Doing a little work inside my,... 'lazerette' (the english word origin, early 17th century); which some spell 'lazaret' (the earlier french word origin, probably 1600's), had me thinking.
Where does the word come from and what does it mean?
The Italian word, Lazeretto, probably explains the words true origin. Around the 15th century, plague ridden ships docked in ports like Venice. They needed a place of quarantine the sick, which the Lazeretto - and onshore building - served that purpose.
Eventually that preventative action moved onto ships where the Lazeretto was located aft, to isolate the sick from the main part of the ship.
For sailors today, if you have a lazeret at all, it's a place to store stuff, or sit on, if you have an aft deck over it.
Our lazerette is little used. It has no deck hatch(s), probably because of the deck box. I'm not going to cut any in as we like the deck space (and no leaks below).
You enter this lazerette through the starboard cockpit locker. It's big in there. Amazing waste of dead space. I'm claustrophobic but it's large enough so I don't mind tidying up a few wires in there (bring all your tools with you,..).
When I built a new cockpit, I cut in a hinged door for storage. I just now fit a plywood curb below the door, from the cockpit to the hull so we could possibly use the storage without the risk of stuff shifting down into the steering, or prop shaft.
The port side has CNG tanks and exhaust hose plugging it up, but the starboard half is open.
A large storage space with a small door, is a terrible thing on a boat.
I think I'll call it the lazeretto, and be glad it's empty.
Where does the word come from and what does it mean?
The Italian word, Lazeretto, probably explains the words true origin. Around the 15th century, plague ridden ships docked in ports like Venice. They needed a place of quarantine the sick, which the Lazeretto - and onshore building - served that purpose.
Eventually that preventative action moved onto ships where the Lazeretto was located aft, to isolate the sick from the main part of the ship.
For sailors today, if you have a lazeret at all, it's a place to store stuff, or sit on, if you have an aft deck over it.
You enter this lazerette through the starboard cockpit locker. It's big in there. Amazing waste of dead space. I'm claustrophobic but it's large enough so I don't mind tidying up a few wires in there (bring all your tools with you,..).
When I built a new cockpit, I cut in a hinged door for storage. I just now fit a plywood curb below the door, from the cockpit to the hull so we could possibly use the storage without the risk of stuff shifting down into the steering, or prop shaft.
The port side has CNG tanks and exhaust hose plugging it up, but the starboard half is open.
A large storage space with a small door, is a terrible thing on a boat.
I think I'll call it the lazeretto, and be glad it's empty.
