Useless spaces can earn their keep
Issue 104 : Sept/Oct 2015
Our MacGregor 26D, Thebote, has a tiny sink area that is relatively useless. For a long time it held the wastebasket. Recently, at the request of the first mate, I installed two small inexpensive storage shelves of the type available at most office-supply and home-improvement stores. Each has three drawers.
I screwed them together with stainless-steel sheet metal screws and fastened the whole thing in place to cover up the cabin liner/sink. I did have to make a small bracket (an inexpensive corner brace) for my particular installation to support the outboard corner at the front of the sink.
I used a piece of small-diameter bungee cord to prevent the drawers from sliding out when under way. I drilled a hole at the top and bottom of the drawers and knotted the cord to hold it in place. The cord can be pushed aside easily when we want to pull a drawer out and it snaps back automatically when the drawer is pushed in. We use a no-scoot-type shelf liner in some drawers to keep things in place and prevent them from rattling.
This addition gives us quick, easy access to those many little things. Through a small opening in the front, we can also reach items (trash bags, dustpan, and brush) we store beneath the shelves in the old sink.
With a little imagination, these simple inexpensive shelves can be put to good use in many other locations on our good old boats.
Allen Penticoff, a Good Old Boat contributing editor, is a freelance writer, sailor, and longtime aviator. He has trailer-sailed on every Great Lake and on many inland waters and has had keelboat adventures on fresh and salt water. He presently owns an American 14.5, a MacGregor 26D, and a 1955 Beister 42-foot steel cutter that he’s restoring.
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