Check out my drawers!

It has taken all summer and then some, but we've got the salon in Eclipse set up for how we'd like to travel. Here's what a MacGregor 26S looks like with the stock interior. Note two long benches along the sides. 

Not Eclipse, but this is what we started with. 

Last spring we cut out and glassed over the port and starboard settees, giving us a big blank slate with which to work. Blue tape shows dinette seats and table, which was then transferred to the port side. 

Starboard side. This will become the galley.

Port side. This becomes dinette and closet.

A few sheets of birch veneer plywood, some hinges, latches, glue and screws later – and we've got a nice layout. We swapped the port longitudinal settee for a dinette where two can sit comfortably across a collapsable table. Three is cozy, and a fourth can perch the little stool. Or dine in the cockpit if the weather is conducive. Across from the head is a nice closet with drawers and shelves.

Looking aft from v-berth. Closet and dinette. Mirror by the composting toilet. 

The starboard settee gave way to an expanded galley with more storage and a peltier powered refrigerator, and topped off with tiles.

New galley, sink, propane stove, tiles and cabinets.

It's been a long project, but we're very pleased with the result. It feels comfortable and quite functional. 

Sweet Dreams Are Made of These

Sleeping onboard Eclipse was a comfortable affair last night. The onboard, diesel fueled central heating pumped out copious quantities of thermally excited air. T'was toasty. We may need a larger fuel can than the one gallon container however. New mattress was created using 3" of medium firm foam with a 1" layer of soft foam on top. Very comfortable indeed. Mattress store wanted $650 to create what we desired. Mail order bulk foam that we cut and glued to shape ran $100. Getting everything in place and working out all of the kinks is paramount prior to departure on an extended trip.

Hot Stuff!

We've had a great summer of sailing on warm weekends and a one-week jaunt down to Boston and back. But fall is coming. After all, this is New England. It'll be getting cold. We'd like to make use of Eclipse in the shoulder seasons, but sleeping on a cold boat elicits a less than enthusiastic response. Sometimes we sleep on board when she's parked in the yard, but then we use a small electric heater.

Lying on the floor of the laz looking up.

View from the open lazaret hatch, showing the diesel tank (red), and
heat shield below it, and heat pipe going to the right. 

So Kristen purchased and I installed a Webasto diesel fueled hot air heater. It took a full month to install it and all its parts. The location is in the lazaret, port side, sandwiched between the motor well and the bulkhead of the lazaret. Most of the installation was done while lying on my back on the floor of the laz, with the heater about eight inches above my face. Every time I needed to procure another tool, or trim some material off whatever I was trying to fit, I had to climb out and back in again.

Vents on port side of motor well. Laz vent, combustion air, air intake for heating.

So many connections to make. The heater takes in diesel (I fashioned a tank from a gallon gas can) and intake air (1” pvc pipe to the port side of the motor well) and outputs exhaust (added a very small muffler, and a through-hull high on the transom.) It also takes in cold air (another PVC pipe drawing in air next to the combustion intake) and puts out hot air (too hot for PVC. I used steel). There are also electrical connections, fortunately these are plug-in, but wires have to be routed forward to the main panel and a controller knob/thermostat.

Looking to port at bottom of heater. What a spaghetti bowl!

Also, with the space being smaller than required, I added a steel heat shield to protect the fiberglass. To avoid loosing heat to the laz, the first four feet of heat vent pipe were insulated inside of a section of metal ducting. At that point the vent turns and enters the salon. Our first firing revealed a piece of foam lodged inside the heat vent, but once that was cleared (no easy task) the heat came pouring out!

Heat pipe in salon, looking aft. 

But winter has settled into New England and there's ice in the bays, so we'll wait for warmer weather and try some early season sailing next spring.

The photos are rather disorienting, as there is little for reference. I hope they make sense for you. 

Positively Powerful

Well, I finally got sick and tired of the hodgepodge additions I was making to an antiquated power panel on Eclipse but was at a loss to figure out what I could do to neaten things up. One day, while surfing the waters of the internet, I came across a power panel strip that I really liked. This one has circuit breakers rather than fuses and comes with the now standard but very annoying blue LED lights that can alternatively be used as runway beacons at major airports. The wiring was neater than before and the configuration of two panels allowed me to dump the SPST switches I had daisy chained on to the panel prior. A much better solution indeed. I carried over the idea of using custom made "bus bars" for the ground (negative) connection that I fashioned out of aluminum on the band saw and then drilled and tapped for screws. Sometimes it takes enough frustration to initiate change. I like this change for the better and I feel much relieved to have the antiquated jury-rigged fuse based panel OUT.