Several years ago I ran into nav lights failure and it was basically from water sloshing in that "vent" and getting into a wire splice. the vee jays have the plastic cap locked in, and i am waiting for one of my heavier crews to step on it to crack it.
-- It was a failure as an air "vent" for the rope locker to help dry the rode
-- It allowed sea water to slosh into the bow compartment
-- It gets in the way of the spin pole
-- It gets in the way when you have a bowman during a start
-- When used as a hole on the foredeck to keep the anchor attached to the rode ... it adds one more rope on the deck.
-- It may be a reason that J30s sometimes get separation of the top skin on the foredeck.
It is not the question of a $40 part and say $150 labor if a yard is to install. It is a question of what value does it have at all??? and if it has no value, why continue with it???
We have OD racers that race basically with an anchor that will barely hold a dinghy, and no one says boo. I would vote that eliminating that hole in the foredeck is an improvement allowable when repairing the foredeck.
design options of no performance value from 30 years ago need not be perpetuated ad infinitum.
