Why and How We Organized Our Sailboat After we purchased our sailboat we tried to figure out what we needed to take with us each time we went out sailing. When we started getting it all organized in a laundry basket we realized it was not going to be easy to find things. We will supply you with a copy of these lists. We sat down and discussed our goals. Here is what we came up with, yours may be a different. We wanted to be able to go out sailing for 2 weeks or more. We wanted things organized so that we could find things. We didn t want mice, moisture or insects. We wanted to be able to leave things in the boat no pack up everything each time we wanted to sail. We discovered early on that the sails although necessary were a large part of our space issues. We had a main sail, jib, genoa, spinnaker, and storm sail. Then of course they all have sun covers, we need to store them all. We took a good look at the storage under the seats. Although it looks like there should be a lot of room, it was not usable. The compartments under the seats were originally open space. What this means, I can put something in the compartment at the far right, but it won t stay there. It is all open and the item will roll around the length of the seat. The compartments under the bed were large and open spaces. Not to mention you have to lift the entire mattress cushions off to access them. I sat down and gave this some thought after we went on our second sailing trip. We had taken a basket full of clothes, foods and items we needed. After about an hour everything was on the floor. My brand new seat cushions were next to the
toilet on the floor. I was totally grossed out. Every time the boat heeled everything flew all over the inside of the cabin. Those sails had to be organized. So we built a hammock in the front berth. and can be accessed from the above hatch. The sails are up out of the way out of the hatch door. Dave can just pull the sails
If we don t want to use the hammock it can be folded up against the wall. On the hammock next to the water containers I stack the towels. It is deep enough that the beach towels are stacked behind the bath towels. When it comes to towels I cannot think of anything worse than getting out on the boat and discovering I didn t put the towels back in the boat. So my solutions is color coding. All the towel dish, bath and beach towels are
blue. In the house they are all white and our camper has all green. That way when I wash towels I know I need to put the blue ones back in the boat. Under the hammock I have stored a container with 2 larger size sauce pans, lids and a frying pan. We also store the paper plates, plastic silverware, butane stove, and jet boil pan set. I wrap the glass lid in a washcloth. Next to that is the big buddy heater, battery operated fan, covers for the sails, and the inflatable boat we use to go around the islands when anchored out. In the very front of the berth are the paddles for the boat, and the lifejackets for when we go paddling. Then right under the hatch door we have the anchors in the buckets. Dave can drop the anchor buckets through the door. On the wall in the net are swimming suits and a warm outfit and sweatshirt for each of us. You can also see our green shower tent. I will explain that at a later time.
Right in front of the bucket with the anchor is a door to storage. In this storage we have towels that I packed away as extras. They are in the food saver bags with the air sucked out. The area under the front berth is used to store things that we sometimes use. These things are relatively large so they don t get lost way up in the front of the berth and they are easy to see and grab. 1. Toilet paper and paper towels in plastic boxes to keep them dry. 2. Extra towels in Fresh plastic bags sealed. Not only do they stay dry but they are smaller and more compact with the air sucked out. I know others use the vacuum bags that you can seal and reseal. I don t like them because they always seem to lose the seal and leak. 3. Funoodles for swimming and some swim toys for the grandkids. 4. Air pumps to pump up toys 5. Innertube for swimming 6. Solar shower
This is compartment # 2 on the chart. The boat originally had a 5 gallon water tank under the sink. We had a problem with the tank falling over and water spilling out. I also saw that space as gold. I could store so much stuff in that actually usable space. So Dave put the water tanks on the wall inside the front berth. They are out of the way. He ran the water tubing under the bathroom floor and up to sink. The water is gravity fed. We now have 10 gallons of water. We will be detaining in a blog how this water system is set up. We decided that we would put things that will be rarely used under the back berth cushions. The problem was that they were so deep that things got lost or you couldn t get a hold of them when they went under the seats. I now had to come up with a way to make the compartments under the seats usable. Dave took foam and built smaller square compartments in each. Not only did it add more styrofoam flotation it made the space usable. These compartments are under our mattress but since we rarely need these items they are not an inconvenience.
Compartment #13 has all of our snorkeling gear in it. Compartment #12 has: Dry food A few extra towels Radar reflector for open water travels
Compartment #11 has: All of our tarps and the screen cover for the popup. Compartment #10 has: Butane fuel canister rolled in rubber nonslip cabinet liner. Liquid propane canisters rolled in rubber nonslip liners Jetfuel canisters rolled in rubber nonslip liners
We wanted the mustang life vests where we could reach them from the cockpit door so they are hanging inside the door. T This also shows how the storage compartments are arranged and the pvc pipe we store our charts in. On each side of the bed we have nets with our rain gear and a flash light. Mine is on the right and Dave s gear is on the left. Compartment #3 Under the sink we have all Dave s tools. There is also containers with extra electrical supplies and hardware. A bottle of cooking oil and a bottle of pancake syrup so that it can t tip over and spill.
Compartment #4 The far side of the sink cabinet has the door for the garbage. It is impossible to keep a garbage can from spilling over in a sailboat. This has a metal frame that the garbage back hooks on. It can t spill and is out of the way. Under the seat on the left is a door with the battery for the mast lights, depth finder, emergency radio and running lights. Next to it are two containers with reefing lines and misc. lines. You can also see the Styrofoam on the side. He has it fastened in with great stuff. Compartment #5 The door that goes into hat seat has a pull out plastic drawer with plastic Ziploc bags in it. Along
side the drawer is a Thermacell insect repellant and a package of wooded clothes pins. You can t use clothes pins with metal springs on a sailboat they will rust. With wooden clothes pins you can dry towels and clothes out on the lifelines. Now I had to figure out what to do with the kitchen utensils and all the dishes. I asked Dave for a shelf with a lip so we could store the dishes out of the way. Here is what I ended up getting. Dave is an over achiever. We put all the cooking utensils in a plastic box, measuring cup I have a ½ cup because you can guess ¼ cup and double for one cup. I also have a sliding measuring spoon. I put the cutting board on top with the collapsible dish pan and collapsible dish strainer.
See how small they fold up. I was always fighting with the bottle of softsoap on the sink. It kept falling over and spilling out all over everything. Dave decided to install a soap dispense next to the faucet with a soap tank under the sink.
The compartments under the seats are also separated by stryofoam. This whole length of the seat used to be one compartment. See my problem? There are now three compartments along this seat. Also, we decided to use the levered door instead of solid for air movement and moisture control. There is space under the seats on the right. Dave built them in so things didn t shift. We have the battery for all the outlets, lights, and fans in the top door along with a box of spare batteries. It is accessed by picking up the seat cushion.
In the first door along the seats compartment #6 we put : Garbage bags D battery air pump 12 volt air pump Extra jetboil fuel Extra clothes pins Extra toilet sanitation packets In compartment #7 we have built in a plastic drawer with canned food in it. There are also two citronella candles and a bailing sponge.
Compartment #8 has all types of hardware needed on boat stored in little aluminum mint containers that are labeled with their content. If you lift up the seat you will find what is supposed to be an ice cooler. We put our dry food in there. You will notice that nothing is in its original container. I put everything in food saver seal bags and throw the boxes away. For example the pancake mix, pasta, and soup mixes are measured out in 2 serving sizes and the directions are written on the food saver bag. I can then throw away the box. Everything is kept dry, fresh and insect/mouse free. Cardboard is your enemy on a boat. Things get moist, moldy and the bugs love cardboard. Nothing on our boat is in cardboard.
In the bathroom we put a metal shelf and attached plexiglass to the back so things don t fall through. We put a toilet paper holder on the wall and I made a cloth holder for our toiletries. Now we can leave everything in the boat for the entire season. I do take it all out in the fall. We eat the food and use up the medications and toiletries. I replace them from the supplies list in the spring. One thing I learned the hard way was about sunscreen. Throw it out every year. If your sunscreen expires you may as well lather yourself up with baby oil. We were out on a boat a few years back and I didn t pay any attention to the expiration date on the sunscreen. I put it on every two hours and ended up in the hospital with sun poisoning. I was burnt to a crisp, chilled, and throwing up. It was horrible and I hope to prevent others from making the same mistake. After we had finished the cabin of the boat we started thinking about the locker. The darn thing was shaped like a V and everything you put in it including the motors fuel tank went to the middle.
The fuel tank it to the far right out of the way. We will do a blog on exactly how Dave redid the locker. So Dave used fiberglass and more Styrofoam and built it up. He foamed in the gas tank on one side and a cooler on the other. My issue with cooler would have to be the melting ice mess. So Dave put a drain in the bottom of the cooler that has a drain tube that goes to the cockpit drain so it drains out of the boat as the ice melts. He cut wholes for the bumpers and put hangers for things to be stored on. We have our LifeSling and Fold and Go grill off to the side of the cooler. Now it is nice, neat and you can get to everything. This is also where we store the towels we use to wipe down the boat. These have the name written on them and get washed each trip. No matter what you do the boat is always covered in dew in the mornings. If you don t want to sit on wet seats you need an old towel to wipe them off.
When we are out on open water the Lifesling is attached to the swim ladder. There is storage under the top step for all our manuals and Dave s wallet and keys. The bottom step holds the valves for the ballist tanks. Our DVD is stored on the shelf on the back of the stairs. The speaker for our MP3 player is on the wall. This DVD shelf folds out of the way and snaps up for safe keeping.
You can see in this picture off to the right is the winch handle holder, the Bose speaker holder and a teak cell phone holder. The USB outlets are on the side of the right side seat. On the left your see the cup holder with the safety horn in it. You can also see the binocular holder. It also holds the GPS in its case. So now we are to the cold food. We have all the drinks in the locker cooler. This way we are not opening our main cooler as often and the water drains out the cockpit drain. I put two gallons of frozen water in the Orca cooler the night before we leave. That way we are starting out with a cold cooler. I put carrots, fruit, cottage cheese salad and yogurt in plastic throw away bowls. That way I don t care so much what happens to a 1.00 bowel. They I put frozen water bottles around the containers.
On top the containers I place the meat in food saver bags and frozen meals such as chili or taco filling also in food saver bags. These will not leak in my cooler. On top of these foods I put Ziploc bags of ice. That way I can use the ice for my drinks it stays clean. I can also drain out the water and add more ice if need be. One last thing I can t stand me seats falling all over the cabin. You can t see the snaps that keep my cushions in place until I pull out the cushion. My cushions remain in place no matter how much the boat heels.