can i make more living room on my boat?

[Mobnets]

ccriders:
Thanks. The "nest", as we have dubbed it does work nicely for us.

Just to clarify and expand a bit:
I may have given the impression it's a face-to-face dinette. We have a C-shaped dinette to port with shelves above and behind with a settee and pilot berth to starboard. But with only 10' beam, the whole area available for this setup is about 38"X 72" resulting in the seats in the dinette being very narrow and not very comfortable for extended periods of sitting. We don't miss it as a dinette given the way we use the boat. The same setup would be worth considering for a face-to face dinette. The nice thing is you can try it for it's potential comfort and storage advantages without making any structural changes to the boat.

I did take the removable tubular aluminum table pedestal off the boat this year and am about to remove the pedestal receiver hardware from the cabin sole and underside of the table to make the storage area more obstruction-free, but those can be put back in minutes . . . just a few hefty screws.
Mobnets
1973 Paceship Chance 32/28 "Westwind"

[SailingLazy]

While SloopJonBs comments about ruining the value of a boat are relevant in many cases, I don't think it applies in the OPs situation. For a boat with minimal value, you might as well do what you want to make it livable for you.

The July/August 2012 issue of Good Old Boat had a great article about an owner who took the quarter berth out of a Coronado 25 and made a bulkhead to bulkhead galley on the port side. His guiding principle was, "if you can sleep well and eat well, everything else is easy." Given that he invested less than $1000 on the initial purchase price for the boat and is now cruising full time, he seems to be getting plenty of value out of his investment.

[smallboatlover]

i think i might just re do the dinetee now instead of the compainway area. i could redo my dinnet area into a nav station and eating place but also storage since the table doesn't do much use to me.

[ccriders]

Huck,
I'm confused. Do you have a Columbia 27 or a Coronado 27?
As philosophy, the Zen of space on small boats is less stuff.

[smallboatlover]

I have a corando 27 but its registered as a clumbia26 ill tell you tue full story next time i get on my xomputer

[smallboatlover]

homeward bound 2 sunk and it was a comlubia 26 so he just put the old tag plated on the new cornodo 27 which is homeward bound 3 so he was just screwing the system thats why it's registerd as a 26 columbia

and i found what i would like to do. i want to get rid of the dinnet table and make a long desk/table that will run lenghtwise of the boat and stick out about a foot or so maybe more. and put a bench or swivel chair there. it will give me room for a laptop or half of chart and keeping stuff. Aslo it will have storage underneath like cabinets and draws.

then the next project i was thinking of is to use the water tank as a ice box since its bigger and would be better for it. since i will be moving the water tank to the bow area under the vberth it use to be a holding tank hasn't bin used for that in 20 year but i will turn it back into a tank to hold water. and use the current ice box for food storage or make it into a freezer.

[ccriders]

So is this: 1971 Coronado 27 sailboat for sale in Ohio the boat you have?

[PaulinVictoria]

I did some recent modifications to our interior that resulted in a much more useful and liveable vessel.
I put up some long closet poles the length of the cabin onto which I hang 2 hanging closet storage shelf units. These can then slide the length of the berths depending on what we are doing, so now when we are on the boat we can actually unpack all our clothes, towels etc into these and stow our bags away under the v-berth rather than trying to live out of the bag. We can also hang vegetable baskets, gloves and anything else, plus they double as a towel rail. Really simple and incredibly useful.
I also modified the table (drilled a hole, so about as easy as it gets) to enable it to be either fore/aft, or athwartships across the end of the port berth.
Everything can be taken out in seconds, no modifications to any cabinetry etc but a world of difference to the interior.

[smallboatlover]

yes cridders thats the one

[smallboatlover]

paul thats a good idea im going to take that idea