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!

Icebox

You probably thought this was going to be a galley-related post.

Not so.  This is the medicine cabinet in the aft head on Eolian.  You can't see it, but the door is not ventilated - it has a mirror on it.  And you may not be able to tell, but the space shares two surfaces with the outside world:

• The back wall is the hull
• The top surface is the bottom of the side deck

With no ventilation and these two outside surfaces, it gets mighty cold in there when it is cold outside.  Cold enough that squeezing toothpaste out of the tube is quite difficult.  And putting on deodorant?  Boy howdy!

So, this is not a project, but rather a project *need*.  This time I am soliciting advice from you, the readers of this blog, looking for ideas for insulating material which could be applied to the two outside surfaces.    I have some criteria:

• The installation cannot be permanent - there is wiring running up there, and I don't want to permanently cover it.
• The wiring running on the underside of the deck makes an installation tight against the upper deck difficult
• I don't want to cover the bottom end of the chainplate that is on the back wall.
• It would be nice if I could finish the insulation somehow (paint?)
• Whatever the material is, it has to go into the space thru the small door with the mirror

I am looking forward to seeing your ideas in the comments.

bob

Sticky question

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is a brittle plastic.  (In your mind's eye, take a vinyl record and smack it on the edge of a table - it shattered, didn't it?)

PVC can be made into an entirely different sort of material by blending it with an "inert" oil as it is molded - this gives you the flexible PVC you know for fenders, lifelines, and wire insulation.

Unfortunately, the oil doesn't stay put - in sunlight, it migrates to the surface of the PVC and then it oxidizes and polymerizes into a sticky mess.

So here's my question to all of you reading:

What method have you found best for ridding fenders and shore power cords of the sticky polymerized plasticizers in PVC?

Come on now, don't be shy - I know there are a lot of you reading this - tell us how you deal with this problem!