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During this pandemic, I have been watching YouTube videos of sailors on bigger boats. I have become envious of a saloon with some room for seating. I began to realize I really don't use my table that much. We have a nice little fold out table attached to the pedestal where we eat our meals when aboard. I have plans to mod my V-berth this fall to make it a larger double berth by taking down the back to the forward settee seat and adding an extension to the V-berth base. So, I stowed the table/bunk support under the cockpit. Now I have a nice seating area. I think I will like this. If I get through Isaias alright. Cost of mod: $.00. Time to complete: 5 minutes.

Superior idea! You certainly thought out of the box since out of all these years I never saw that option before.
And even though I have 3 kayaks, hatchboard, fishing poles, clam rakes, etc, etc under cockpit, the table and support will fit under there.

I know, I am replying to my own thread, but after our last day on the boat last week, I was impressed with the ease with which we could move about the cabin with the table out of the way. When one person wanted to go forward and the other was in the way, one could just slide easily into the "saloon" seat and the other could easily slide by to the forward hatch, for example. I am really liking this new "saloon" seating.

How did you fare with Isaias?
Many people were without power. My brother had a huge tree fall on both his cars crushing them.

I've never been on an X, however the M table I think is similar. BWY as part of their customizing cuts the table in half and installed a hinge which makes it smaller and provides more room. Perhaps that is an option for you?

Yup - even on the M the table is way too big. A smaller one is more convenient for two people. If you have kids the large table is good.

Russ wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 6:17 am How did you fare with Isaias?
Many people were without power. My brother had a huge tree fall on both his cars crushing them.

I've never been on an X, however the M table I think is similar. BWY as part of their customizing cuts the table in half and installed a hinge which makes it smaller and provides more room. Perhaps that is an option for you?

Thanks for asking about Isaias. As it work out, it was not even a bad storm here. For the prep, the Admiral and I went up to the marina, collapsed the Bimini and dodger, secured same. added a fourth mooring line to the pilon shared with adjacent boat, doubled up all other mooring lines, insured furled jib was secured three ways with those huge rubber coated gear ties or twisties, took in shore power cord and secured it, made sure I had three fenders per side deployed, and then almost collapsed from heat exhaustion!. And this happens just enough to tempt one into backing off and not prepping so thoroughly, but I can assure you, the minute I try that, I'll get slammed by the next one. But, moving on to the table. Yes, a half table on a hinge at the side bullhead would be great. One that you could just snap out of the way like an airline tray table. Thinking about that one. Just a little 1/4 inch plywood would do the trick. I may experiment with those folding plastic camping tables they sell at Camping World. We use them for pizza tables in our family room when enjoying same. https://www.campingworld.com/original-q ... ing-tables

With a shorter table you can slide the galley out of the way and have guests all sit across from the dry bar for cocktails:




Or if you want to maximize the seating you could fold the table down out of the way and use it as a seat:




Or for a few bring in the galley a little closer and flip cushions for a more 'salon style' couch where there is room to put up your feet:




It's nice to have different configurations for happy hour - dinner - lounging - and so forth. The first step to making it happen is to bag the stock table.

Lots of good info in this thread guys! Keep it coming!

BOAT wrote: ↑Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:09 pm With a shorter table you can slide the galley out of the way and have guests all sit across from the dry bar for cocktails:

Wait....wait... that doesn't look like stock at all. Besides your awesome flooring. Did you recover the seat cushions? That doesn't look like stock Roger beige. And as always BOAT your mods are excemplarly.

Yes, Boat. Really impressed with your cabin. Are the cabin decks actual wood or something like

Here is a foldup table idea. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Ca ... M%3DVDVVXX

Did you recover the seat cushions? That doesn't look like stock Roger beige. . . .
Are the cabin decks actual wood or something like . . . . .

It's real wood - teak and holly. Very easy to install - it's the finishing that is a little tricky but if you get that right it wears like iron. The teak and holly cabin sole was installed as a longer lasting replacement for the carpet that was wearing out.

The boat is stock color but the last picture above was taken with the IPHONE 8 in daylight with the sliding hatch closed so it was shady inside the boat. The IPHONE 8 is a piece of crap including the camera so that is why the color is so bad on the pictures I posted.

Here is the same interior with the hatch closed lighted by LED lights taken by an IPHONE 6:



IPHONE 6 is a superior device compared to an IPHONE 8. THE SIX IS OLDER! The eight is newer.

The IPHONE 8 is sold as a better device because it has NO buttons or external ports that lead into the body (water resistant) and that includes a camera well that is sealed with a waterproof covering over the lens. APPLE compensates for the covering over the lens with built in color correcting software that sucks. There is no real aperture in cell phone cameras - they use software to create a sort of fake aperture that sucks.

The IPHONE 6 is made the old fashioned way with inserts and real buttons and a glass exposed camera so your pictures are clearer and better quality with no added color correction or distorting software. In this IPHONE 6 picture you can see that the camera did not change it's aperture to compensate for the bright LED lights so the area around them is washed out - that's an honest lens.



I'm impressed with the camera in SOME cell phones but I still prefer the regular SLR we all grew up with but who carries one of those around anymore??

Anyway, as you can see - the color in the boat is the same as all your M boats it's just the camera that makes the colors change.

Boat, really nice use of wood. Cannot argue with its true nautical feel and intrinsic beauty. However, I have been leaning in the direction of Seadek.https://www.seadek.com/ I used it successfully to soften the bottom and bow seat of my O'Day Sprite when I rehabbed it about 20 years ago. Its a 1959; its what got me into sailing; been in the family from the beginning. But I thought I might try putting some Seadek on my Mac cabin and cockpit decks. It has a nice softness to it, yet it wears very well. But, that is another thread. Do you have a link to the mod you did on the table. I really like its size and versatility.

I will try yo find the post from building the table - it's buried in site somewhere.

The seadeck stuff is really nice. You need to make a pattern and send them the sizes and they make it for you. The seadeck is also designed to go right over fiberglass non-skid just like the kind in the mac boats.