1970 Islander Bahama 24

[daysailor17]

Hello all,

I am new to the site, but not new to an old classic. I have just recently became the owner of a 1970 Islander Bahama. She was given to me by an old gentleman I grew up with as he is not able to take care of her anymore. She has been on the hard for 2 seasons and was pretty rough to begin with. I am filled with excitment every time I go there. Sometimes, I just go sit in the cabin and envision what she could look like. I have grown up on sailboats, (Coronado 25, Elk 30) and I sailed professionally on the Maine schooners for several years (American Eagle and Angelique). My current life gives me no extra time or money for rebuilding, but Tally Ho has met 6/7 criteria I was looking for (full keel w/ attached rudder, good performance, classic style, under 25', a trailer, price. The interior is in rough shape, but there is no softness to the deck anywhere! The companionway hatch needs some glassing, but is otherwise dry without delamination. The boat is flush-decked,. which some say is ugly, but growing up on a Coronado 25, I have so much appreciation for the benefits and looks! The thing that really astonished me is the helm balance! I cannot wait to sail her. I have been tring to decide how to organize the interior. I will be adding a cockpit accessible ice-box, and the V-berth is quite large. I have not decided how to organize the most efficientuse of space in the main cabin. Anyone have specific things they like about their space and would recommend?

E

[/u]

[Tim]

How you organize your space depends on what you want or need out of the space. How will you be using this boat? How many people aboard? What sort of cruising might you do?

Obviously, there are space limitations in a Bahama 24, but she has more room than many boats of that size. So you should have the potential for interesting options in the interior.

As to dinettes, I personally like them when there's truly room to have one that is fully functional--that is, room around the table, ease of ingress/egress, and a sole beneath that isn't severely contoured by the hull shape in that area. But many a dinette looks great in the plan view, but just don't work in three dimensions once the other restrictions of the boat shape come into play. This is an important consideration in building any dinette. Also consider the head and shoulder room above the seats.

When there is room, however, and when that space isn't better used for some other configuration, dinettes are handy because they offer a dedicated, out-of-the-way space for eating, working, chartwork, laptops, etc. Sometimes it's just nice to sit at a good table, rather than reclined on a settee or cockpit bench, and decent, workable tables are few and far between when they are not of a relatively permanent design.

Dinettes don't work in every situation. But I sure am looking forward to building one into Pixie when I rebuild the boat over the coming years. A comfortable dinette with sturdy, more or less permanent table is one of the main features around which we will be designing the interior. It fits in with our visions for the boat in this case. That's not to say that they are the end-all for every situation, though.

[dasein668]

In a boat that small I think you are likely to have trouble getting a truly functional dinette installed?and I think the space is likely to be more useful in another cofiguration. But as Tim says, only you can decide how that space will be best used.

A good solution for a table would be to use something like Tim and I have built for our cockpit tables. I don't have anything written up for that on my site, but I think Tim has details on his. Basically it is a threaded pole with a table top and deck fitting allowing for a sturdy table to be built but quickly knocked down for stowage. I intend to install a fitting for mine down below when I rebuild the saloon area.

Obviously that isn't the same as a permanant dinette table, but it is a good compromise for having a table available to use when necessary.

[dasein668]

Ah, here it is.

When I built mine I ended up using a pvc table leg with threaded end fittings, as time was running short before our cruise and I had the parts on hand. And the cost of materials was like 49 cents instead of 38 bucks for the aluminum pipe.

I will likely switch to an aluminum tube however. The pvc leg is functional, but definitely not as sturdy as the aluminum.

[daysailor17]

I always forget that web board participants are not in my head. In reality, my life and the accessibility to cruising grounds typically limit my sailing to weekending and daysails, with ocassional trips of up to a week. I would love to be able to live aboard, but I think something with a bit more creature comforts for the future wife would be good.

In asking about the dinette, I am just wondering what other options people have gone with and why.

I like having a remove-able cockpit table, as the cockpit in the Bahama is quite large. I absolutley love the ice-box in the cockpit as it is far superior for drainage and loading, and it is accessible without going down below.

I have been considering using the V-berth as a double berth, but I hate having the anchor locker within inches of my sleeping area. It is also not as convenient for sheets. It is also a drag to have such moisture and muck drain out under my berth into the bilge (this drainage has other problems that are on my list of stuff to do). I like having a single sling berth (pipe berth) w/ convertable double from the dinette.

The galley is pretty silly, and I have come to believe that a dry sink and small single burner for coffee/hot water and a Barb-E-Que on the stern rail seems to work well. I have also experimented with the camp stove in the cockpit, as it keeps the heat out of the cabin.

I would love to hear about other options and people's reasoning behind them.

E

[Robert The Gray]

here are some photos of my permanant dinette on Whisper, my 1960 triton. the convertable dinette sounds nice but they take over 6' of length to make a decent bed. you end up with a huge table that is somewhat awkward to convert and whose benches are not tucked under the table edge, and no room to really convert it to a bed without having everyone out in the cockpit. only until you get to 30' in length does the convertable dinette make sense to me.

I realised that I would not take my triton to the marqueases(sp?) nor would I go to hawaii, I feel I am too tall (6'-2") to be that comfortable on the triton for longer than a week. With the SF bay and all its great daysailing, and the weekends going up river, I knew would rarley spend more than 4 consecutive days on the boat. Most of the time I just wanted a nice place for me to sit down below, look out the window at the passing parade and eat a sandwich. I love my dinette! I can sit below without feeling like I am down in a hole, I can see out the salon portlights. The table is SOLID. It will break me before it breaks. My photos are not so good and during construction I kept forgetting to take pictures. I hope you can see the curved seat bases I made. these allow your but to stay in place with a moderate amount of heal. all construction in meranti marine ply and mahogony.


In architecture there are a series of decisions that are made before any drawing is done. These decisions define the program of the building. one must get very clear on the program of your boat before setting out. The things that make a boat a good daysailer, a good weekender, a good coastal cruiser, a good at/the/dock liveaboard, or a good blue water cruiser are all different. of course there is some overlap but I see people spend thousands of dollars in radar and electronics, add all sorts of extra capacity in their tanks, reenforce the structure of the boat to take the fall of the back of a macking sourthern ocean swell and then only sail 5 miles over to angle island with the family on sundays. no boat can do it all. just like shoes.










http://www.snapfish.com/slideshow/Album ... _=36572869

http://www.snapfish.com/slideshow/Album ... _=36572869

http://www.snapfish.com/slideshow/Album ... _=36572869

Robert

[Robert The Gray]

I also found this for the curious.

http://www.columbia-yachts.com/islander.html

robert

[Tommy Bahama]

E,

I can't tell by your discription whether or not your basic interior is in place. Mine is stock and in excellent condition. I'v opted to "teak oil" seasonally instead of varnishing. The smell of coconuts is great!

My interior includes a very comfortable dinette that will convert to a birth on the port side. The seats are excellent. The aft facing seat back cushion snaps to the main cabin bulkhead and the forward facing seat back is a fold up locker hatch. The starboard side has a full size berth on top of the lockers that extends to below the cockpit and I have a built-in and plumbed sink and ice-box, a place for a stove and ample drawers and below-sink access. The sink and icebox share the same thru-hull.

Under the V berth is a 15 gallon freshwater tank. Also, the V-birth is plumbed for a toilet but I instead use a coleman portable...don't want to mess with installing a holding tank and even more laws.

I'm real happy with my boat as family weekender and if I ever freaked out and wanted to rough it, could probably live on it solo...lets hope it never gets to that. I am very happy with the Bahama and with work/commuting/family it is all that I can keep up with. When I grow up, I want a real cruiser...Bahama 30! I do like the "raised deck" design.

Tom

[Tom Young]

an article for Good Old Boat. It was in last year(sorry, can't remember the month but they could send it to you) and involved a larger boat, a Cheoy Lee Offshore 31.

But the article was focused on designing and fitting it into the boat. I had one on my CD28 and it enhanced that boat so well for cruising. The Cheoy Lee owner liked the way it opened up the cabin and made the CD bigger. He was always tripping over feet all tangled up in the middle of his boat with a couple of kids. The one on myCD was not berth convertable and just 5' long. He made his convertable.

It's fairly simple to measure and reproduce a cross section of your boat in the area of the dinette to see how to best fit it in. We did this for the Cheoy Lee in the article(a narrow boat just over 8') and the CD 28. Then the owner built the dinette in his boat. Very simple project and he and his wife are elated with the improvement.

Alot of marine designers and experts give the dinette in a smaller boat a thumbs down. It's refreshing to see opinions here backed up by actual use. After you have used a good one that supplies two oversized fixed seats, a good working table, totally out of the way of the traffic in a small boat, you realize the naysayers just have no experience.

[Tony]

I think I cut that article out and have it somewhere, if you're interested I can look for it.