits and vegetables, bread, or other delicate items in your galley.

It has been designed especially for boats, even with small holes around the top to hang keys, hooks, fishing gear, and other small items.

Cup holders are an often-overlooked part of any vessel, despite the fact that they can help keep your relaxation areas much more organized when on the water. Commercially available cup holder systems can turn your outer deck into a comfortable lounging area with ease. Alternatively, they can be great for use inside the galley area, especially if you’re expecting some rock and roll during your voyage.

Especially if you like to be out on the water in a warm environment, shoes can quickly become a hazard on deck as people leave them behind when walking about the vessel.

A small canvas shoe organizer can quickly be draped over your boat’s railing to create a quick and easy storage system on the fly.

Wall-mounted magnetic strips are a great way to quickly and safely store tools, knives, and other essentials on your boat. These magnetic bars keep your most important items easily accessible at all times while simultaneously keeping them in a safe location, even as your boat pitches and rolls at sea .

Depending on the size of your boat, you may have stairs that lead from the outer decks into the main cabin. If you have enough room, a set of in-stair drawers can help you use this otherwise dead space for organization and storage of items that you want to have easily accessible. Just make sure to install magnetic latches so the drawers don’t constantly slide open and closed!

A small wall rack can be a great way to use wall space for storage on your boat. Small racks, such as the ones shown here can be used to organize a spice rack or other small containers in your galley for easy access during meal times.

It’s also possible to DIY your own rack out of wood. However, If you do this, be sure to use bungee cords to secure objects to the rack, even when at sea.

This next recommendation is a great pontoon boat storage idea. Put all that spare space in your T-top, bimini top or pontoon top to good use with a purpose-designed storage bag such as the one shown here.

Although designed with lifejackets in mind, they could easily be used for other belongings too. The one shown here has 2 zippered compartments and 3 mesh pockets which can be used for any boating gear.

Whether your fitting storage space in your powerboat or sailboat, chances are that you have plenty of spare wall space. You can make use of this extra room by installing wall rails.

These are similar to the rails you’ll find in a traditional kitchen that are suitable for holding pots, pans, and utensils. However, they can be used for all sorts of items from wet clothing to fishing gear. Just make sure you have enough S-hooks if you plan to hang lots of items from them.

When you think of packing cubes, you might associate them with heading off on exotic vacations. However, their space-saving design can be ideal for smaller boats where storage is a problem.

Once you have loaded your clothes and other belongings into the cubes, the second zip on the side can be closed to make your items super compact. This can allow you to save space in your wardrobe, sometimes taking up to 25% less space compared to regular packing cubes.

I’ve personally tried these Gonex cubes and was impressed at the quality given the budget price tag. They are available in three different sizes, all made with nylon which is one of the best synthetic materials when it comes to the strength-to-weight ratio.

Until this point, we’ve spent a lot of time discussing the various things you can do to add storage to your boat. However, it’s important to keep in mind that many boats already have built-in storage units – you just need to know how to maximize the space you already have.

Depending on the type of boat you own, you may already have a large amount of cabinetry and shelving units built into the interior spaces of your vessel. Most sailing and motor yachts that are meant for voyages on the open ocean will have ample racks, drawers, and under-seat lockers for securing objects while underway.

Additionally, even boats without an interior cabin will almost always have some sort of above-deck locker or two that can be used to store emergency equipment, anchors, secondary sails, and the like while on the water. Ultimately, it comes down to making good use of what you already have and supplementing your storage needs accordingly.

Organization Tips For Your Boat

Although many of us like to keep our homes clean and organized, it’s important to recognize that keeping a boat tidy requires some extra consideration that’s just not necessary when you’re on dry land. Thus, if you’re new to the world of boat storage, you may not yet understand the ins and outs of tidiness at sea. Here are a few ways that organization at sea is different from cleanliness on land:

• Make use of all the nooks and crannies

If you’ve ever been below decks on a boat, you’ll know that space is limited. Unlike your home, where you might have room to stretch out and create lots of open space, on a boat, spaces are necessarily cramped, unless you own a large yacht with 100 cabins.

Therefore, while you might manage to nicely arrange all of your belongings in a fashionable manner at home, that tactic probably won’t fly when you’re on a boat. When you store items on a boat, you’ll use every little nook and cranny you can find. This includes under-seat lockers, lockers above deck, and makeshift cabinets and drawers. If there’s empty space on a small boat , you can be sure that it’ll be used to store something while at sea.

• Remember, a boat can get very wet

When you store your personal belongings at home, you rarely have to worry about them getting wet (unless they’re in a bathroom or outside). On a boat, however, leaking windows and general life on the water means that most things inside your boat will likely get wet at some point, so you need to prepare accordingly.

Thus, if you have certain belongings that just can’t get wet, such as charts and sensitive electronics, consider alternative measures you can take to keep them dry. Protective cases and plastic bins, while not foolproof, can come in handy in these instances.

• Secure your storage ready for the waves

Perhaps the number one thing to consider when planning your storage spaces on your vessel is that boats move. This might be obvious to many of us, but if you haven’t spent much time out on the water before, you may not realize what effect the pitch and roll of a boat can have on all of your belongings.

• Consider accessibility

Since boats are often quite cramped below decks, you’ll want to consider how accessible each object needs to be during the day when you decide where to store it. If it’s a piece of safety equipment or something you often need to use above deck, perhaps consider storing it there, too, to avoid having to leave the helm to search for an object during your passage.

Alternatively, spare linens and extra dishtowels probably don’t need to take up a lot of prime real estate in your boat’s galley. A little bit of thought here can help alleviate a lot of frustration down the line.

How to Plan Your Boat Storage

Before we wrap this up and send you off to organize your own recreational boat, it’s important to take some time to plan out your boat storage before you just go out and start drilling holes in your boat for new cabinetry or buying new plastic bins for your smaller items.

Indeed, boat storage can get incredibly complex, so it’s imperative that all boat owners take the time to adequately pre-plan their storage layout so things don’t inadvertently become too complex or cluttered. Here are some tips to get you started:

If you can make a visual layout of where all the best storage areas are in your boat, it’ll be easier for you to identify places where you can potentially add new storage without interrupting the natural flow of movement around your vessel. Take note of any built-in areas and how accessible they are. You can also start to identify which of your areas can be used for what type of items (e.g. food, galley supplies, emergency equipment).

Next, you’ll want to make a list of all of the items you’ll need to store. You don’t need to get to specific, just make a general outline of all the gear you have that needs to be stored appropriately. Depending on the size of your boat, this might be a quick process, but if you have a sailing or motor yacht, you may need to spend a lot of time contemplating what it is that you actually need to store.

Once you have your list complete, you can start to assign various objects to appropriate storage locations. Place objects in storage areas purposefully and consider both the size and the shape of the storage location (especially important for built-ins) before using them. This will help you make better use of every square inch of available space in your boat.

Once you’ve used up all of the built-in storage in your boat, it’s time to install additional storage. This can be as simple as a helm organizer or as complex as installing a set of wall-mounted cabinets. What’s important here is that you don’t go around drilling holes and adding new storage places to your boat until you’ve fully used what you already have. This will help limit clutter on your boat and keep things more organized when you’re underway.

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What is the storage room on a boat called?

Whether you own a small powerboat or a large yacht, one thing you’ll need to consider is storage space on your vessel. Boats come with many different compartments, each designed to keep equipment and gear organized, safe, and out of the way until needed. So?

The storage area on a boat can be called many things. Some people refer to it as the “hold,” while others call it the “locker.” However, the most common term for boat storage space is the “bilge.” The bilge is the lowest part of the boat where water collects and is pumped out.

While the bilge is primarily designed to keep your boat afloat and dry, it can also serve as a storage space for equipment and gear. Typically, the bilge is divided into separate compartments that are accessible through large hatches or inspection ports. These compartments can be used to store spare parts, tools, safety gear, and other boating essentials.

Another common storage area on a boat is the “cabin.” The cabin is the primary living area on the boat and typically includes a sleeping area, galley, and bathroom. Within the cabin, there are also storage spaces such as cabinets, closets, and drawers. These storage areas are typically used to store personal belongings, clothing, and food.

If you own a sailboat, you may also have a “sail locker.” A sail locker is a storage area where you can store sails and other sail-related equipment. This type of locker is typically located in the forward part of the boat and is designed to keep your sails organized and protected.

In general, the type of storage space you have on your boat will depend on the size and type of vessel you own. Whether it’s the bilge, cabin, or sail locker, having adequate storage space on your boat is crucial to keeping everything organized and in its place. So, if you’re in the market for a boat, make sure to consider the storage options available to ensure you can bring everything you need on your next excursion.

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A Look At Anchor Lockers

Pss dockside inspections and offshore insights..

At first glance, having an on-deck anchor locker looks as practical as having a trunk in an automobile. It appears to be a great place to stow the rode, hide the windlass, pack up the deck brush and a bucket, and perhaps even tuck away a few bulky fenders. Coastal and inshore sailors love the locker, but offshore cruisers and racers have mixed feelings about them, especially when it comes to poorly thought-out wells that have been cleaved into a boats foredeck.

For years, we have wandered the Annapolis and Miami boat shows, peeking into anchor lockers and recording the good, the bad, and the just plain poorly designed. This photo essay comes from the scrapbook of photos weve accumulated during these dockside tours and our adventures on various boats; the accompanying commentary is gleaned from lessons learned during bluewater voyages, coastal cruises, and inshore passages.

As with all things boat-design related, choosing between an anchor setup with an on-deck locker or one with a deck spill pipe and a belowdecks chain well comes down to weighing the pros and cons based on your needs and what type of sailing the boat will be doing. Whatever your situation-whether youre buying a boat or looking to get yours properly set up-here are a few points to consider in regards to the sensible anchor locker:

• All points of access should be able to be made watertight.
• The lead angle of the anchor chain to the windlass expedites rodehandling rather than being set to accommodate keeping the windlass undercover.
• There’s enough room for chain to castle (pile up as it is stripped from the windlass) and still provide a clear fall.
• Cleat leads and opening the locker do not conflict.
• The bitter end of the chain has a length of nylon rode connecting it to a hard point on the boat so that the rode can be untied or cut in an emergency.
• The windlass was chosen to fit the task at hand, not just to fit the locker.

A Dry Locker

In the chain pipe versus anchor locker debate, one of the main arguments is that a contemporary on-deck anchor locker is much more difficult-often impossible-to make watertight. The International Sailing Federations (ISAF) Offshore Special Regulations treat anchor wells as cockpit volume. This is a clear indication that watertight status is not always in the cards, and in heavy weather, inundation may involve more than the drip from a wet anchor rode.

In heavy seas, even the lockers drains can become floodwater inlets, as PS Technical Editor Ralph Naranjo discovered on a lumpy passage from Bermuda. The boats crew learned the hard way what an anchor well full of water could do to decrease buoyancy and increase the pitching moment of a Swan 48 MKII. It took the repeated efforts of crew wedged in the forepeak to pump the locker dry using a permanently installed manual bilge pump.

Inspection found that the culprits were the two relatively small drain holes located just above the boats resting waterline. Through these, water gushed into the locker each time the bow plunged into a wave face.

While these drains were welcome features dockside and during coastal passages-they help keep the decks clear of anchor mud and other detritus from the depths-the euphemism locker drain takes on a whole new meaning at sea.

Lesson learned: Before going to sea, close off the anchor locker penetrations regardless of whether they’re on deck or in the hull, and regardless of whether they’re intended inlets or outlets.

Locker Design

Not all anchor lockers are created equal, as was evident during our boat-show walkabouts. Some had forward-facing anchor rode exits that were more spout-like entrances begging waves to enter; others were built in trench-like recesses that also invite water to follow a path of least resistance. Some were so shallow that only a few feet of chain rode would fit the chain box. A few doubled as a location for bow thruster relays and anchor windlass electrical accoutrements.

Placing a windlass in the recess of a well is walking the fine line of compromise. The upside is an uncluttered deck; the downside includes limited chain fall-the distance between the chain gypsy and the locker bottom-which can lead to problems with chain castling and links jamming in the gypsy.

Perhaps the biggest drawback is that in the event the locker floods during a passage, the windlass, solenoid, and junction box may be submerged for hours or days at a time. If the anchor windlass breaker has been left on, the stray current corrosion can be a very big deal, especially aboard aluminum boats.

And then theres the anchor lid. Boat designers often wrestle with how it should open and how it will function in concert with lines and cleats. The importance of a well thought-out design was highlighted during one PS editors recent charter aboard a 40-some footer.

The boat was anchored using a chain/rope rode secured to a twin set of cleats just aft of the anchor locker. When a formidable 0300 squall rolled in and the crew needed to get out a second anchor, they soon realized it was stowed in the on-deck locker, and the primary anchors rode ran straight across the locker lid, barring access. The rope rode, tight as a guitar string in the gale, would have to be rerun before the crew could extract the second anchor. In order to simply open the locker, the crew had to attach a line to the primary rode, put a block on the rail, and as the rode was slipped from the cleat, another crew transferred the tension to a cockpit winch.

Lesson learned: Be sure theres no conflict between cleat leads and the lockers opening; if there is, store essential gear elsewhere.

Construction Inspection

A peek into an anchor locker can give you a good idea of the boats construction quality. A boats stem area is usually free of laminate-hiding liners, and the curious consumer can see how well controlled the layup was, how the hull-to-deck joint was made, and what efforts were made to spread the loads linked to attached hardware. So while you scrutinize the line locker, also take a look at how the boat was built.

This quick inspection could save you from big headaches down the road, as one delivery skipper discovered. He learned the hard way how some production boatbuilders cope with putting a lid (the deck) on a very big box (a boat). The better the builder, the tighter the fit. More hurried builders over-trim bulkheads and some even allow them to float. And that is exactly what made life miserable for the delivery skipper and his crew.

As they beat to windward and their anchor locker filled, the water discovered the bad hull-to-deck fit and the builders less-than-careful tabbing. In effect, it was the exact opposite of how a collision or watertight bulkhead should be constructed, and the result was a leak that was nearly as threatening as a crack in the hull.

Lesson learned: If the boat you own-or the one you are about to buy-has an anchor well, check carefully and see how its sealed off from the rest of the boat. Also check sealed wire-run leads and all bulkhead penetrations.

By no means is this a condemnation of the concept of an anchor well. For coastal cruisers and offshore sailors, it can work, but its important to consider the points we’ve covered here. Every builder varies in their approach to locker design and construction, so give any boat you’re potentially buying close scrutiny to be sure the anchor locker has been well thought-out and well built. If you already own a boat, be sure it is up to the task at hand.

The contemporary anchor locker setup favors clear-deck convenience. This compromise can have some serious disadvantages. As with most things on sailboats, boat owners/buyers have to weigh the pros and cons and find a balance that meets their needs.

Anchor lockers are a convenience to coastal cruisers but no friend to offshore sailors. Passagemakers often forgo a deck-clearing locker for a belowdecks anchor-chain well. An angled spill pipe leads the anchor chain from the deck to the well, which often is under the forepeak and behind a watertight bulkhead. The setup not only eliminates the flooded-bow worries inherent with an on-deck locker, but it also moves the chain and anchors’ weight lower and further aft, where it should be to avoid hobby-horsing.

To keep water out of the belowdecks chain box, you first must keep water from pouring down the spill pipe. We have heard of numerous methods to seal the deck hole—from Silly Putty and duct tape to threaded brass caps and rags—and most of them work in most conditions. The holestopper methods PS contributors have found to be effective in even the heaviest of weather (when a boarding sea can create a fire-hose effect) include:

Teak plug : Sized to fit the deck hole and about 6 inches long, with an eye for attaching the chain to the bottom (after it’s removed from the anchor) and a fitting on top for pulling it out later (which may have to be done with a halyard). As the wood gets wet, it swells to seal the hole. PS contributors and circumnavigators Evans Starzinger and Beth Leonard use a Delrin plug in the same way, but they bed it with silicone before getting underway.

Closed-cell foam (from a cushion, Nerf ball, or the Forespar TruPlug): PS Technical Editor and bluewater sailor Ralph Naranjo suggests squeezing closed-cell foam “like a rubber rivet into the aperture.”

Other tried-and-proven methods include leaving the anchor on and spraying canned expanding foam insulation into the hole (this dislodges easily when the anchor is dropped); shoving a tennis ball into the chain-pipe (for a chain still attached to a bow anchor, split the ball half-way and pass the chain through it); cramming a rag into the hole and spraying foam insulation over it.

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Working with High-Tech Ropes

If like most of us you leave the chain on the gypsy of the windless the chain naturally is IN the hole To the chain box so completely sealing it is next to impossible BUT does it need to be? In my case The chain box never gets more water in it then the bilge pump can pump out so a drain from the chain box to a deeper bilge with a automatic pump takes care of the amount of water getting through the chain hole. In fact even when waves are coming over the bow little water gets down that hole. Then I would expect everyone has rope spliced on to the end of their chain rode (personally I have 100 feet of it. And it’s spliced NOT shackled because a chain shackle won’t fit through the whole nor will it fit in the gypsy when transition from the chain to rope. (Rarely ever exceed my anchor chain BUT if needed to anchor in a deep anchorage I have a additional 100feet of rope rode) the end of that rope has a eye splice and THAT is attached to a shackle attached to the backing plate of the windless. I used to use sections of foam pool noodle split around the chain to close up the hole but I found so little water actually entered in that hole. It wasn’t worth the effort. My windless also is not at the very bow like some ether and it takes some pretty big waves to get to the hole, ( the whole foredeck would have to go under to submerge the windless and and then stay submerged for enough water to over load my bilge pump.

now originally the factory setup was no windless and a very shallow anchor locker that might fit a small danforth anchor a short length of chain and 100-150 feet of rope rode. It drained well under the clipper bow BUT this is no longer my primary anchor @and the primary anchor chain is not stored there.

I have two such danforth anchors on board in addition to my primary mantis anchor one is store in the original anchor locker the other secured in the aft locker. With a extra length of mooring chain so I can make up multiple anchor setups. (Or if my primary anchor and chain rode get hung up somehow that I was forced to cut it free and loose my primary anchor I have two backups until I can get a new primary.

All in all a all chain rode (with a rope rode added to the end) and a windless mounted further back from the bow and directing the chain down to a anchor box low and further back then the immediate bow is by far a better setup then small on deck recessed anchor boxes ) but I guess when these designers designed these little on deck anchor stowage it was for those who’s boats are NOT left at anchor they day sail out of a marina and maybe anchor up at a beach for the day do some swimming the pull the anchor up and head back to their slip . They also stay at the marina when heavy seas anencephaly big waves are forecast. So the design is perfect for them but no offshore cruising boat if it was actually designed as one (or redesigned well) has much use for a shallow on deck anchor locker.

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Boat enclosures are exposed to many unforgiving environments. To meet a broad variety of challenges, Boatswain’s Locker selects only high-quality marine canvas, fabrics and hardware for all custom-fitted and factory replacement products. Since your boat and boating needs are unique, your marine canvas boat enclosure is personalized, built and custom fitted to your boat. Boatswain’s Locker’s standard enclosures are designed to attach bimini and sport tops with zippers, whereas hard tops are attached with tracks.  Plus, our marine grade canvas enclosures can be customized to attach to windshields and boat hulls using your choice of fastener type. Clear enclosure vinyl products are made from coated or non-coated clear press-polished polyvinyl. Normally, we use 40-gauge Strataglass on larger boats and 30-gauge on smaller boats. Moreover, each enclosure is skirted to match the rest of the canvas. Find out for yourself why yacht owners and recreational boaters prefer Boatswain’s Locker marine grade boat enclosures for their custom fit and excellent clarity, durability and strength. 

Enclosure clarity options.

You have the option of using different polyvinyl materials for window-glass areas, such as 30-gauge extruded, 30 or 40-gauge Strataglass or 60-gauge Makrolon AR Polycarbonate. To best fit your individual needs, owners of smaller boats may choose a window in the back curtain to increase visibility. Or, for a larger boat, you may want a center forward slider; or u-zips (which allow the curtains to be opened without unfastening hardware); or you might want to add u-zip screens. 

Desgining Your Custom Boat Enclosure

Whatever you want and needs, Boatswain’s Locker manufactures custom-fitted marine grade boat enclosures for the most unforgiving environments.

Boat Enclosure Fabrics

Choose from a variety of fabrics such as Recacril®,  Weblon®, Sunbrella®, Seamark and Stamoid®. Every Boatswain’s Locker boat enclosure is double hemmed and turned, and pockets are zipped and double sewn for strength. The normal custom bimini package includes a boot which wraps the bimini to the frame when not in use or for protection during traveling. Zippered pockets are used to attach the fabric to the frame making disassembly or fabric replacement easy.

Boat Enclosure Frames

Boat enclosure frames are provided in 1″ or 1 ¼” stainless steel double-walled tubing for stability and corrosion resistance and are secured to the deck with straps made of 1” nylon webbing or upgraded to 1" stainless steel double-walled tubing for extra stability. 

Boat Enclosure Fittings

Only the highest quality mounting fittings are available used to accommodate any application. All necessary stainless steel screws and mounting hardware are included with your custom enclosure frame. Picking the fabric, frame and fittings for a boat enclosure doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Boatswain’s Locker can walk you through all the options. Just ask us or email  [email protected] .

When you choose Boatswain’s Locker, you get the right boat enclosure for your boat.

If you would like to contact us about an enclosure for your boat, fill out the form below and we will send you a free quote.

Call us at (904) 388-0231 today for pricing and availability! 

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Improve Your Anchor Chain Locker

• By Roger Hughes
• Updated: February 16, 2018

The chain locker in the forward-most part of the bow of my Down East 45 schooner, Britannia , was totally inadequate for the 250 feet of 3⁄8-inch chain that I considered a minimum for my 22-ton boat.

Every time we weighed anchor — even when only part of the rode had been laid — the chain always piled up in the locker and jammed the windlass. To allow the remainder to be wound in, someone had to then scramble over the forward cabin bunks, open the locker’s equally inadequate little door and push the pile of wet chain to one side. Sometimes this had to be done twice, and was very tiresome, especially when my wife and I were the only two crew aboard.

The chain would not self-stow because the locker was in the steep V-shaped section of the bow and the chain had no room to spread as it piled up. There was nothing that could be done to enlarge this space, but every time it happened, I swore I would somehow try to reroute the chain into one of the large compartments under the V-berth bunks. These were easily large enough to accommodate all the chain, and only used for storage of spare pipes and lines we hardly ever used.

If we could relocate the chain, there would be an additional advantage: 250 feet of 3⁄8-inch chain weighs about 420 pounds, so the farther aft the chain could be stowed, the lighter the weight on the bow. It is always better to keep weight on a boat’s extremities to a minimum (at both ends) to reduce pitching.

There were two large compartments under the forward cabin bunks, the aftermost one being the widest and deepest; it was 33 inches deep and 21 inches fore-and-aft, and spanned the width of the hull. The question was how to direct the chain into one of these compartments. The larger one also had a solid fiberglass floor, which would be ideal for a chain locker because the chain could spread better on the flat surface, unlike the V-shape of the bow.

I considered how to redirect the chain into this larger space, which is 4 feet farther aft from the existing chain locker and directly under the bunks when the filler board and cushion are in. I couldn’t run a tube directly from the navel pipe into the new locker because it would pass straight through the middle of the forward double berth.

Previously, when I installed a new Maxwell electric windlass to replace the old manually operated one, I positioned it on top of the bowsprit. The chain then ran smoothly from the bow roller, around the windlass wildcat (also known as a gypsy) and down through the navel pipe into the chain locker.

The only possible route for the chain was down through the existing locker, around an almost 90-degree curve and through a tube under the bunks. But would it then continuously feed under its own weight?

I decided to experiment using some 2-inch-­diameter plastic conduit pipe that is normally used to carry electrical wires. I bought this from our local Lowe’s hardware store for about $10, including a 90-degree elbow. It is amazingly strong stuff, with a wall thickness in excess of 1⁄8 inch, and very rigid when connected together.

Because it was a near-­vertical drop, the chain easily rolled off the wildcat and down into the original chain locker. However, to get it into my new locker it then needed to pass through the curved pipe and travel a further 45 inches along a tube to finally fall into the center of the new compartment. The long tube would therefore need to be angled downward enough to help overcome friction as the chain slid along it, and it would need to have a deep enough fall at the end for the weight to haul the rest of the chain in a continuous, automatic feed. I had no idea what sort of slope would be needed, or how much fall the chain needed to continuously drag itself through this pipework. Nor could I experiment with the angle of the pipes in the actual locker because the 2-inch- diameter tube had to pass through a bulkhead between the two compartments, and I didn’t know where to drill the large hole.

There was only one way I could think of to determine a suitable angle. I assembled a crude mock-up, using my workbench and a stepladder to hold the tubes. The down pipe, which would pass through the old locker, was 34 inches long; the pipe to carry the chain into the center of the new compartment was 45 inches long. It all looked somewhat amateurish, but it gave me an idea of what sort of angle was needed. I used 50 feet of 3⁄8-inch chain and fed it through the tubes; after a bit of adjustment, I found a minimum slope of approximately 10 degrees allowed the chain to run continuously as I fed it into the top pipe. I took measurements and transferred them to determine where the hole needed to be cut in the bulkhead between the two compartments.

Before I could install anything, I had to haul all the chain off the boat and pile it up on the marina dock to give me a clear working space.

Luckily, the plywood base of the bunks had only been screwed to the beam structure underneath, so I removed the complete starboard-­side section, which gave me much more space to work in. I marked where the hole needed to be in the intervening bulkhead and cut a hole using a 2½-inch hole saw. I also had to greatly enlarge the tiny drain hole in the bottom of the original chain locker to be able to position the 2-inch-diameter curved pipe. I didn’t want this to show above the 6-inch bed cushion, so I kept it at 5 inches above the bed boards.

I found it impossible to use solid pipe to connect the navel pipe on deck to the curved tubing below because the angles were completely misaligned. I therefore bought a length of flexible truck fuel-hose tubing from a NAPA auto-parts store, which was just right, with a 2-inch internal diameter. I was able to join it directly to the 2-inch round flange on the navel pipe using a hose clamp, then clamped the other end to the conduit elbow at the bottom of the locker. This gave the chain a perfect lead into the conduit elbow.

When it was all finally assembled, I had a continuous, waterproof tube all the way from the deck, straight through the old locker, around the curve and along the pipe into my new chain locker. The total length was 86 inches.

Having installed all the tubing, I still couldn’t be absolutely certain if all this effort would actually eliminate the banking-up problem. I had used only a small length of chain in my simulation, but as it piled up in the locker, the distance it had to fall would reduce. So, the question was, would the fall still be enough for the chain to continue to self-feed right to the last link? There was only one way to find out.

As I assembled the pipework, I ran a ¼-inch rope inside to enable me to pull the first links of chain through the tubes. I passed this line over the windlass wildcat and tied it to the first link, then easily pulled the chain through the complete tube and shackled it to a hefty eye-bolt, which I bolted through the locker bulkhead. The maximum fall, from the end of the pipe to the bottom of the new locker, was 27 inches, and the chain landed right in the center of the locker.

The base of the new chain compartment was much bigger than in the bow, and also flat. I hoped this would allow the chain to disperse itself into a larger pile. Happily, this proved to be the case, because all the chain ran into the new locker on its own — every last link!

I fancied I even saw a little smile from the windlass, which would no longer have its teeth almost pulled out every time the chain jammed.

In the original layout, seawater coming in on the chain, which can be quite substantial, especially with a full-length rode, drained into the bilge. The boat manufacturers had put two drain holes in the bottom of the flat compartment floor, which drained into the bilge channel also.

I was confident this redirecting exercise had solved the vexing problem, but you never know on boats. Murphy is always just around the corner.

If, just to be awkward, the chain ever jammed up again, the only way to knock the pile over would be to move the bulky berth cushion, with all the sheets, covers and pillows, lift the locker door and reach down into the deep space. I could see this would actually be more of a nuisance than before. I therefore had a plan to be able to get to the chain pile easily and quickly. The rear of the new compartment formed the back of a seat between the V-berths. I cut a large aperture in this panel, which offered immediate access to the chain compartment without having to disturb the bunks. This also did not need a door, because the seat-back cushion and berth above covered it up. It just needed trim around the edges.

Britannia now has a totally self-feeding anchor-chain system, which hasn’t failed so far, even on the rare occasions I have anchored using all 250 feet of the rode.

I did receive a complaint from the first guests who used the forward berth: They said it sounded like an earthquake as we weighed anchor one morning. But I didn’t pay much heed; they should have been up as we got underway anyway.

On the plus side, Britannia ‘s bow came up about an inch, due to shifting the heavy chain farther aft.

Does your boat have an inadequate chain locker that won’t accept all your chain without having to knock the pile over? If you can manage to fix it, it will come as a wonderful relief every time you weigh anchor and all the chain mysteriously disappears below.

Suppliers and Cost

Do-it-yourself sailor Roger Hughes is a frequent contributor to Cruising World.

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