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..................--- Ice Chest Locators and Sail Storage ---
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We needed a place to mount two coolers for our long trips where we pack the second one with ice mostly or frozen food and use mainly out of the other one. We finally decided on the space right behind the starboard seat where it would be easy to reach while preparing meals.
I started by using the hatch opening on that side to locate the cooler structure. I cut a piece of particle board to the same size as the stock hatch cover and ...........
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........screwed pieces of 1 X 2 to the bottom of it so that it wouldn't slide out of the opening like the stock one will. This will be the anchor for the rest of what will be built.
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Here that piece is shown in place.
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Two pieces of 2 X 4's were screwed to the top of it and their forward end is right at the back of where the front cooler will sit on the floor. These will locate the forward cooler fore/aft.
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Here you can see the fit in relation to the forward cooler.
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The 2 X 2 on the left locates the forward side of the aft cooler and the uprights in the middle locate the aft side of that cooler. The back uprights provide support......
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........for the shelf for the sail storage. You can see I modified the back ones slightly from the previous picture.
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The whole assembly just sets into place and is located by the opening in the floor. The rear shelf ends where the cockpit drops down into the aft berth.
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Here is the aft cooler in place and............
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............with the front cooler in place. There is a loose piece of 2 X 4 between the front of this cooler and the rear of the seat bottom to keep it back from the seat cushion slightly. This was figured in during the original measurements before I started on this.
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Here are both coolers in place.
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With the sails in place. It is easy to just reach back there and pull them out or put them away.
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There is storage space under the sails and behind them back to the lazarette on this side.
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A view looking forward.
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We kept the port mattress in place and ordered another one to fill the gap between that mattress and the coolers from The Foam Factory who had good prices and free shipping and were pretty fast. We also replaced the V-berth cushions with new ones from them when we enlarged the V-berth.
Of course the aft berth is not as wide as before, but is still 50+ inches wide which is about the same width as the bed in my teardrop trailer that I've spent well over 200 nights in. Also we will only now use the aft berth if we are anchored and have big incoming waves to deal with at night.
