Table/Bench Seat Mod

[OverEasy]

Yes! Very nice renovation of the dinette Geraghtyr!

Love the slide up to the ceiling of the table to get it out of the way.
The bench seat is a great way to make a much more comfortable sitting area.

How have you found it to use over the past 5 years?

Best Regards,
Over Easy

[pitchpolehobie]

Yes! Very nice renovation of the dinette Geraghtyr!

Love the slide up to the ceiling of the table to get it out of the way.
The bench seat is a great way to make a much more comfortable sitting area.

How have you found it to use over the past 5 years?

Best Regards,
Over Easy

that mod has me thinking.. I would do the round table but add 4 circular holes for cups / mugs.

[Sheppie62]

Wow! Never saw this before. Great idea!

[BOAT]

Would this work?





Starts as a shallow table:



I was going to make an extension for the table but we never seemed to need it so I never made it, The table can be extended further from the wall and a piece fits in if you want a full table,

It folds down thus:



And fully folded:



And just add your cushion:

[OverEasy]

Pretty nice convertible!

[adudinsk]

Very Nice!

Also wondering what was used for the flooring? Wood? Eva? Some other stuff?

[BOAT]

Also wondering what was used for the flooring? Wood? Eva? Some other stuff?

Teak and Holly boat sole plywood. Got it from a place in Florida. (All the boat construction stuff is in Florida now because all the boat builders moved there). I guess the boat builders use it to line the sole of the boat cabins in their big factories. Kevin knows more about the stuff than I do.

EDIT: Adding a link to the original post when I installed the floor for more details:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27460

[adudinsk]

Nice!

[adudinsk]

how did you stick it down/ 5200? Double back foam tape/ some kind of glue/... ?
(Air nail gun? )

Wife saw this.. loved it..

[BOAT]

If you read the original post you will see that the cabin floor by the galley is not glued or attached at all. In fact it's such a small rectangle I just left it loose. That way when we take a shower I just lift the floor out and throw it on the bed (you can see a picture of that in the other post).

Can you see the floor laying on the bed in the top of this picture?


As you can see the cabin floor is really quite small - in fact it would make a nice bathtub! Instead of using the cabin floor as a shower pan (as you easily could) I opted for a separate shower pan so I would not need to dry off the floor after showers.

The rest of the cabin floors are screwed down with brass screws and are also removable so you can clean under them and also makes it eisier to refinish the floors which is needed about every 10 years.

[OverEasy]

That flooring looks great!
How thick is it?
Is it solid wood or is there a backer material?

On to your companionway shower….
Is it draining into the main bilge and then pumped overboard?
Or is it collected into a grey water holding tank to be pumped out at a sanitary facility?

[BOAT]

That flooring looks great!
How thick is it?
Is it solid wood or is there a backer material?

On to your companionway shower….
Is it draining into the main bilge and then pumped overboard?
Or is it collected into a grey water holding tank to be pumped out at a sanitary facility?

Let me take the questions in reverse order: "Draining into the main bilge" for the shower is not an option.

We have all seen this picture of the MAC M bilge but except for the very early models this picture is a lie:



The ACTUAL bilge at the rear of the MAC m looks more like this:




In the pictures above you will see a yellow circle where the shower sump is mounted, that's a lie too - my mistake - the sump is actually inboard of that ballast channel. The only place on the boat lower than this (that is not inside the water ballast tank) is under the batteries. That's no place to mount a shower sump - so this place under the dinette is about a low as you can really go.

Even the picture from the factory shows that the ballast tank is not what is drawn in the cross section:



The red circle shows the rear of the ballast tank and the yellow circle shows yet another change made to the later models: A large wide spline molded into the hull right about midships. This is where the boat rests on the factory trailer. This is where the battery is and this is the lowest place on the boat. This is also where the dinette seat is as you can see in this factory photo:

(I circles the areas in red that fit together)



So, why am I boring everyone with all these details about our boats? Well, when you talk about shower sumps and bilge pumps it's really neccessary to know the construction of the boat under your feet. It's critical for getting things right.

So here is the location of the shower sump in 'boat':





Here is the sump:



And here is the pump:



When water goes into the sump, the pump sends the water to this thru hull above the motor well:



So, in answer to your question:

is it collected into a grey water holding tank to be pumped out at a sanitary facility?

What happens is the water shoots out of that hole into the motor well:



And, as we all know, the motor well drains out to the ocean, but as your question eludes, what if your in Canada or California near a shore and the Communists are near and you don't want to get caught draining the shower?

You just take the little rubber plug that comes with the factory galley sink and you use it to plug up the motor well drain and all that shower water will just stay in the motor well until your ready to dump it. I figure the motor well holds about 5 gallons - that's enough for two people to take a shower.

[OverEasy]

Hi BOAT!

Thanks for the Mac26M geometry lesson!
I was wondering about several of the subfloor features that differ in the Mac26M from what we’ve been able to figure out about our Mac26X. There seems to be a lot different in how the ballast tanks are structured.

We like the companionway shower idea as the head on our Mac26X is too small for me to even consider modifying. (While it might work for the Admiral, it is just to tight a fit for the crew…)

We’ve decided that once we get the hard dodger made then the interior mod will be a companionway shower and grey water holding tank….except I’m not too keen on taking up space in the aft dinette bench area… nor are we desiring to dump overboard to remain fully compliant with the various regulations and marina restrictions ….. you’ve inadvertently provided us with the basis of an excellent work around!!! A mini sump and pump up to a secondary holding tank!!!

There is nothing in the rules to preclude a non subfloor holding tank as long as it cannot gravity drain overboard, can be “locked” to the hull and has a serviceable sanitary pump out fitting. All of which can be accomplished with a little ingenuity, a plastic or fiberglass 5 gallon jerry canoe two, a bracket to hold it and a couple of fittings!

Option1: Place the mini sump under the existing head floor as accessed from the aft dinette bench then place holding tank(s) behind the aft wall of the head of the Mac26X. Fit the holding tanks with a suction line to a cockpit rim sanitary grey water fitting.

Option 2: Place the mini sump under the existing head floor as accessed from the aft dinette bench then place holding tank on the aft external face of the stern OR a tank placed within the engine bowl with an integral sanitary grey water fitting. This would be compliant as long as it is bolted, locked or otherwise not readily removable and does not have a gravity drain. (This option would not have occurred to us were it not for your mentioning draining into the corked engine bowl.) This way we are not taking up valuable interior space in the aft berth and simplifying the pump out geometry. It would also allow us the option of removal and drainage once we got back to the house if so desired. ( Although we’d probably go for a pressurization port to blow out the contents via the sanitary fitting and a hose into our home’s exterior septic drain that we put in place last year when we had the septic field replaced.)

Thanks BOAT!!!

Now what about the decking materials?
The Admiral is interested in seeing if we might be able to do something similar.
It looks great and I like that it is removable for refinishing when the time comes.

Best Regards,
Over Easy

[BOAT]

I saw on your post your location said:

Location: NH SC

And I am not very good at geography so I was not sure hat that means (N ew H ampshire - S outh C arolina?) I'm probably way off.

Anyways, it appears that you are dealing with some pretty rare environmental rules so the concept of a holding tank is probably a good one in your case. There was another guy I talked to about planning his shower and he had need for a holding tank also because he also used his MAC as a camper trailer (a "caravan" as he put it) because in his country campers had to have holding tanks - even if the camper was a boat.

So he did indeed put a drain hole in the bottom of his MAC26X head and piped it to a marine shower sump that pumped the shower water to a holding tank somewhere in the front of the boat.

So your idea is not crazy.

As for Teak and Holly cabin soles you can find that stuff all over the internet. It's a standard marine ply crosshatched backing with strips of solid teak and solid holly glued on top. 50% of the boats you see with teak and holly cabin soles are really this plywood - not actual strips glued to the boat floor. The plywood is much easier to maintain and replace so boat manufactures prefer it especially the catamaran builders with the big floors.

I can't remember where I bought the plywood - it was shipped from Florida. Google search 'teak and holly plywood' and you will get lots of sources. I had to get on the phone and call them because at that time there was a hurricane and I did not want wet wood so I was checking to see who had dry stored wood so I was unable to get it from the guy with the best price because his wood was in the path of the storm and I did not trust it. You would not have that issue now.

[OverEasy]

Hi BOAT!

Yup, NH is New Hampshire and SC is South Carolina

The way things in life turned out we get to be sorta snow birds for the time being. (Long story)

Thank you for the material info on the teak and holly ply backed material. That sounds like something we could work with. Was actually concerned it was edge glued boards which might crack/split over time.

One of the things we learned from our recent extended season stay on Lake Champlain is that condensation forms on the cabin wall sides and can trickle down to collect on the bottom of the mattresses. Our temporary solution was to run the dehumidifier and to place rolled up towels along the hull sides of the mattresses.

A longer term solution might be to place 1/2” stand off strips of PVC board under some of that teak & holly plywood with a hull side lip spacer to keep the mattress away from the wall and make an air gap underneath. Same with the floor surfaces.

Might be over thinking it though …

Thanks for the info!

Best Regards,
Over Easy