Tool Storage

Travis working on the steering in our future"workshop"

I recently heard some big wig CEO say that five years is a reasonable amount of time to expect a return on your investment. This made me think of MeVoy, whose five year anniversary we will be celebrating this April.

Although we no longer like to make any firm plans that involve boats, I'll share with you our plan pencilled in sand. We are thinking that around Spring time we will be permanently moving aboard Me Voy. She is now the brand new boat we had hoped to have, complete with shiny floors and an interior smelling of varnish. If all goes well we will do a quick haulout early spring,  and be moving aboard sometime in April.  This will allow us to get all of our stuff out of TARA and  give her a good once over. After that we are hoping to throw a party themed "We've sold a boat named TARA', followed many happy nights rocked to sleep aboard our one boat.

The phenomena of the 'monstrous pile' in its early stage

For now, let me show you the rest of this brand new boat. Travis has done so much this year, that I've had a hard time keeping up with his progress. So for this installment of "Our Old Boat" I'd like to show you the tool storage we have come up with.

Because both of us like to do everything, with the exception of dentistry (ouch!) ourselves, we have collected quite a number of tools and materials that we both need and admittedly don't want to part with just yet. In our prior experience, these things either get shoved places, never to be found again, or get left out, eventually forming a monstrous pile that threatens anyone who dares to disturb it. This is not really a problem (yes it is I hate these piles!) on a boat that goes nowhere, but it is completely unpractical, unsafe and unacceptable in our sleek new home, that will be bouncing thru waves, heeling, and in general behaving like a sailboat.

In the old layout there were a couple of holds and drawers that held the basic toolage, but given our previously stated needs this wasn't going to be nearly enough. We needed more space to live our dream of piddling around making little things on aboard. We contemplated turing the crew cabin into a full on workshop, but didn't want to loose the option of hosting family, friends or crew in this already nice double bunk cabin. In the end we decided to change the aft cabin from a single berth with a locker to a workshop/galley.

Since I already covered the galley in a previous posts here and here I'll stick to the workshop area. To the left is what we had to work with.  Actually what we had to work with was much more rotten and foul then that, ( the first picture gives you a better idea of the original state of things) but this is the space we designated for tool storage: one hanging locker, and two chests, painted in bilge coat white and grey.

The tool chest storage was pretty straight forwad. It will hold Travis' carpentry tools, handplanes, saws, etc,  my roll of painting brushes, and also serve as Choppers step to his doggie door (more about that later) The other chest holds all our powertools that have cases, like drill, jigsaw, grinder etc., my airbrushing equipment, and also serves as a seat.

The challenge left was the hanging locker. Drawers were the thing we kept visualizing, but because of the curve of the hull it was quite a daunting project. Travis put on his yacht carpenter hat again, and went  
to work.

He used mahogany for the draw faces, and aluminium for the drawer boxes, that our good friend Eric bent and welded based on T's measurements.  Travis then attached some heavy duty drawer slides,  cut out linings for the tools to lay on, and used brass door locks from Lowes to keep the drawers locked. Its shocking how much we can store in these drawers, and keep the place looking tidy.

There are still some things to figure out in this space, like how to best utilize the vertical wall, but that fun will  be had when we move in and figure out our needs. For now I think we have covered the basic storage/living space and with the exception of some rugs, curtains, and new upholstery we are ready to go! Um...move in that is.