Space saving on board

Space saving on board 

As any boat owner knows, the ideal size of yacht is five feet larger than the one you own. Or so goes the adage. The reality is that no matter the volume of your boat there never seems quite enough space and the boat's use, inventory, equipment, crew and provisions have to be considered when optimizing the space available.

On Froo Gal we have the luxury of using her for weekend cruises for the most part, but that brings its own problems.  Every time we arrive at the boat

each crew member brings a kit-bag full of clothes and other goodies, some of which get left on her each time we leave. The chart table gets filled with knickknacks; lockers overflow; and bunks are covered with things that 'might come in handy.'

As a result we have the occasional clear out and a run through the inventory. We have also been thinking about space saving items and ideas. Here are a few that we have tried or identified:

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1. Folding bucket.

2. Travel towel.

3. Small craft almanac and leisure folios chart folios.

4. Concentrated drinks.

5. Instant foods (as backup meals) and dried pasta.

6. MP3 player / iPhone for music.

7. Kindle / iPad for books (novels not essential sailing books).

8. Vacuum pack bags.


9. Boxes of wine (they stack well).


10. Activated carbon water filter(avoiding the need for extra bottles and water containers).


11. Nets to hang fruit and vegetables (extra storage space).

12. Use the bilges.

13. Think about rubbish, trash, garbage, waste.

14. Inflatable kayak.

15. Inflatable dinghy.

16. Short sea boots.

17. Space saving kedge anchor (I bet we never assemble ours).


18. Nesting cooking pots and pan.

19. Remove unnecessary duplicate items.

20. Folding bicycle (too good to rust away on a boat).

21. Cockpit tent (creates more usable space).

22. Hammock (more leisure space to get away from the rest of the crew).

23. KISS Keep it simple stupid! Don't horde; remove items that you don't use; remove excess packaging; choose food packages and storage containers that fit well in the spaces you have available.

24. Telescopic fishing rod.

25. Blue tooth speaker (&iPhone/iPads) for music/multimedia.

Searching the Web and forums identifies some interesting ideas:

theboatgalley.com has lots of useful food and cooking related ideas. Some might save space.

boatus.com/magazine/archives/savebigtime.asp identifies a number of 'interesting' ideas to save time and money (some of which may also save space).