Stowage Plan

Part 1: Developing the System

--Blogpost written by Bob

Our boat has dozens of small assorted areas to store things.  Without some type of plan it would be impossible to find something when you need it.  Part 1 describes how we documented all the boat's storage areas while Part 2 (to be written some time in the future) will describe the contents of the storage areas just before we leave for the Bahamas.

Three Levels for Storage

We started this process by identifying three different levels of the boat where storage space exists:  (1) below the settee seat level (or waterline), (2) between the settee seat level and the top of the backs of the settees, and (3) above the top of the back of the settees.  By referring to these levels as lower, middle, and upper we can begin to create a system for referring to the storage areas.  Some areas have small levels within a general level (like drawers, for example, that may span a level).

The three storage levels are roughly as shown on this side elevation view of our boat.

Diagram of Storage Locations

The next step was to make rough sketches of all the storage areas and make measurements of each storage space.  Maggie did the sketches and made the measurements one day while I was working on another boat project.

All of the storage areas for the entire boat were identified and
sketched--this is the sketch for under the settees in the main salon.

Following the making of the rough sketches and measurements, I made (computer-generated) drawings of the 3 different levels and the storage areas on each level.

We created a numbering system for all the storage
spaces--this diagram is just for the lower level.

Summary

Ultimately, we want to create an Excel worksheet that lists all the items and which storage space in which they will be stored.  The items in the worksheet can be sorted alphabetically--so, knowing the name of the item you want to find (in the future) its location will be easily found.  We can't complete this worksheet until we actually store things--this will be covered in Part 2, along with the diagrams for all three levels.


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