Wheelhouse windscreen design

Why do/did wheelhouses on many boats have windscreen angled downwards, towards the deck? E.g. my old Colvic Watson motorsailer, most trawlers and working boats, etc.. I've never had a convincing answer.

 

Hi Steve

I always thought it was to eliminate internal reflection of instruments at night
.
Any other reasons out there?

Paul

PS Welcome to the forums!

 

Steve

It is better also on bright sunny days. You are usually looking down or straight ahead so the angle of the window is more suitable against refraction and reflection. If there is dirt or salt on the glass it is easier to see through especially when looking through the bottom of the window.

They take up more space, require a little more power and most people find them aesthetically ugly. So you'll rarely see them on something "flashy" but they are common, as you say, on work-boats and others where the operator makes his living. Also standard on very large commercial ships to allow people in the wheelhouse to see as much deck as possible as well as the reasons already given by Polarity and above.

Mike D

 

Many thanx, guys. And it's not the first time my boat's been referred to as 'not flashy'! ;O)

 

Another reason that nobody has mentioned is to do with water over the Wheelhouse in large seas. A downward facing windscreen does not have to bear the load of water crashing down on it that an upward facing windscreen has to.
If the designer of an upward facing wheelhouse anticipated that the vessel would be used in big seas and as such it would be likely that waves may end up crashing into the wheelhouse then they would need to consider using thicker glass or glass that has been toughened, as well as the additional load support for the glass ( eg: frames)
As I understand it this is the predominate reason for downward facing windscreens as well as its advantageous in regards to reflections.

 

Water droplets are hanging away from the glass and so tend to clear faster??

 

The big advantage ist that gravity and wind are working together to clear the windscreen.