Re: storage in cabin sole
Mine (1973) has a floor in the keel that is about 12" below the cabin floor. There are two hatchs in the cabin floor. A small one to access the two 12v batteries down there and a three foot long one to access the storage. The floor runs from the front of the keel to the back where is opens to the bilge below the engine. It provides good storage and seals the keel from the hull incase the keel is opened up in a grounding. Probably along the seam in the leading edge of the keel.
Re: storage in cabin sole
In Virago (1985) there is shallow space below the cabin floor and the top of the sewage holding tank. There is an access hatch for the tank directly below one of the floor boards. I don't use my toilet (see posts elsewhere about that), but I want to keep the plumbing in place to keep the boat legal on the Great Lakes. This means that I have been leaving unused a large space low in the boat that would make great storage for heavy things. This year I cleaned out and sterilized the tank via the inspection hatch and am now planning to use it as chain storage or a place to stuff recycling until I get to shore, or a beer cooler/wine cellar. In fact the floor of the tank is sloped so with each beer removed, the others would just back down to fill it's place - gravity loaded! I just need to figure out how to keep the load from shifting too much when the supplies get low...
Re: storage in cabin sole
What did you sterilize the tank with?
5 2011-07-06 11:40:36 (edited by Virago Deb 2011-07-07 15:58:00)
Re: storage in cabin sole
Sorry for the delay in responding, I don't get on here too often....The boat had sat un-used for some years, and I hadn't used the head, so the contents (a bit of a scaly coating) were dry. I scrubbed it out with a scrub brush taped to the end of a length of batten material so it would make the bend around the hatch and up into the tank, wearing long rubber gloves I'll add, and cleaned out the results. Then I filled it with a bleach and water solution a bit stronger than 1:100 and sailed around like that for a couple of days then pumped it out. Be careful of using too much bleach as it can eat some plastics and adhesives. Would have liked to try steam but didn't have a steam cleaner available. Have dumped chain down there, but still not brave (crazy) enough to use it for food stuffs! This spring I found what I think is a bit of "backwash" from the head system in there, so back to the drawing board. Really, I'd like to take the head system out completely and put in a porta-potti if I could figure out the problem of fitting it in the tiny head area. I think someone else has covered that somewhere else on this site...