We Can Do Better Than That

We've been living aboard for over three years now and have gotten to know our 420 pretty well.  For a while we thought we might sell her and find a boat that would suit us better but we discovered there is no such boat.  At least not in our price range.  Instead we decided to improve what we have and make her work better for us.

A major sticking point for Cheri has been the galley.  There are some places in the cabinets that are next to impossible to get at.  She felt frustrated with the size of the sink and the layout of some of the cabinets.  Since Cheri enjoys cooking we decided it made sense for us to make some design changes and try to improve the galley.

We took the boat to Hinckley Yachts in Whitehall, Maryland.  They kept it on the hard right next to their cabinet shop for four months.  They started with demolition and then mocked everything up in cardboard to help us visualize what we had in mind and to make sure everyone was on the same page.  We spent a lot of one-on-one time with the cabinet maker, each of us making drawings in an attempt to understand what we wanted and what was the best way to go about it.



 One of the first things to be tackled was repairing a void in the insulation for the freezer.  Our countertop had been frosting up and the compressor was running almost constantly in warm weather.  Once the counter was off we located a 2" gap in the insulation and filled it with spray-in expanding foam.  The freezer lid was cut in half and re-fabricated into two separate lids.  Inserts were built into the lids for recessed hinges and handles.  The glass work on the doors was excellent and Hinckley even went to Island Packet for a small batch of gel coat so they could match the original color.  Nice.

Beneath the oven was a cubby hole that was supposed to be used for pots and pans, I guess.  In reality, anything that got stuck in there was lost unless it was right up front.  You had to get on your hands and knees to find anything.  We replaced this with a drawer.  The back of the drawer matches the shape of the hull to take advantage of the space and to prevent things from shooting out the back a lip was added.  The front face of the drawer is an exact match for others in the galley.

All the cabinets above the counter
were replaced.  The old ones had a useless shelf along the top that was really too narrow to use for anything but napkins.  The new cabinets extend to the overhead and have a shelf providing twice the storage space.  We also added a cabinet behind the stove that stores our spices and oils.  The counter insert for the stove fits into a slot below this.  To make this insert level with the rest of the countertop Hinckley lowered the oven 1" and pulled it out 2".

The cabinet to the right of the stove had a shelf that didn't extend all the way to the back and every time we heeled over stuff would fall through the gap.  We had the shelf extended all the way back.  Originally we were going to have two drawers put in here to match the one on top but went with fixing the shelf to save some money.  All the cabinets have faux louvered doors to match the look of the other cabinets on the boat.  We had to fake the louvers because the sliding doors are only 1/4" thick.  The cabinet maker mocked one door up for us and we liked it so much we had everything done that way.  This is really beautiful craftsmanship.  He even did a recess cut along each edge to throw a shadow to make it look more like actual louvers.  For the finger-pulls he inserted ivory from some old piano keys he had been saving.

We added a knife slot in the counter to the right of the fridge.  The counter was raised in this area to prevent spills from going down the slot.  The knives extend beyond the counter into the aft cabin on the wall at the foot of the bed.  This area was boxed in and trimmed to look like it was factory made.  The bottom of the box drops out so the box can be easily cleaned.

We removed the splash board box behind the companionway ladder and had a cabinet built into this space.  It's accessed from the galley side but is so deep the cabinet has a wall in it dividing the space into 2/3 and 1/3.  The smaller compartment is accessed from the right side of the ladder and is perfect for storing boxes of baggies and foil.  We also relocated the paper towel holder here.  It was originally mounted inside the door beneath the sink.  It created a problem there preventing you from reaching very far into the cabinet.

Another area we improved was the sink.  Originally it was two bar sinks and both of them were pretty much useless.  We put in a single sink that was slightly larger and required the new faucet to be located off to the left instead of the usual location behind the sink.  It's nice and deep and has plenty of space for large dishes and pots. We also extended the counter to the left of the sink by 5" so it has a slight overhang.  This added a nice area for placing "stuff" when you're doing the dishes.  We added fiddles in strategic areas around the sink, stove and the counter to the right of the stove.  We figured these would be the places most likely to be used for placing things while underway and needed that extra protection.  We also used the piece of Corian that was cut out for the sink as an insert.  We had it cut down to 2/3 the size of the sink so you can work on it and shove cuttings into the sink.  The insert had to be trimmed with teak to fit on the ledge of the sink without falling through.

The cabinet behind the fridge and freezer was another area of improvement.  We kept the bottom section that had two drawers for utensils.  The top section was originally just slotted spaces for holding plates.  We replaced this with a cabinet that extended to the overhead and has louvered doors.  On the right side we extended it all the way over to the bulkhead by moving the switches and outlet to the bottom section.  We ended up with much more storage space here.  On the left side we put in an angled cabinet that's built especially for our coffee maker.  It has it's own 110 VAC outlet so the cord doesn't have to take up counter space.

We also added extra 110 VAC outlets and DC wiring inside the cabinets for the future addition of LED lights.  The counter top is Corian that looks like milky quartz.  When Cheri first pointed it out to me I thought it was awful but after I saw it up against the teak cabinets I realized it was perfect.  That girl has a real artistic eye for things.

After living with the new galley for about 9 months now we've found a few things we would change.  The faucet is too far back from the sink.  The end of the faucet comes off to use as a hand sprayer but when used as a faucet it forces everything to be done in that corner of the sink.  We still have a nice piece of Corian left from the build and plan to mill out an oval that will cover the original hole and give us some extra thickness for a hole 2" closer to the sink.  I think they originally were concerned the Corian would crack if the faucet was too close to the edge.  The other thing we plan to change is the doors for the fridge and freezer.  We wanted to leave them free of struts so we could open them all the way back against the cabinet for better access to those crazy deep spaces below.  In use though we've found that the doors won't go back far enough to stay on their own and they're pretty heavy.  We'll put in either hooks to hold them back or resort to struts.  Other than those two items we're very pleased with the outcome.  We've added a lot of space and useability to this galley and at the same time added something unique and beautiful to the boat.

Update 12-11-14:
The two issues I mentioned a few months ago, the faucet location and the fridge and freezer lids are no longer issues.  Cheri decided she didn't want to change the faucet.  I'm OK with that.

We found a cure for the lids.  We originally left the struts off the lids because they got in the way and without them the lids could open wider for better access.  The only problem here is that there's a cabinet directly behind the lids which prevents them from laying back far enough to stay open on their own.  I've been pondering this in my subconscious for a while now.  Tell me something, do you do this......whenever I go into a hardware store for something I could spend an extra hour wandering around looking for inspiration for other unfinished projects.  We have a great locally owned hardware store in our area and I was in there for wood glue or sand paper or something and came across these nice brass slide latches that would work great for our freezer lids.  When I got home I cut up some scrap pieces of wood for a base to get the latches to the right height and installed them so they just catch the edge of the lid.  This works great!  You simply lean the lids back against the cabinet and slide the latch in from the side to hold it in place.  Of course, I still need to stain the bases to match the cabinet so this is another unfinished project right now.  That means I'll hafta go back to that hardware store again.  Maybe I'll find another project solution while I'm in there.  Hardware stores are like toy stores for growed ups.