John Hughes (SARAH) contributed the following: “A warning from someone who's been there: (boy, do I feel stupid saying this!) when you're working alone on the boat, and you have to climb down into one of those seat lockers, prop a cushion somewhere so that the lid can't close. I had that happen to me one winter, and the hasp closed itself and the lid wouldn't open. Fortunately, by banging on the side where the hasp attached, I was able to make it "jump" and let me open the lid...but for a while, I was having dreams of spending the night in there or worse…… It happened in the years before cell-phones, but even with a cell phone...what are you gonna do if there's bad reception? There's not a lot of room to change to try to find a better signal in that locker!

(Ed. Note: Years ago I relocated the cockpit locker hasps so they couldn't lock one inside – i.e., turned the hasps “upside down”.  When I received my boat back from Alex at Whitby Boat last year (after having the topsides and cabin top refurbished/repainted), I discovered that they had mounted the hasps in the "normal" way.  One of the first things I did was to mount the hasp on the lower part of the cockpit so that I wouldn't get "locked in". I also attached a short “lanyard” to the top part which facilitates opening the locker.

 I normally work on out boat by myself, and have often wondered how long I would have to wait till Kaye discovered that I was being held "incommunicado" in the cockpit locker, as I often spend a lot of time there, especially in the STBD locker, checking the transmission oil level, stuffing box, etc.)