To all our readers, a very

and a Happy New Year

Redesigned saloon…..

During our summer cruise this year we decided that we were fed up with not having enough room in the saloon, and, as we rarely have visitors, that we could live without the dinette.  It’s all my fault as I first designed the boat with an L shaped dinette.  That proved to not be very comfortable to sit at, so, after our first summer’s cruising, Neil changed it for a raised Pullman dinette.

This was the original dinette – lovely to look at but not very comfortable to sit and eat at:

We then changed it to this, comfortable to sit at, but it cut down the space:

So we have now redesigned the saloon without the table and one bench.  We have had to leave the other bench as it houses the freezer, and we have decided to keep the table in it’s storage rack under the gunwhale, and refit the desmo socket in the floor.  With a new, slightly longer leg, and a couple of folding dining chairs it will still be a functional dining table.  We usually eat off trays on our laps whilst watching TV so it will only be used occasionally.  The plan was to buy a small drop leaf table with chairs stored inside the centre, but I don’t think that will be necessary now.

We are very pleased with the results of the refit. We have had the TV cabinet moved to the opposite side of the boat, and swapped with the bookcase.  We can now sit further away from the TV for more comfortable viewing and both be facing up the boat rather than across – the TV is on a swivel arm inside the cabinet and pulls out for viewing.

It’s given us tons more space, and we now have room to store the footstools beside the chairs during the day, which will avoid us having to try to scramble over them when moving through the boat!  All we need now is a slightly larger rug.

If anyone needs any interior work doing on their boat, I’d thoroughly recommend using David Ritson – link to his website >>>HERE<<<.  He lives and works at North Kilworth on the Leicester Arm of the GU, and will usually travel within a 30 miles radius to work on a boat – he says that he finds that any further and the travelling costs become prohibitive.  He’s done a lovely job adapting the TV cabinet to fit the new space and replacing the flooring where the dinette was – if it weren’t for the fact that the new boards still have the lacquer shine on them you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.  The new boards, which I sourced, were ever so slightly thinner than the original, and he re-machined them all to fit.  It is fairly obvious what has been moved and to where, as the maple ply is a different colour where it has previously been covered, but we hope that it will change colour to match the rest over the next couple of years.

So, there we go!  I’m sure Neil from Beacon would be pleased with the result – if he’d been able we would of course have asked him to do the job.  Ally, if you are reading this, please show Neil the pics and let us know what he thinks.

And lastly, a photo of Windsong on her new mooring at Brinklow Marina.  At last, a full length pontoon!