New project- made a wine rack to fit in main bilge!

[eianm]

There is so little storage space on my 1991 P42, so I have always been looking at ways to create some new storage. Hoping to finally start doing some cruising and longer passages so came up with the idea of using the unused space in the main cabin bilge under the center removable floor panel. I used some old plywood to test the concept and will now go and source some nice marine ply and do it all again after proof of concept. I cut the bottom with a width that would position it about 10>12 inches above the very bottom of the bilge., so about 6" above the top of the bilge pump. The top panel was cut wider ( the bilge tapers down toward s bottom) so it jammed about 6" above the bottom panel- i then placed a 6" piece of 2x1 at the center of each end to secure top and bottom panels together for ease of handling. I then slit some 1/2" plastic tube to run around the circumference of each hole basically to spot any rattling type noise. This model holds 8 bottles of wine in a very stable temperature "cellar". It easy and ready access top wine when needed and is easily and quickly removed when needed. I will also post this in owner mods under P42.
If anyone is interested I can add a drawing with dimensions if needed.

 

[sail sfbay]

Nice project!! Gives me an idea for a wine rack but not in the bilge since it is a PITA to move floor board to get access to it.

Wondered if your boat has a built in wine rack? My 1987 Hunter 31 had a 6-bottle built in wine rack. My 2004 Hunter 386 had a 4-bottle rack and my current 2005 Hunter 46 has No wine rack so I have to creative how and where I store wine bottles.

 

[eianm]

i do have a built in bottle rack that is used for spirits!

 

[sail sfbay]

Interesting......my 2004 Hunter 386 had plenty of rack storage for spirits but my new 2005 Hunter 46 has NO bottle racks for spirits.

 

[Terry Cox]

Nice job Eian. Great idea. Lots of unused space down there. Your bottled storage rack next to the hanging locker must already be full? That is where I keep all our hard liquor for guests. As far as a wine rack goes, not much of a need here since a fine vintage (current month) Franzia Merlot box wine suits my fancy.

 

[SG]

I'd caution you to make sure you pad the bottles so they can't bang around. Aside from the lost wine, you don't want the glass in the bilge pumps/strainers/lines or bilge.

I've stored bottles in some our low bilges forward. Once a couple bottles of Pelegrino decide they didn't like being dropped off of flat 4'+ waves :^))). They were in a blige I could get to carefully with a wet paper towel to make sure the little green glass shards didn't migrate further.

I'd think simple bubble wrap would be fine all around the bottles.

 

[eianm]

SG- look again at the pics- the bottles cant move once in the rack- slitting the plastic hose so it pushed over the cut edge of the ply took up the small gap with bottle.

 

[markwbird]

Folk boats have wine bottle storage in the bilge. Great idea as it stays cool down there. Kinda dirty, though. I would clean the bottle before opening it

 

[Justin_NSA]

Good thinking! That's the last place pirates will look if you get boarded!

 

[Bob R.]

During early discussions with Marlow Hunter about buying a new MH40, I made a comment about liking an under floor boards wine rack that they had included on another model MH boat that we had looked at. When we took delivery of the new boat almost a year later, I discovered the same wine rack under one of the floor boards. They had remembered my comment and included the wine rack at no additional charge. The whole rack can be lifted out and there is still some storage underneath.

 

[Jim Beck]

Mine was the first MH40 to have this. They designed it at my request, then didn’t charge me for it because they said David Marlow thought it should be in their boats going forward.

 

[Ron20324]

Folk boats have wine bottle storage in the bilge. Great idea as it stays cool down there. Kinda dirty, though. I would clean the bottle before opening it

put the bottles in the bags the newspapers come in. A freebie !

 

[Ron20324]

If your salon table has two "legs" (one, the mast, then a second) put a nice board on each side of the legs and thru-bolt them to pinch the legs between the two. I put all kinds of bottles in there. YMMV. Don't put the two boards down to the floor, as you'd want to be able clean in there.