A home for electronics hides clutter from view
Issue 115: July/Aug 2017
After purchasing my Spirit 28 sailboat, Wastin’ Time, in 2009, I began looking for a suitable space inside where I could build a nav station. I’m an amateur radio operator (KB0SI) and wanted a place for my HF SSB radio and VHF ham radios. I also was thinking about installing an onboard computer system and a Wi-Fi setup with a wireless router to give me access to the internet. Searching on the internet gave me some ideas for how and where to install the gear, and I decided that the space on the port side above the quarter berth would be the best location.
I fashioned the tabletop and the bulkhead behind it out of ½-inch birch plywood from a local big-box store, using many cardboard templates to help me cut the pieces to conform to the hull shape. On the bulkhead, I mounted a fuse block with spade connectors for 12-volt power, two through-bulkhead coax connectors for HF and VHF antennas, and robust red/black binding posts for 12-volt power. I also added a fiddle at the front of the table to prevent items from rolling off.
Upon completing the main part of the nav table, I decided to install shallow drawers underneath. I first looked at office-desk center drawers. They were too expensive and didn’t look the part, but my wife found some rectangular cake pans at Walmart that looked promising. I made glides for them from ¼ x 2-inch strips of wood and small plastic spacers. I fitted wooden strips to the drawer fronts, stained and varnished everything to closely match Wastin’ Time’s interior colors, and fitted metal drawer pulls.
With the table installed, I noticed that I could still see the sailbags, tools, and other items stored in the quarter berth. It was a bit of a mess, so I hid it behind a curtain hung on a tension rod. I then hit upon the idea of making a folding chart table to conceal the storage area and make the nav station look more finished.
Again, I used ½-inch birch plywood with a fiddle and stained and varnished it to match the nav station top. For the pivot for the chart table, I used a ½-inch aluminum tube held in a large metal wire clamp on one side and a ½-inch hole in the wood on the other. A tension spring keeps the tube pulled tight to one side. I also made a pop-up adjustable folding leg on the back side of the table. This allows the chart table to fold out horizontally, and I can remove it to allow access to the items stored in the former quarter berth.
Jim McCraw and his wife, Linda, became interested in sailing while watching sailboat racing from their duplex home in Marsh Harbor, Abaco, Bahamas. They purchased their first sailboat, a 1983 Gloucester 23, in 2007. Two years later, looking for standing headroom and a diesel engine, they purchased their 1981 Spirit 28, Wastin’ Time, and now sail and race her on Lake Stockton, Missouri. Jim enjoys making his own upgrades.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
