Forepeak Conversion

[Eddie Offermann]

Started a big project that I've been planning for a while: converting the forepeak into "official" storage: Shelves in a similar style to those found in the cabin. Since we're intending to cruise (and the V-berth is the least comfortable area to sleep in underway) and since I'm 6'2" and can't even come close to sitting up in there, I had decided quite some time ago that the forepeak would be storage only. We've been stowing things there, but it gets messy easily. Adding some shelves and stacking those shelves with storage boxes should help address that.

Building to fit a boat interior is quite a challenge - I'd put off tackling the forepeak because of just how "unrectangular" it is. There are rarely any 90degree angles on a boat, but that area is just one giant optical illusion.

So far, so good though. I believe I'll be finished tomorrow, except for stain and varnish which will have to come later. I've taken "before" photos and Teeny has been shooting some "in progress" shots. Once the shelves are in place, I'll post some project images. I'm using pegboard for the shelf surface (with supports at intervals and along the entire front and back) to encourage ventilation.

Has anybody else here done or seen a similar project?

[Clyde A. Phillips]

I've seen some pretty nice looking galleys set up in the dog house with the dinette set up there on a permanent basis.  That keeps the cooking/eating up there with all the big windows for viewing the scenery.  Then your living room stuff could spread out fore and aft a bit.  But it looks like you have settled on sleeping quarters up there.

I like that big navigating screen.  You could plot a week or two of cruising on one chart without having to keep shuffling charts.  I already love navigating and a view like that would keep me glued to the screen all day.  Hang in there, all this will seem like a dream some day soon (hopefully it will not be remembered as a nightmare). 

[Eddie Offermann]

That projector, by the way, is hooked up to an AppleTV - and besides being part of the boat's media center, it also can receive a chart display (or anything else I can access from the laptop or ship computer). So besides being So Nice's own movie theater, it's the biggest chartplotter around!

[Eddie Offermann]

The varnishing was really supposed to have happened this week but the project got started too late to finish it up before the end of the weekend (unless everything stays out longer). You're right though. If I can get the varnishing done before the end of the weekend, Teeny can organize it next week.

I've been using the lazarette for a sail locker since the new top hatch was installed. I couldn't pull sails through the small forward-facing hatches before (not large ones anyway), but the cockpit remodel really paid off. The spinnaker, mizzen staysail and Muff's mule are in there now, easily accessible, with tons of room to spare. It's great!

That office/pull-out combo Newporter sounds similar to what we're hoping to do (minus the elaborate office - but putting in a convertible dinette/chart table to starboard and converting the current port berth to pull-out. I've added a large retractable projection screen on starboard and a ceiling-mounted HD projector on port above that berth - giving us an 80" screen when we want it that goes away completely when we don't. The dinette in the doghouse could technically be set up again but we've stopped using it for that - I ordered a custom pillowtop boat mattress for it instead.

Sounds like apart from spending all those Medicare dollars, that you're having a pretty good time! Teeny will put up with nearly anything, but I think even she might put her foot down about setting up a woodworking shop in the livingroom! She does like watching me be all manly, though, so maybe it would pass muster!

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Hi, Eddie,

Been missing you on N40T but I haven’t been on much either.  I’ve been spending a lot of Medicare’s money and still wound up as a crippled old man.  But put me in my pickup and I’m 40 again.  The bum leg isn’t used in driving automatics since they’ve moved the hi-beam switch up off the floor to the mox-nix stick! 

My current winter project is designing (well, drawing up plans for) a 15’3” version of an old 18’4-1/2” garvey that’s included in Howard I. Chapelle’s “American Small Sailing Craft” and advising a retired grade school principal in his project of teach students how to build boats.  He teaches three or four classes a year in this program and each class builds one boat.  This is my second design for him.  The designs don’t have to be real good, he doesn’t follow the plans anyway; but his boats row and sail quite well.  And, of all things, I’m putting a wood working shop in my living room, and that with Mary’s blessing.  I guess she allowed it so I will always be in sight and out of trouble.

Your project is a great idea.  Personally, at the 6’2” I was 45-50 years ago I preferred the forepeak for sleeping, even in a rough seaway.  I found that by sleeping with my back against the #4 bulkhead and my legs down against the side of the boat that I could not be rolled out of bed; the L shape I was in prevented movement.  Two negatives there, though.  I’d be the first one to the scene of the accident and I had the longest trip to a good exit.  But I can’t fault your decision on the forepeak.  The Newporter for me is the right size for a two berth boat.  It’s not big enough for four, let alone six.  That, I guess, is because I like a lot of space for myself.  Don’t forget a good sail locker.  It doesn’t have to be in the forepeak, though.

We put out one Newporter that had a well designed and fabricated office on the port side, in the place of the port berth.  All varnished mahogany, a lot of drawers and filing cabinets, and a well appointed desk area.  The starboard berth was made to be a comfortable couch by day and a comfortable double berth by night just by pulling it out.  As I remember it, the galley and dinette remained standard Newporter.

So, put your head down and get ‘er done.  But reconsider putting the varnishing off till later.  Once you have loaded up the shelves you’ll have to push a lot harder to take everything off the shelves. 

Peace,   Clyde