April 5,
Storage is such an important part of living on a boat. Not only having enough (like that's possible) but having it convenient and easily accessible. Not all storage can be accessible though or you risk wasting a lot of space. Boats have a lot of odd spaces that are difficult utilize. Another important consideration is that any horizontal surface will not remain horizontal on a sailboat. Heeling of 45 degrees or more may be common under some sailing conditions and an accidental knock down or inversion should not be catastrophic. Items flying around the cabin will make a mess and may even cause serious injury. It should be possible to secure all items i.e. batten down the hatches, when sailing in rough weather. I'm currently planning to add cargo style netting to all shelving.
I am getting into some detail on the interior. I will be adding shelving to the lockers. I have decided to allow 22 inches or 56 cm depth for the lockers. The rest will be shelving.
 |
| First prototype shelf. 3/8" or 9.5mm plywood with 2" or 5 cm walnut face. The face will keep things sliding off the shelf. I will likely add netting for rough seas. |
 |
| Another view showing where the additional shelving will go. There is 10" or 25 cm between shelving until you get to to the small one at the bottom. There it will be 6" or 15.25 cm. |
 |
| The chain locker has a large open area in the forward bow section. I would like to finish that off nicely. |
 |
| I spent some time fitting these two pieces of plywood to finish off the chain locker. |
 |
| They fit more or less pretty well. There are two small areas or holes that need to be filled in. |
 |
| Small pieces meticulously shaped to fit those holes. |
 |
| Fitting the small pieces. |
 |
| Both small pieces epoxied in place. |
I laid in woven fiberglass to extend the sealed chain locker up into this bow section.
 |
| All glassed up. A few more layers of epoxy and some hard sanding is all it needs. |
 |
Back to the shelves.
|
 |
Using the Dado blade to cut the grove to fit the edge of the shelf. Note that I always use a fence on both sides of the stock when pushing it through the saw and always against the feed. This way, you. only have to worry about the piece coming up although I have been know to add a feather board to prevent that as well.
|
 |
| I added a short shelf at the bottom for small things. | |
I have finished out three lockers with shelves. All are about ten inches apart. I mostly see the shelves for shorts, tee shirts and underwear. I'm going on the assumption that you can't have too much storage.
