Practical Boat Owner - January 2016

Practical projects

Readers’ Tips

Without a leg to stand on
At last: a practical justifi cation for getting legless. Peter Eade demonstrates the simple but ingenious adaptation which enabled him to remove the obtrusive legs from his tiller table AROUND£20COST
Hwe found they got in the way when seating four people. By fiunderside of the table top it fiere is a detailed drawing and photo of the much-used tiller table on our Kelt 9M. It started out with legs, but tting brackets to the ts nicely onto
the tiller and is clamped into position: the tiller is centralised with a Tiller Tamer.

Iropes, the outboard motor and other items that are out on deck in summer. If, in the course of n the winter your boat’s cabin is fi lled with fenders, anchors,

winter maintenance, you want to go into a locker to look for a tool, you have to move all the gear – then you’ll want a spare

part which is inevitably in a locker under all the gear that has just been moved.The obvious solution is to take

all the gear off the boat; but then, where do we store it? My fithought was to buy a garden shed, but that costs money. The rst

next idea was to use one of those large plastic boxes you see in garden centres. They also cost money, but I realised I already

had a plastic storage bin in the garden – a wheelie bin which collects biodegrable recyclable material. The hedge trimmings

and grass cuttings go in during the summer, but by September this job is done so the bin is redundant all winter.

WHEELIE IMAGINATIVE WINTER STORAGE

water in October, all the fenders, ropes, outboard motor etc can be stored in the wheelie bin. When When the boat comes out the

the spring comes, all the gear goes back on the boat. The fender storage unit can then revert to being a garden waste bin. If

there is insuffiyour neighbours will also have redundant wheelie bins which cient volume,

they might be glad to get away from their door for the winter.contents are recycled in the This is multiple recycling. The

summer and the use of the bins recycled in the winter, and no trees need to be chopped down to build a garden shed. This is

not only free, but is also environmentally friendly.Nic Cameron

TAKIN G THE AIR

Tbedding aired. These cushions have a fabric back so moisture can get to the plywood under his is a very simple and cheap way to keep the

the bunk, but you can keep them away from the wood by placing empty water bottles

18mm ply table top

18mm ply 25x50mm softwoodTiller shown dotted

Table clamped to tiller with M6 stainless steel rod and wing nuts

MATERIALS:18mm WBP plywood25x50 PAR softwoodM6 stainless steel threaded rod

M6 washers and wing nutsBrass wood screws

adjusted to suit the height of tiller and tableThis dimension

Front support hooked adjusted to suit the height of tiller and tableThis dimension

over the tiller

Peter’s tiller table

between them. (Sadly, some cushions have vinyl backing, which means the moisture stays in the cushion. Yuck!)

Andy Nelson