under-cockpit storage?

[shamblin]

my horizon cat has an outboard leaving lots of room under the cockpit for storage.  i plan to put milk crates on ropes back there to store liveaboard supplies for longer trips.  i wonder what others have done in this regard.   thanks
bill in nc

[capt_nemo]

Bill,

In the current issue of Small Craft Advisor John Welsford describes stowage areas in his "Penguin" design.

He ends the description with this: "There is also a useful space under the cockpit sole if the builder wishes to make a shaped box with runners on it to slide in like an oversized drawer."

As both a long distance cruising sailor and Engineer, I thought this might be useful food for thought in your stowage modification efforts.

I'm currently designing a step/stowage drawer set for the area under the bridgedeck and both sides of my Com-Pac Sun Cat. There is a lot of handy space going to waste otherwise.

capt_nemo

[skip1930]

I have thought about pulling the blue carpeted foam block out from under the sole of the cockpit on my CP-19 as a lot of dead weight stuff can be stowed under the cockpit floor.

However Rich Hutchins told me that the reason for the block is to stiffen the floor and to keep the fiberglass and more importantly the 'gel coat' from stress cracking.

It actually could be done with a saw-cut 6mm sheet of aluminum Marine-Tex glued on the underside of the floor with support legs following the curve of the hull down to something solid at or just below the waterline inside the hull.

skip.