Chapter Nine: Lee Cloths

Lee clothes, another very serious safety tool in the tool locker. They aren't complicated, they aren’t hard to set up, but they can save your life, and are a must.

The first thing I would like to address is the importance of having a sea birth on both port and starboard, and this should be a consideration if you’re still in the yacht buying phase of your cruising goals. A berth on only one side of the boat will only suffice for safe comfortable sleeping on one tack, and you and crew need safe comfortable sleeping on both tacks, and preferably on any point of sail. The latter is seldom possible.

A lee cloth is a piece of material, something strong like sunbrella, or old sail, preferably that breathes a little bit, and is pulled up alongside the berth from end to end, and around eighteen inches high. Its purpose is to  keep the person in the bunk when healing, or in worse conditions when the yacht is being violently tossed around. The person is secure in the bunk, and that security helps them sleep better, and a rested crew or skipper is of the utmost importance. Because as I always say, fatigue is the biggest enemy to safety. 

People can install or make lee cloths a few different ways,  and how it’s attached or constructed depends on what is underneath the settee. If the space in the settee is storage space, or usable space that may need to be accessible, that needs to be taken into consideration when considering how to install lee cloth.

If the space isn’t needed to be accessible, the lee cloth can actually wrap all the way under the cushion and to the backside of the bunk. It still needs to be fastened securely, and I’ll describe how to do that, but lying on top of the lee cloth gives it that much more infallibility as the persons weight is on it helping keep it in place, and it’s fastened securely. If the space in the settee needs to be accessible, then the lee cloth needs to be fastened at the outside edge of the bunk.

How I fasten a lee cloth is by wrapping edge of the cloth around a “batton”. The “batton” can be a piece of aluminum flat bar ¼” thick, or stainless steel if you prefer, or a piece of wood ¾” thick, by the length of the bunk. I do two wraps around the “batton” and then through bolt that to the bottom of the bunk, reaching under it to thread on the bolt. Hopefully that’s possible on your boat, but sometimes it’s not. If it’s not, then use really good stainless screws, and 3m 4200 to assist as a chemical bond to the bottom of the bunk. It’s best if there’s some thick substrate there to screw into, but if not, it’s still possible, fastening it the “back side” of the bunk would be best to have that added security of the person lying on top of it. Through bolting would be the strongest way of attachment, and should be bullet proof! Check you attachment points thoroughly if through bolting isn’t possible

Next the lee cloth is then attached to strong points at the forward and aft ends of the bunk at the height of the lee cloth, approx 18”. For this attachment point I like to see an eye “bolt” not a lag if possible, bolted through whatever is at either end of the bunk. It’s usually a bulkhead, that can hopefully be drilled through. I’m not big on the eye bolt sticking out it’s a real elbow, knee, head banger, sticking out of the bulkhead, but I haven’t come up with a better solution. I used to use a jam cleat on the bulkhead, but it wasn’t able to be secured well enough to the bulkhead, and I didn’t like the way the line sits in the cleat. I see that scenario in use a lot, or using little blocks to heave up the corners of the cloth, but all that is problematic, depends on little lines, and uses too many parts. 

The upper corners of the lee cloth have rings sewn in them very securely, and I like to use a snap shackle or a real carabiner, whipped onto the ring. The snap shackle can then quickly and easily be attached and unattached from the eye bolt. This makes getting in and out of the bunk easier and faster. Especially if one needed to get out in a hurry in a real bad seaway, unsnapping a snap shackle at one end of the bunk is easier, faster and safer than climbing over the lee cloth. Plus it makes it more likely that a sailor will actually use the cloth in a small sea. If the set-up is difficult, the person is less likely to utilize the cloth in a light seaway, but surprises can happen any time off shore, and better safe than sorry is the adage to employ here. Of course it’s up to the discrepancy of the sailor, and in a completely benign sea, not using it is understandable, and practical.

So that’s the lee cloth for athwartships safety, but what about “over” the sailor in the bunk? Well I think there should also be a “lee” cloth available “over” the sailor in the bunk as well. This lee cloth can be fastened to the back of the settee in the same way the bottom of the athwartships lee cloth is fastened to the bottom of the settee. Wrapped around a piece of your preferred batton, and it can be pulled to the same attachment eye bolts, and snapped on with snap shackles or carabiners in the same manner. Quick, easy, practical, and safe!