I always thought the daftest thing on any boat was the three-piece washboard. I suppose it’s easy to stow. But have you tried putting in the pieces when there’s a socking great wave advancing like an express train and about to fill the cockpit up to your waist?

Maybe the designer who first thought it up was only pottering off to the pub and decided as an afterthought that he’d better lock up (great waves not being too much of an issue in the Twizzle).

But there are times when it can be quite a juggling act keeping track of the three pieces when you daren’t put any of them down in case the wave washes them away. In Largo, I used to tie them on with long pieces of 3mm line. It turned into wet knitting.

Short of rebuilding the whole aft end of the coachroof and installing a watertight hatch like a round-the-world racer, I was left with the one-piece option.

And it started off as just that – a great big piece of 17mm marine ply.

First, I gave it a RORC-approved catch – one of those gadgets which can be locked from either side (and just as important, opened from either side).

Then I gave it a pair of barrel bolts to hold it in place in case gravity stopped working (or started working from the opposite direction).

Two neat brass handles on the inside make it easy to hold and put in place from the cabin. But the really difficult part was a window. I really wanted to be able to see what was going on in the cockpit without sticking my head out – and this proved to be the major problem.

I approached any number of glaziers, asking for a small but incredibly thick piece of glass with rounded corners to fit the hole. Most refused to look at it. A new windscreen? No problem. Repair my patio doors? We’ll be round tomorrow morning. But a single piece of glass 195mm x 237mm x 17mm…

A company in Alaska quoted $600 (I was in Panama).

In the end, someone with a little glass business in Guernsey admitted: “I like problems” – and came up with a rather ugly solution which works very well – but in a totally unexpected way.

Because, you see, this isn’t just a washboard. In a boat less than 10m long, everything really ought to perform at least two functions if at all possible.

So, the one-piece companionway is also the cockpit table – and the piece of glass sits proud on the underside – leaving what is effectively a fiddle in the table for the salt, the beer can, whatever…

See that piece of wood screwed into the back of the cockpit above the rudder stock? The bottom of the companionway slots in there, is held in place by two metal pegs through holes which match up with holes in the companionway, and underneath the peg for the autopilot finds a hole which locks the tiller in place (while the tiller holds up the table).

So, in fact, this device performs three functions: It is also a tiller-lock.

And I must tell you, that there is nothing, absolutely nothing more rewarding than eating your breakfast off a table which you know performs two other functions…

…as a washboard

…and what it looks like from underneath