More Storage Room, Less Dance Floor!
This will be a short version of what I did, I'll try to add more detail later.
Once you remove the table that takes up half the main cabin, you'll notice that you have enough room to have a dance! Since that is not a normal activity aboard a cruising sailboat, I though long and hard as to how to better use the space.
I basically moved the starboard side of Rainbow Chaser in one foot. I removed the teak trim above the settee, then sawed out the front of the settee. I removed the teak trim in front of the cushins, then cut just behind the top edge of the fiberglass. I cut down the ends, trying to keep as close to the edge as I could. I knew I'd have to cover anything I cut, so the small and straighter I made my cuts, the better off I'd be. At the bottom, I cut the floor, leaving the vertical face untouched.
Once that was cut out, I cut the floor out, marking one foot out from the original settee front. This opens a large storage area in front of the water tank, and below where the floor used to be.
While this was all open, I found that the water tank was not even connected to the boat, it was just bouncing around. I took it out, then cleaned it out real well. (If you have any interest in putting cleanouts in your tank, this would be a good time to do it. See:
http://geocities.yahoo.com:80/TheTropics/Cabana/7414/watertnk.html )
Then I fiberglassed them in very securely.
I cleaned up the old front, grinding down the bottom edge to fit the new edge I cut in the floor. I fiberglassed mounting tabs to mount it and fit it back in.
I had to make a few supports to hold the bottom of the settee solid because it lost the suport the front used to provide. I cut a new piece of plywood to fit the opening from the old front of the settee to the new location, hinged it and we had a new storage locker.
Above, I used some plywood and wax paper as a mold and extended the original upper locker bottems and dividers out to the new location. Add some lips to attach the original front and it looks like it was made that way.
Those tiny lockers that were above the settee now hold a huge amount of stuff, and - one of my original reasons to do the whole job - my 12' inflatable dinghy will fit behind the settee while we are making passages.
If you are interested in doing a mod like this and there is not enought information, feel free to write and ask questions (rainbow_chaser@compuserve.com). Some day I'll get some pictures up here.
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