Tools rule in the battle of the shared spaces
Issue 42 : May/Jun 2005
They warn those starting marriages later in life not to move into his house or her house, but rather to start fresh with a home new to both. Otherwise, the memories of a deceased or divorced spouse are everywhere. Worse, the partner new to the house will find no room for his or her own things, since the house was already full upon moving in. It’s just the way it is.
Jerry and I have a second marriage. But we’d been warned and moved into a home new to both of us. Since neither had much stuff anyway, it all worked out. There has been one added complication, however, that those who warn you in advance had not foreseen and therefore didn’t tell us about.
Sailors, we bought a smallish home in a smallish yard so we’d have more time for sailing and less time devoted to mundane home maintenance and yard work. Then we started a magazine in one bedroom of that smallish home. Before long we were wishing for more space, as we gave away furniture and possessions to make way for office space, one room at time, until Jerry and I now have as our own one bedroom and the living room. The rest is shared with Good Old Boat as the corporate boardroom, lunchroom, mailroom, storage, and offices.
But the reason for my pondering about shared spaces and who occupies them first is not about land-based homes. It’s about homes afloat, specifically about our cruising sailboat. We bought Mystic, our C&C 30, together. She was not already Jerry’s boat when I came into his life. So I must not have been paying attention. And those who warn you about such things let me down this time.
Last summer we spent an evening aboard another couple’s C&C 30, admiring their modifications and uses of the same spaces. In this business, writing feature-boat articles as we do, we see the interiors of lots of boats. Below a certain size at least, there’s only so much you can do with a tear-drop-shaped vessel; they’re not really all that different below.
The C&C 30 has the usual V-berth forward followed by a head opposite a hanging locker and a narrow compartment containing four shelves. My attention was riveted upon those shelves in our friends’ boat. Where did I go wrong when we moved into our boat?
While their shelves hold clothing, ours are full of tools and spare parts! Aboard Mystic, clothing is stored in duffel bags. I missed the opportunity when we took possession of the boat more than a decade ago, and now the die is cast.
Thank you to Sailrite Enterprises, Inc., for providing free access to back issues of Good Old Boat through intellectual property rights. Sailrite.com
