In
the picture to the left we are looking forward and to Mirador's port side.
The work surface is 1/4" aluminum plate glued to a 1" thick solid
board that is
bolted to cleats on the walls of the the boat. Every serious cruising boat needs a shop with standup working space, a metal work surface, room for big vise, and lots of good tool and parts storage. In the spring of 1999 we converted Mirador's aft head to a workshop.
The toilet (head) was left fully functional. The sink is still connected to the discharge thru hull and to freshwater pressure system but the sink bowl is underneath the shop work surface. The head can be converted back to it's stock state by removing a few bolts.
In
the picture to the left we are looking forward and to Mirador's port side.
The work surface is 1/4" aluminum plate glued to a 1" thick solid
board that is
bolted to cleats on the walls of the the boat.
The entire work surface can be removed by taking out four threaded bolts and then used in the cockpit as an outdoor workbench. The underside of the work surface has cleats that are designed to wedge securely into the space between the seats in the cockpit and thus makes for a very strong and non-moving outdoor workbench.
The fully functional toilet is immediately below the four drawer small parts holder.
The work surface was carefully sized to allow a full size chart, folded in half, to be placed on it. There is a navigators goose neck light with red/white lenses mounted above the work surface on the inside wall of the shop.
While at sea this is where I do my navigating.
You can also see the six drawer, ball bearing rollers, small tool chest. Behind the large red door are three large tool ball bearing roll out trays and then two large shelves for vise, hand saws, mallets, hydraulic lift jacks, and other heavy tools.
The large orange container is for the 25mm flare gun.
The orange dry box contains a large assortment of handheld flares, smoke bombs, parachute flares, dozens of additional 25mm flares, and dye markers. If it comes time to make your presence known - the equipment is there.
In the picture below you can see the large open storage area under the workbench and above the tool chests. I keep all the navigating tools there as well as hand held VHF radios, the charts I need for the next 48 hours, and pilot books.
The picture below shows the details of how the workbench was mounted without making any changes to the existing plumbing. Removal of the workbench and the small plastic parts trays provides full use of the toilet and sink.
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