Reply To: padding out a side deck
The side deck rules have always caused difficulties – but – at the risk of getting it wrong , here is the way I think it works. Please would measurers correct me if I am totally wrong.
The Sheerline is the intersection between the deck and side panel – not including the rubbing strake around the outside. Between stn 1 and 2 you should be able to locate this line on the deck. By the bulkheads you can find this spot at each end of the side-deck and the line should carry on round the side deck and not be concave ( you are supposed to be able to find the sheerline on the deck and follow it round in a fair curve ) . Then the deck rules for rubbing strake/gunwhale sizes outside the sheerline are easy to measure and similarly by putting a straight edge across the boat you can see if the side decks are outside the permitted range from the sheerline – up/down and into the cockpit.
I think Hughs boat was built with the height probably at the highest allowed.
If you alter it, you should still be able to draw the sheerline on the actual deck – not on an imaginary deck in space.
The conflict that then arises is to do with the pads. Once upon a time you had to have pads and everything inside the dims for side decks, now you can have an extra 10mm above the sheerline – the rest of the pad has to be measured as if it was side deck. These were assuming that people were putting soft padding on to make it more comfortable.
This idea has been blown out by people putting on pads that are rigid! Thereby getting extra leverage. These pads have to be removable(??) so you can still measure the sheerline and side decks. My own feeling is that this is cheating but we are still discussing it.
