by truenorth on Mon Nov 04, 2013 4:04 pm
One thing to keep in mind is that the lazarettes, as presented in the manual and on PocketShip #1, is an "open plan." If you open the laz hatch you'll be staring down into the flotation and if you move the flotation you'll be looking at the hull. 1/2" beyond that is water flowing under the boat. There are no drain holes nor a bilge drain from the laz area on a stock PocketShip.
However, a common modification is to put extra laz cleats and boards in the laz area to separate the flotation from what would be the storage area. See Dave Curtis' blog for the best example on the 'net. You can take this one step further and completely seal off the flotation but by doing you'll lose the ability to change out the flotation, which will deteriorate over time.
In the event of a disaster, in a complete swamping or knockdown, having a laz drain out fairly high above the water line would be OK as long water can't get in, either. Some boats, such as mine and Sean Miller's (see his great blog if you haven't) installed a small bilge pump between bulkheads 7 and 6 to help drain the bilge, but again, that's not draining the laz. A second bilge pump secured between the transom and bulkhead 8 pumping into the cockpit by the footwell is also a consideration but may be overkill for the type of sailing it's meant to do. If the flotation is sealed off, I'd recommend draining the lazarettes into the footwell, not through the transom. Besides, the more holes in the transom, the less sapele you'll have, which would be a shame.