Lazarette

What is a yacht lazarette?

A lazarette is the dedicated stern storage compartment built into a yacht below the weather deck, typically aft of the engine room and forward of the transom. It is accessed through a deck hatch, a transom door or, on larger yachts, an internal passageway from the crew area. On powerboats and motor yachts the lazarette also houses the steering gear (rudder stocks, hydraulic rams and tiller arms) alongside the deck-gear stowage.

What sits inside is the working inventory of a yacht: spare lines and mooring warps, fenders and fender socks, deck wash hoses, paint and varnish, spare deck hardware, the bosun's tools, fuel-transfer fittings, dive tanks and bottles, and the cleaning and consumables stock that keeps the exterior immaculate at anchor. On sailing yachts it also takes spare sails, sail-repair kit and rigging spares.

The lazarette is distinct from two adjacent spaces. A tender garage is a larger, purpose-built compartment for the tender and water toys, with launch architecture designed in. The engine room sits forward of the lazarette and houses propulsion. The lazarette is the smaller, lower, and historically older compartment that handles everything else.

The word comes from the Italian lazzaretto, the Venetian quarantine station founded in 1423 on the island of Santa Maria di Nazareth, later associated with Saint Lazarus and dedicated to plague isolation. The shipboard sense narrowed over centuries from a sealed quarantine compartment to today's stern storage locker.

Why it matters for yacht owners

For an owner, lazarette capacity is one of the quiet determinants of how clean a yacht looks at anchor. Every line, fender, spare and toy accessory has to live somewhere; if the lazarette is too small, it spills onto the aft deck, into the crew passage, or into the tender garage where it competes with the tenders themselves. On the charter market, where guests judge a yacht in the first 30 seconds of stepping aboard, that distinction reads instantly.

The lazarette is also a refit lever. On older yachts, expanding lazarette volume, or relocating systems out of it to free stowage, is a routine part of a value-driven refit, often paired with opening the transom for a beach club. Your surveyor will cost the lazarette as carefully as the engine room, because crew workflow at anchor lives or dies by it.

Key facts

• Etymology: from Italian lazzaretto, the 1423 Venetian quarantine station on Santa Maria di Nazareth, later linked to Saint Lazarus.
• Location: below the weather deck in the stern, typically aft of the engine room and forward of the transom.
• Typical stowage: mooring lines, fenders, deck hoses, paint, varnish, spare deck hardware, bosun's tools and dive-gear accessories.
• On most powerboats and motor yachts, the lazarette also houses the steering gear (rudder stocks, hydraulic rams, autopilot drives).
• Often subdivided by watertight bulkheads from the engine room and lower-hold spaces, with its own bilge alarm and pump.
• Larger yachts integrate a workshop bench, vice, drill press and consumables, forming the bosun's working compartment.
• Distinct from the tender garage: the lazarette is general working stowage; the garage is purpose-built for tenders and water toys.