Shelving for the R-25 V-berth

[baz]

Now it's onto building some shelf/shelves for the V-berth. I decided the place for the shelf would be around the curved portion in the roof at the level where the starboard covered Monkey fur attached to the roof. This portion appears to be a perfect circle of approximately 43" radius. I used a template to obtain the correct curvature.

One requirement 1st Mate gave me was to not place a shelf on the starboard side as this is where she placed a number of cushions/pillows to lean into while stretched out from starboard to port with her legs. If shelving were to be placed where I explained above it would interfere with where her head would be. So, the shelving had to be all the way from the port side to about 45º to starboard beyond the center point.

Another requirement or restriction if you like was to not make the shelves too deep otherwise one would contact the shelf edges when clamoring into bed. 😉 I mean to say, I don't want 1st Mate to knock herself out... :lol:

I constructed two wood pieces from vertical grain fir and stained them with a Teak Stain. The curvature was made with a 43" radius and the other side was simply straight.

I will use the same technique for supporting the shelves as I did for my cabin entrance headroom shelving. That was using flat galvanized steel framing joint plates slid between the roof and the starboard headlining. With three of these cantilevered out per shelf the shelves can be attached to the plates and supported adequately. The shelf straight edges will be built up with a bottom fiddle attached directly to the shelf edge and a top fiddle supported with brass angled pieces to match my kitchen counter ledge shelf and the cabin entrance headroom shelving. The bottom fiddle is attached to the shelf otherwise small objects could slid off the shelf and onto the V-berth bedding. I anticipate placing wrist watches, iPhones, eye glasses, an alarm clock, keys, portable battery powered radio, flashlight, glass of Cock'n Bull Ginger Beer, medicines and what not items needed at night time while tucked away under our Goose down comforter. 😀

Here's a photo for one of the wooden shelves showing the curved and straight sides. They are 39" long and will surround the curved portion of the raised roof as you enter the V-berth area.

I will add photos for the finished project later.

 

[knotflying]

Good idea.

 

[trailertrawlerkismet]

Barry: Great idea, post photo's when you're finished. It appears you might be in the early stages of starting a little side business of making useful things for your fellow Tugnuts!!!!

Jim

 

[baz]

I finished the project today. I was lucky in that I was able to use the existing screws securing the Monkey Fur covered starboard headliner to the roof for holding the framing joint plates in position. This was necessary as I wanted the curved sides of the shelves to snug up tightly to the radius of the roof. Without the joint plates held firmly the shelf would slide out some and not be as stable as I wanted. The flat joint plates have numerous holes so it was easy to find one for the headliner screws to pass through without having to drill into the steel plates. I painted the joint plate sides that face the V-Berth with a Teak-like color to hide them as best I could. With the plates secured such that they could not slide out I was able to snug up the curved sides of the shelves to the curvature with ease, and no gapping resulted.

The shelves turned out to be 39" long and 10" deep at their center point. The lower fiddle was butted to the shelf to avoid small objects from sliding out such as a wrist watch, iPhone, ear rings, eye glasses and pens.

The fiddle design matches what I did for the galley shelf and the Cabin entry headroom shelving. It's called UX according to Daughter #1. 🙂

I'm very pleased with the end result. The shelves do not interfere with my head entry into the V-berth and are spacious enough to hold the various things we need to have handy in the bedding area. They also add some 'wooden warmth' to the rather stark V-berth area.

Here are the finishing photos for this project.

Photo of one of the shelves (there were two identical shelves made)

View from cabin into the V-Berth area

Port side shelf

Center Shelf

This shows where the two shelves join up

View to Port

View to Starboard

 

[knotflying]

Job well done!

 

[sleepyboat]

I wish I paid attention in shop! Remember shop?

 

[Don and Brenda]

Nice job Barry, definately need something in the sleeper to hold things like glasses etc.

Don

 

[Gin]

Barry, super nice! We don't have our R-27, but when we do, after we settle in, I think we'll be considering doing something similar. Since the factory is so good at picking up on great owner ideas, it wouldn't even surprise me to see something like this on a future model. Meanwhile, though, it is a great DIY solution. And for sleepyboat, I'm old enough not only to remember shop, but remember when girls couldn't take shop. That didn't prevent me, though, from learning the basics on my own (due partly to the influence of a grandfather and great grandfather who were carpenters). Barry makes this project look manageable for my modest skills. Kudos Barry!

Gini

 

[baz]

Gin:

My brother lives in North Devon, England and is now retired but had been a cabinet maker all his life. As I grew up with him he had 100 times the patience that I had, but watching him make things inspired me over the years. I elected Metal shop, Woodworking shop before I was 12 years old at a Boys & Girls Prep School in England (very rare combo at the time) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Girls were allowed to take the Metal and Woodworking shop and recall I struck up a nice 1st date with a girl who attended the Metal shop classes. :lol:

My brother made me a Chess table while in England, constructed a special wooden suitcase with roll wheels to transport it in and brought it over to me a few years ago. It's amazing, and customs people were very very apprehensive when their eyes happened across this very alarming looking suitcase. :lol: He took about 2 hours to assemble the chess table as as you can imagine, it did not fit in the suitcase fully assembled. Once assembled it cannot be unassembled without breaking it apart and destroying it. And as tradition holds for cabinets the chess table has three secret compartments... 😱

I still have the suitcase but it's just too big to carry on our R-25 as a tool chest... :roll:

 

[Gin]

Barry, that is totally amazing . . . I've never seen anything quite like it. What a treasure. Thanks for posting the pics, or I would never have been able to visualize it. Some of that skill (even if not all the patience) is obviously in your genes!

 

[baz]

I forgot to indicate the time my brother took for making this 'treasure' for me... 800 hrs over 2 years is what I recall. The marquetry is absolutely amazing... and there are pieces in the design specific to me such as my Initials, the Union Jack and the Star Spangled US flag for example. Under the table he listed all the woods and veneers that were used for building the chess table.

 

[Dog Islander]

Barry, I don't see any teeth marks from the kids or grand kids 😉 . For that matter, Jake and Chloe seemed to have kept thier chompers off the table too. That is some very nice woodworking skills that run in your family.

Ray

 

[BaseCampAnne]

Wow, you are on a roll, Barry! I agree that you may be moving towards new career now in customizing boats!

That table your brother made is so beautiful, and thank goodness Jake has not gotten rambunctious with it.

It amazes me to see what can be done with wood, and I am now curious what else you might come up with! Congrats are in order 🙂

Great job!

 

[ngleadow]

As Baz mentioned, if your measure carefully, you can put the shelf units between the windows. I did this, and used the small screws already in the window frame to attach the brackets holding the shelves. See my photo album called "Port Side Shelving" to see the results.

Happy carpentry

Norm on Blue Socks

 

[baz]

Norm: Thanks... your storage additions look marvelous. Thanks for posting and thanks for the photos for providing that extra detail on how they are installed. Very nice work. Small boats such as ours need careful storage planning.

 

[baz]

Here's my final solution for storage and drink storage above the dinette table. I ended up securing the whole assembly directly to the cabin wall with two bolts that ran through the cabin wall and secured on the outside with SS washers and Acorn nuts. I was not happy with my original design for suspending the storage assembly from a molding attached at both ends with the window bolts... it was just to flimsy and the storage assemble was unstable IMO. I took the plunge and drilled two 1/4" holes through the cabin wall after making a small space in the Monkey Fur before drilling. I filled the hole with marine/water-proof sealant before placing the bolts and securing them. The bolts drew the whole storage assembly tightly against the cabin wall's Monkey Fur and is rock solid with no movement whatsoever.