Bottleport location

Soggy Bottom

New Member
Hi folks,
I want to install the famous "Bottleport" on my boat. I want to determine which location might be the best. Now that it has been out for awhile people have probably had enough experience with it to lend some good advice. I presently don't have any inspection ports on my boat so it could go anywhere.
Next to the centerboard grants great access to the bottle and is a great place for an inspection port but are the control lines prone to snag on it or does it ever get smushed by a knee?
On the side of the aft cockpit looks like a good place as well. It's out of the way of almost everything and is still reachable. What about the load on the sidewall of a bottle of fluid suspended horizontally?
On top of the aft deck would work. Still very easy to reach and also away from everything.
If anyone has some practical experience with this please let me know what works and what doesn't...........Thank ye.
 
Don't cut a hole in your boat just to hold a drink bottle. Unless your boat really needs an inspection port for some work, just use shockcord to hold your bottle
 
agreeeeeeeed.... I already had an inspection port in mine so the conversion was easy. However, fewer points for water to seep in the better. Shock cord is an easy alternative and keeps your hull water tight.
 
agreeeeeeeed.... I already had an inspection port in mine so the conversion was easy. However, fewer points for water to seep in the better. Shock cord is an easy alternative and keeps your hull water tight.


Yes Yes Yes... the fewer places that water can get in the better. I like the bungee at the transom to keep the "water bottle " or CRAB (cool refreshing adult beverage).
 
If you fix to deck or next to plate case so its near vertical it will fill with water in rough conditions. No big deal but it may psyche you out when racing if no bottle in there.
 
Ideally a horizontally orientation enables self-draining.

A Vertical mounting works because it is usually where previous inspection reports have been mounted.

A fellow Laser sailor remarked how it would fill with water and slow me down. If I were a perfect sailor, he'd be right but the amount of water surrounding the bottle slowing me down doesn't inhibit my performance compared to the refreshing benefit of an easy FAST rehydration method. I have tried the bottle under the shock cord at the rear of the cockpit.

Oh did I mention that placing the fluid filled bottle puts that mass closer to the turning center of the boat and is more neutral than at the end of the cockpit? ;)
 

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