The saloon

There’s a lot of thinking to be done about the saloon. Losing 20’ from our present 70 means more than just eliminating two compartments. Including bulkheads, dropping the dinette gains us about 6’ 4” and a similar amount for the study bedroom. That leaves a bit over 7’ to find. The shorter bow and well deck will account for a bit, maybe two feet, and another two from the engine room if we put the washing machine in the galley. The bathroom is already pretty short, so the saloon and galley between them are going to have to lose around three feet. 

Sanity Again has a very long saloon, but we can’t give up much more than another couple of feet, I suspect. Note that all this is still very rough thinking – we’re a long way off drawing detailed plans. 

First off, a word about the linings. We really like what we have on SA, which is panelling on the walls and t&g on the ceiling (or deck head if you’re being technical). We’re thinking of Karndean type vinyl wood flooring and maybe plain white painted panels instead of the t&g. The oiled oak floor and the t&g between them reduce the headroom a bit, it has to be said. Mainly free-standing furniture again, but with a hinged table to one side with a couple of folding dining chairs to provide eating space. I don’t think we’ll need much in the way of bookshelving. We mostly read ebooks these days and watch films copied across onto the laptop from our DVD collection in the lodge.

Instead of a Squirrel solid fuel stove, we want a drip feed diesel, either the Lockgate Refleks or the Kabola. We may go for a back boiler on that, heating a couple of rads and the calorifier, thereby removing the need for a Webasto. On the other hand, that leaves us dependent on the stove for boat heating when not on a landline. On the other other hand, both the Refleks and the Kabola have an enviable reputation for reliability...