Making Lee Clothes

You'll have to forgive me for not knowing, absolutely, the name of those covers that cruisers position either side of their cockpits. I will call them lee clothes, and this week I made two for bohemian.

Why? They provide an amount of shelter and privacy in the cockpit. They can also add windage, so these fellows will be easily removable for when they need to come off and be stored

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How? I took simple measurements with generous clearances between the pushpit and rear staunchion. Took some heavy cloth in the desired colour and began hand sewing to these external dimensions. An excellent reference I have on Kindle is The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing and Ropework (1953) by Hervey Garrett Smith. This doesn't show exactly how to make lee clothes, but there's enough in it to allow you to hem the edges and sew in eyelets, which was of great interest for me. I love marlin-spike seamanship and the eyelets were a great example of this type of skill.

Eyelet making; the abovenamed book advises the sailor to use a short length of manila rope as the  form the round eyelet, then sew this into position. I made a bit of a botch of this technique and invented or recalled the idea of using a 3/8" stainless steel washer. The end result will not be the shiniest at anchorage, but it will be very strong and serviceable.

In the process I learned new skills, and practiced old ones, in the art of marlinspike seamanship. I also have two new lee clothes, had a day's fair employment and have confidence to sew an eyelet into a sail at sea if needs must.

The lee clothe can be customised with the boat's name and with little pockets for storing ropes or other kit. Fair winds.