The Admiral has declared a moratorium on anything new coming aboard until we find her more storage! But what is a skipper to do with all the tools he “must have” ?
The Moody 47 is a very spacious vessel and I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but the one thing she could have a bit more of is storage! It seems that everything is designed to be on the port side of the vessel. This would be fine if we did not already have that side of the boat filled with (2) starting batteries, hydronic heating system, and the water maker. You know, all the light stuff. In addition all the available storage seems to be on the port side as well along with the sea berth (work shop) dinet, and bunk room. The starboard side is taken up with (2) heads, a galley and set a of very nice captains chairs.
The captains chairs are nice until you realize all the room you are loosing for this convienence. MacGyver to the rescue!
These captains seats are multifunctional. When you have additional guests aboard, and we all know that means double the fun, the center section pulls out and serves as two additional seats around the expanding salon table.
It is a very clever thought but we soon realized there is a lot of useable space that we were not able to utilize.
This year we decided to have new foam installed in all of the bottom cusions. The leather was all in great shape but the foam, being a little soft to begin with, had broken down over the years. We turned once again to our friends at In Canvas from Everett, WA. She took all the seats apart and redid them with a new foam base. They turned out wonderful. This process required me to remove the tops from the center sections of the captains seats. Upon doing so we discovered a large cavity with which we could store some of our ligher, bulkier items like paper towels, dish cloths, etc.
The bottom had an access hole covered by upholstery cloth like my granddad used on the furniture he used to build in his Lynnwood shop. I removed the cloth and was able to remove the screws holding the top to the base. What I discovered was a fairly well built box with the cushions screwed to the box.
I measured a 2″ margin around the outside of the “box”. Using my small skill saw I cut along the lines and finished up the corners with a hand saw.
I was going to turn them over and just use the access hole in the bottom but the handles are well connected and I would of had to relocate the sliders. Thus the decision to cut out the top and cover the bottom. I then cut a piece of masonite for the bottom and glued that in place.
I made sure to make the cut just short enough to fit the distance of the diagonal and it fit perfectly inside the box.
Next I added two alignment pins to the top and will secure with a little velcro if needed.
From there we put the fabric back in place and replaced the sliders
When completed we have two new storage areas while maintaining the original design!
The Admiral is happy and really, isnt that all that matters?
SV Pellucidar 