Hanse 388: Deck Storage

Earlier on, I started a series of posts with the intention of describing our Hanse 388 in a bit more detail than what you get from the official marketing documentation. The first post was called Hanse 388 — Every Nook and Cranny, and here’s number two, continuing the deck storage theme.

Deck Storage

There are six outside stowage places in total on the Hanse 388.

Two stern lockers, one cockpit locker, a bow locker and two opening aft benches.

For a detailed description of the aft benches, head over to this post: Hanse 388 — Every Nook and Cranny. For the rest, continue reading!

Aft Lockers

I can’t mention the aft lockers without mentioning how difficult it was to find a (six person offshore) life raft for our yacht.

First, we wanted to attach a container model to the aft rails, but according to the commissioning company, it couldn’t be done. After that, it took quite some time to locate the only bag model that would just barely fit into one of the aft lockers. (You can read more about this in The Life Raft Story.)

We have the stern anchor line and chain in the starboard locker. And some scuba gear.

And here’s how the life raft fits in.

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To be noted: it’s not very easy to get the heavy life raft out from the locker, so whenever we go a bit further offshore, we take it out and secure it to the cockpit table. (See pic below.)

The port locker is about the same as the starboard.

We put all our fenders (the factory default six fenders), our mooring lines and our extra long power cable in there. They fit perfectly! It did take a while, though, to figure out how to make them fit perfectly 😄.

Bow Locker

The bow locker is pretty straightforward.

The main occupants are the anchor windlass and the anchor chain, and after that we just put there whatever else will nicely fit. This usually includes our ten litre plastic diesel jerry can (spare fuel), thirty-five meters of mooring line, and a small tightly closed plastic bag containing a fuel funnel and some slightly diesel soaked cleaning cloth.

Cockpit Bench Locker

Finally, the cockpit bench locker is where we store “everything else”. Luckily, it widens up deeper down, and fits surprisingly much!

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Space for Charlotte

When we were shopping for our new yacht, one thing we were worrying about was whether the cockpit bench would be long enough to stretch out for some R&R in the sun. Charlotte is not extremely tall, so we were quite optimistic. The cockpit bench measurements where nowhere to be found, though, so we weren’t quite sure.

So, for all other people mildly interested in this, here they are!

What we found out, though, was that Charlotte never did lie down flat horizontally on the bench (she could actually barely fit), but rather she spent her moments there in a more comfortable half-sitting position. Problem solved! Or actually no problem in the first place.

There Could Always Be More Space

Once we learned how to fit all the fenders into a single aft locker, we were fine with the amount of storage space. The cockpit bench locker is quite big, so all the “small stuff” fits nicely there.

Two challenges, though:

Firstly, and the decidedly smaller challenge: the Quicksilver dinghy’s inflatable floor (with a hard wooden piece) doesn’t fit anywhere outside. We ended up storing it in O’s and J’s cabin, and that wasn’t really optimal.

Secondly, what to do if we get more sails? This summer we had just one extra sail, the wonderful code zero. It was great when hoisted, but when not in use, it was a big bulky bag that we didn’t really know where to put. Next summer, we’ll hopefully have one more extra sail, a storm jib, and I hope it will be quite a bit smaller.

It would be nice to have a sail locker (bigger bow locker), but the Hanse 388 doesn’t have one. The bigger Hanses do, but this is surely a line of thought that might lead out to dangerous waters 😄