V Berth and Galley storage

[Russell]

I am adding extra storage to my boat. In the V berth I am turning the shelves into cabinets and in the galley I am building a cabinet over the sink area. I have built the doors for the v berth and done the rough cabinet work for both areas. I will add photos here to show progress.

Here is a photo of the new doors for the v berth cabinets, each is about 15 by 8 made of solid teak. Thankfully a friend had the right router bit for the shape matching the CD origonal doors (the bit on Amazon.com is nearly $200). These doors started as a single plank of unmilled teak. This whole project for the galley and v berth has been the most ambitious I have done as far as fine joinery is concerned, even my new cabin sole (which is solid teak and maple, no veneer) was more strait forward. I am learning a lot and having a ton of fun.

[Russell]

Rough cabinetry for the galley is done, still trim work to do and doors to be made. (ignore splotchy headliner, thats spots of primer where there was some crazing).

[Russell]

The doors for the new galley cabinets are ready for finally gluing.

The frame is made out of solid teak with a plywood center panel, done the same way CD build the interior doors. The frame in the photo is actually for two doors, since the doors are going to be side by side, I decided to make a single frame and when done cut it down the center, so the grain will match going across the doors, it should look very nice.

I bought some veener inlays of dolphins, so each door will have a dolphin on it facing each other. Its pretty thick veneer, and I am not opting for the cheesy "onlay" style, so I mortised out the panel for the inlays so they will be flush and should look terrific.

[Steve Laume]

The dolphins are a really nice touch, Steve.

[Russell]

Now that the galley cabinets are done, I have shifted back to working on the v berth. Most of the trim is done, still some plugs to put in and of course varnish. The cabinets are basicly installed exactly where the typical shelves are, I bumped them out about an inch more, they still dont hang over the berth area so dont reduce berth space but add a considerable amount of storage space (which is lacking on these boats for liveaboard). A previous owner had done a different setup which really cramped up the berth, which I undid and am replacing with this. New cusions for the v berth are in progress as well, but I cant really sew much while the boat is a wreck from woodwork.

[K Chiswell]

Looks great.

I've been thinking about doing something similar in our v-berth and you've convinced me it is a good idea. For us it is down the project list a little ways so it will have to wait awhile.

[mashenden]

I saw the pic of the galley cabinet that you shared in another post. Well done, indeed!! The inlaid inserts are a touch of class.

I like the v-berth storage too. Before I saw the pictures, I could not envision how that could be good. Now I get it!! Lots more storage with minimal impact on using the space to sleep. That could well become a project for me in the Spring.