Flat Stowage With Canvas

Large-format chart books frequently pose a storage problem.  Aboard s/v Cay of Sea Ruth has found a solution:

My wife the sewing wizard addressed another stowage and convenience need aboard Cay of Sea.

We have a large-format chart book of Chesapeake Bay that doesn’t stow anywhere conveniently.  I also have several project books and a cruising log to stow.  We had been stashing the chart book underneath a settee cushion, and that works okay, but doesn’t seem very sailorly.  When the stowage of other workbooks was considered, we were in danger of endorsing clutter – something that is intolerable aboard a sailboat.  Since one of my persistent goals is to provide a place for everything and reduce clutter aboard, a dedicated stowage for flat things made sense.  At my request, it was Ruth to the Rescue.  This is what she came up with:

Basically, this is a canvas square (24 inches), hemmed all around, with a pocket rising from the bottom 2/3 of the way to the top.  It looks like this:

I added grommets to the corners – learning from past experienced with smashed thumbs, I used locking pliers to hold both the fabric cutter and grommet setting tool as I drove them with a hammer.

Locking pliers are essential safety equipment

I designated another portion of unused bulkhead for mounting the pocket, first carefully evaluating if it would interfere with any other operation near that location.

Blank, unencumbered bulkhead region for mounting

Then using strap eyes for attachment points, I attached the pocket to the space with zip ties.

Hmmm. . . the black zip ties don’t look so good here. Maybe I’ll switch to white or clear for less contrast.

The fold-down chart table/stove support interferes a small bit.  If I put anything else in this pocket, I’ll have to shim the hook which holds the table in the stowed position.  This is an easy fix, though.

Chart table/stove support in the stowed position. The retaining hook is a little tight with the pocket in place, but otherwise works fine.

All done. Flat stowage: check.  Thanks Ruth!