Monday, January 9, 2012

Help, please

Sometimes, a commonly available solution to a problem is, well, incomplete. 

On Eolian, lo these many years ago, I installed what must be the standard teak wine glass rack on the underside of the cabinet over the galley sink:


But there is a problem.  In a seaway, the glasses jostle around and then eventually abandon the rack, jumping to their freedom.  Short of fitting them with tiny life jackets, what is to be done?  I have considered many ideas as solutions to this problem, but have not found one to my liking.  Normally I like to consider myself a pretty creative guy, but on this one I am drawing a blank.

So.  There are some very creative folks out there who read this blog - this post is directed to you.  I need your help, please.

How can I retain the wine glasses in the rack?  The solution needs to:
  • Retain the glasses in a seaway (duh).  
  • Make it easy to insert and remove glasses into/from the rack when we are not in a seaway (realistically, this is the large majority of the time).  If the solution involves a removable piece, stowage is a concern
  • Not look like a kludge (no bungie cords please)
  • Be elegant in its simplicity.
There are no prizes, except that I will implement the solution I like best, if any,  and publish it here - because I suspect that I am not the only one with this problem.  And we will hoist a toast to you at anchor in Port Madison, the next time we are there.

Please send your ideas to the address on the contact page, listed in the tab above.

OK, over to you, creative folks!

10 comments:

  1. Whatever the thickness of the upper plate (base?) hinge a small, maybe 1/2" wide or just enough to cover the slot the full length to that plate. It can be held up flat to the overhead with a small clasp and then let down 90 degrees and also held with a hook clasp maybe, in a seaway.

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  2. Partially inflate some small balloons and fit them in the slots. When not needed just pop and remove.

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  3. It's looking like a combination of ideas is going to work.

    Mickey, I like the idea of the hinged keeper strip. I think that's going to be part of the solution.

    Joe from Shoreline (whose idea went up on Salnick's First Law instead of here) suggested snap hinges to keep the strip in place, and then in an out-of-band communication suggested the use of magnets. I really like the magnet idea!

    And 2 points for novelty go to Notes from Paradise!

    What a creative group this is! Thanks so much for your ideas - now watch for the project to appear here.

    bob

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  4. On Whiskeyjack, I strung a lanyard across the glasses. loose enough for glasses to be removed for those rare times when we are not swilling directly from the bottle, but not so loose as to allow the stemware to make like East Germans in 1990.
    You can see the lanyard in the pic below, retaining our high-quality plastic stemware, just above and outboard of the table.

    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLNAVEfHn0E/TeOaTcvYk1I/AAAAAAAAAV8/zfx77m0VN-A/s640/boatpics2011+009.jpg

    If the lanyard itself looks too plain and kludgy, use some fancywork instead.
    Frayed Knot Arts has some necklaces and or bracelets that may do the trick, or he'll custom make you what you need... or do it yourself using his tutorials.
    http://www.frayedknotarts.com/jewelry.html

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  5. There are some good ideas coming in...

    bob

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  6. Bob,

    What did you finally devise for this? I have an idea if you are still entertaining solutions.

    Rick

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  7. Hi Rick!
    Sadly I haven't tackled it yet, although I did buy some small but very strong tiny disk magnets to implement the hinged keeper strip.

    But I'd love to hear your idea!

    Bob

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  8. The shape of the slot for the glass bottoms reminds me of a sail track. It seems like something that works on the principle of a sail track stop would work here also. Perhaps a piece of teak milled to the shape of the slot that slides in next to the last glass in the row to hold them in. It would feature a wooden center thumb, screw ideally made of wood so it wouldn’t scar the inside of the track (wood, would, wooden, wouldn’t – I know, I know. . .) . Wash the glasses, slide them into the slot, insert the plug and secure with the thumb screw. They also store in the slot when the glasses are being used. I guess the hard part would be milling the wooden thumb screw – but you can probably buy them for cheap somewhere online.

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  9. Turns out that wooden screws are very difficult to find (spent a half hour on line last night looking, just out of curiosity). Unless one is willing to use some other sort of thumb screw, this solution doesn't sound very practical.

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  10. Hello, what I did in my boat is simply slip a strip of eva rubber of appropriate thickness along the track, thick enough for the wineglass base to stay put but not too thick that you have to wrench them free. I bought a simple metal frame rather than your lovely tracks, but it should work. Will take a photo and send. Cheers!

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