Nav table, galley counter, and spray shield
Issue 64 : Jan/Feb 2009
Just above the starboard quarter berth and just under the sidedeck, we have a slide-out shelf. This shelf is adjacent to the companionway. It can be locked in the closed or open position with barrel-bolts.
Immediately above this shelf, mounted on a swinging arm on the aft bulkhead, is our radar. When this sliding shelf is out, it can be used as part of the galley countertop when preparing meals — a time when we never seem to have enough counter space. It is also handy when serving food or drinks to people in the cockpit. This shelf can also serve as a nav table. We can lay out charts and mark our courses. On those occasions, the radar, just above the shelf, is in direct view. For viewing the radar from the helmsman’s position, the radar is swung out into the companionway opening. There, it can be easily seen from the steering position and is out of the sun and rain.
We’ve also found an unexpected use for the sliding shelf: rain or spray can fall in the face of someone who is sleeping in the starboard quarter berth when a crewmember opens the companionway hatch in bad weather. But with the shelf out, the starboard quarter berth is nicely protected with a “roof.”
Don Launer, a Good Old Boat contributing editor, has held a USCG captain’s license for more than 20 years. He built his two-masted schooner, Delphinus, from a bare hull and sails her on Barnegat Bay in New Jersey.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
