Cruisers Forum
 


Reply
  This discussion is proudly sponsored by:
Please support our sponsors and let them know you heard about their products on Cruisers Forums. Advertise Here
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Rate Thread Display Modes
Old 25-05-2010, 09:36   #1
Registered User
 
Adax's Avatar

Join Date: May 2010
Location: By the River of Silver
Boat: FPD 1760 LCD 17"screen
Posts: 304
Tips and Tricks for Space-Saving Storage ?

Newbie here with a question for all of you live aboards. How do you arrange your stuff ,so that it takes up minimum space. Any tricks you could share ? Thanks in advance .
Adax is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 10:36   #2
Moderator Emeritus
 
Hudson Force's Avatar

Cruisers Forum Supporter

Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Lived aboard & cruised for 45 years,- now on a chair in my walk-in closet.
Boat: Morgan OI 413 1973 - Aythya
Posts: 8,455
Images: 1
Storage hammocks, soft bags instead of hard cases, shelving with fids and/or fiddle boards.- these can be helpfull, but above all else, have less stuff. Enjoy the freedom of non-ownership! Take care and joy, Aythya crew
Hudson Force is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 11:03   #3
Registered User
 
AnchorageGuy's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Wherever the boat is!
Boat: Marine Trader 34DC
Posts: 4,619
Adax, We just put a post up on our Beach House website that addresses some of those very questions.
__________________
Chesapeake Bay, ICW Hampton Roads To Key West, The Gulf Coast, The Bahamas

The Trawler Beach House
Voyages Of Sea Trek
AnchorageGuy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 11:55   #4
Registered User
 
rebel heart's Avatar

Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 6,185
Images: 3
Get rid of a lot of stuff that you don't need. "Systems" take up valuable storage space and their installations make it harder to get to different parts of the boat. Cut down on clutter, and don't be afraid to throw stuff away.
rebel heart is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 11:59   #5
Registered User
 
anjou's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Malvernshire, on the sunny side of the hill.
Boat: 50' steel canal and river cruiser
Posts: 1,905
Be brave and cast the clutter adrift. You will be surprised what you dont need
__________________
www.amy-artimis.blogspot.com
anjou is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 12:07   #6
Long Range Cruiser
 
MarkJ's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
Images: 25
Look at all the spaces you have that dont get utilized. Then work out how you are going to stuff crap in there.

We have 2 verticle aft lazarettes, one has the fenders and mooring lines the other the auto pilot and shore power cables but lots of unused space. I dont like stuff to bump against the auto pilot gizmo but Nicolle used an old laundry basket to act as a cupboard to store our garbage bags!


Some time creativity takes a while to occur, so just go slowly around the boat and work out anything you thing may be wasted space. Let it rest in your brain a few days (or weeks in my case!) and you will work out a trick for it


Mark
__________________
Notes on a Circumnavigation.
OurLifeAtSea.com

Somalia Pirates and our Convoy
MarkJ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 12:13   #7
CF Adviser
 
Bash's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: sausalito
Boat: 14 meter sloop
Posts: 7,260
your personal details say that you're looking forward to a vintage wooden sailboat between 25-30 feet. yikes! depending upon what you mean by "vintage," you could be talking an absolutely spartan lifestyle in terms of stuff. older boats tend to be much more narrow in the beam, and to have long overhangs bow and stern. Bilges is some wooden designs are infinitesimally smaller. What this means is that interior space is far less commodious than modern designs.

so when a guy living in a modern production boat with a 14-foot beam says, "Get rid of your stuff," figure on having to multiply that by a factor of three.
__________________
cruising is entirely about showing up--in boat shoes.
Bash is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 12:28   #8
Registered User

Join Date: May 2010
Location: Conshohocken, PA
Boat: Columbia 29 & Saber
Posts: 23
I have developed a great appreciation for hooks.
Vartok is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 13:21   #9
Registered User
 
svHyLyte's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Tampa Bay area, USA
Boat: Beneteau First 42
Posts: 3,961
Images: 25
12 volt shop vac and Walmart.com: Spacemaker Bag Combo Pack: Storage & Organization
__________________
"It is not so much for its beauty that the Sea makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from the waves, that so wonderfully renews a weary spirit."
svHyLyte is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 13:34   #10
Registered User
 
Jetexas's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Houston, TX
Boat: 1982 Oday 34
Posts: 439
Images: 10
I use the camping cooking pots. The handles all fold back around the pot and they nest into each other. That saves a lot of cabinet space ... especially since I only have one cabinet.
Jetexas is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 21:59   #11
Registered User
 
senormechanico's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2003
Boat: Dragonfly 1000 trimaran
Posts: 7,145
Look up in hanging lockers. On our previous boat (a LN35 ), I was amazed at how much we could store in several of those Costco plastic peanut jars with the lids screwed to the overhead in a locker. We kept all the spare light bulbs, engine spares, and other small stuff that way. Each jar was a category. We didn't need labels as we could see the stuff in the jars. It used up an otherwise completely wasted space.
__________________
The question is not, "Who will let me?"
The question is,"Who is going to stop me?"


Ayn Rand
senormechanico is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 22:09   #12
Long Range Cruiser
 
MarkJ's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Australian living on "Sea Life" currently in England.
Boat: Beneteau 393 "Sea Life"
Posts: 12,822
Images: 25
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bash View Post
yikes! depending upon what you mean by "vintage," you could be talking an absolutely spartan lifestyle in terms of stuff. .....

so when a guy living in a modern production boat with a 14-foot beam says, "Get rid of your stuff," figure on having to multiply that by a factor of three.

Yes. In our big lazarette we have 14 gerry cans, 1 9.9OB we dont use (its for sale), a suitcase, etc etc and the dinghy rolls up and lives in there too. I am also selling 8 of the gerry cans as we don't need as much fuel storage now we are back in civilized waters

If you are long term cruising buy a boat for storage, not for asthetics
__________________
Notes on a Circumnavigation.
OurLifeAtSea.com

Somalia Pirates and our Convoy
MarkJ is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 25-05-2010, 22:42   #13
Registered User
 
Minggat's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: South Pacific
Boat: Islander 36
Posts: 1,593
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bash View Post
your personal details say that you're looking forward to a vintage wooden sailboat between 25-30 feet. yikes! .

There's a lot said in that line. I'd bet a lot of people love the idea of vinatage wooden boats (me included). But when it come$ time to buy, might be be$t to admire that wood boat from afar.

My response to your question is, it's an ongoing process. It includes all of the above.

Buying things in minature.
Finding that this can do double purpose for that.
Discovering voids in your boat.

I think my bigger problem is remembering where I tuck things, or even that I have something. There is a thread here about things discovered on boats, left by previous owners or lost by current owners after years of hiding in a cubby hole.
__________________
Minggat
Minggat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-05-2010, 02:33   #14
Registered User
 
fishwife's Avatar

Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: South coast of England, moving around a bit.
Boat: Long range motor cruiser
Posts: 750
If you must have that vintage boat, decide what you can't live without. Think about it for a couple of weeks, then decide again what you really, really need. Repeat this until you are down to the bare minimum of clothes you need, a couple of pairs of shoes and a few luxuries.Look at the boat and decide again how much you can dispense with. Even when you get to this point, finding space for enough food and water for an ocean crossing will be a significant hurdle.
The tips above are all good and you'll become an expert at spotting any little area that just begs to be filled with some of those spares you know you have to have.
There was a reason why the sailors on older wooden boats carried all their possesions in a duffel.

P.
__________________
The message is the journey, we are sure the answer lies in the destination. But in reality, there is no station, no place to arrive at once and for all. The joy of life is the trip, and the station is a dream that constantly out distances us”. Robert Hastings, The Station
fishwife is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 26-05-2010, 19:21   #15
Registered User
 
tager's Avatar

Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Vashon, WA
Boat: Haida 26', 18' Sea Kayak, 15' kayak, 6.5' skiff, shorts
Posts: 837
Here are a few tips I have picked up living aboard:

Don't save packaging, at all. Don't save warranty cards or UPCs or anything, thinking "I might return this, or ship it, or sell it, or need it for a warranty." You won't, just toss it.

Put your genoa in a bag, left hanked on. I think that sail bags get twice as big when they go through a hatch. Its been proven scientifically.

Hang things. Cup hooks can do a lot to increase stowage space.

Delete accommodations. Get rid of one berth and you have a ton of new storage space.

Things you barely ever use, but need, go deep in the lockers. Things you use every day go on shelves. This should sort itself out.

Gear hammocks are the enemy. I hate them.
Get rid of kitchen gadgets. All you need is a good knife, a cutting board, a saucepot, a skillet, a big stock pot, some mugs, some bowls, and silverware.

Plates are not so great aboard a boat, bowls are better.

Also, about living on a 25' wood boat. If you want living space, keep it inside a workshop, on land. With sawhorses, powertools, paint booths etc.

Just get a boat made of low-maintenance material with classic lines. If you want to suffer like wood boat owners do, varnish all of the brightwork.

Now imagine doing that task weekly. That is wooden boat maintenance.
tager is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
storage, stowe

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Hole Saw Tips and Tricks GordMay Construction, Maintenance & Refit 11 10-12-2011 13:12
Storage Space Randyonr3 General Sailing Forum 2 25-09-2009 19:42
Tricks End kanaloa Meets & Greets 8 13-06-2009 12:23
Tips, Tricks & Rules of Thumb markpj23 Seamanship & Boat Handling 35 13-07-2006 12:06
Prout 37 tips and tricks? exposure Multihull Sailboats 1 21-06-2004 19:52

Advertise Here


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 08:10.


Google+
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Social Knowledge Networks
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.

ShowCase vBulletin Plugins by Drive Thru Online, Inc.