Scott & Sue's New Drawers!

Extended stays like the one we are involved in in Clearwater Beach allow the completion of larger projects rather than the mundane day to day boat maintenance. This is especially true now that I have access to my Dad's woodworking shop. As you may have read earlier, we ripped out the old freezer compartment that was along side the companionway to the aft cabin. In this space we have now built 8 drawers and a nice work top. My new 'workbench'! Here's a brief blow by blow picture story of the building process.

Here in the shop I'm repairing the frame that was the front of the freezer compartment. This frame had two pretend doors in it. I'll not use the doors but use the frame and build 8 drawers to fit within the frame.








Finishing up one drawer. The fronts are teak and the sides and back are poplar. Bottom is eighth inch fiberboard. Yeah, it's hot in the garage!
Of course, all phases of the building project have to be checked and approved by the foreman.











The runners are built off of the frame. The divider in the center holds up one side of the runners and will also help to support the top when it is all installed. Of course it will all fit perfectly when I get it all back to the boat, right?





Hey, not bad. Of course the center partition will have to be trimmed at the bottom to allow for the shape of the hull. Back at the boat I only have one small (and dull) hand saw. But, several minutes of sawing allowed me to finally trim off the lower corner...but wait...why doesn't it fit right. ARGGGGG...After all that sawing I sawed off the upper corner! Time to quit for today. I'll buy a sharper saw tomorrow






Here's Sue painting the wooden handles we bought for the drawers. We're using Spar Urethane. Notice the drawers are different depths. The upper ones can be longer than the lower ones due to the shape of the boat.









Here's the finished product! I found a piece of melamine for the top. I used the old top to cut out this piece. Because it is in a companionway there is no good place to stand to get a picture. This is about the best I could do. The eight drawers will be used for tools and engine parts. I am going to install a better light above the table. This is a huge increase in available storage space. Always at a premium on any boat.