The Saloon

I’ve found the saloon slightly easier to draw.  Probably because it’s mostly an open area.  It’s 15ft long and doesn’t have much in the way of cabinets.  At 15ft it’s the largest compartment in the boat and was deliberately designed that way.  This is where we will spend the majority of our conscious hours inside the boat so we wanted it to be as large as practical.  Even if this meant reducing the size of other compartments.

On the port side (your remember from my last post that this is the left side of the boat!) there is a side hatch with two internal timber framed glass doors and two 15” double glazed portholes that can be opened.  The side hatch also has weatherproof steel exterior doors. In the far left corner is the Lockgate Refleks diesel stove that will provide heating.  I haven’t drawn the chimney because I haven’t yet learned how to draw a pipe on an angle.   For obvious reasons the area around the stove is clad in a fire resistant material.

Beside the stove is a display cabinet.  The top portion has adjustable shelves and two glass doors.  This is where the receiver for the satellite dome on the roof will fit along with the set top box and the network media tank.  There is some more open shelving and the two drawers.  The lower portion of the cabinet has been left blanked off and vacant because I think Ben may need the area for a pump or other device that needs to be concealed.

To the right of the cabinet is the door to the bathroom.

On the opposite side is a similar set of side hatches and portholes.  At the far end is a wall cabinet with a 32” flat screen TV occupying the lower/middle area.  For best viewing the centre of a TV screen needs to be at eye level when seated.  The size of a screen is dictated by the distance from the person viewing.  If we were to mount the screen on the wall then we would have to sit opposite it.  This would mean we would be approximately 3ft from the screen and a 32” TV would be too big to comfortably look at.  However if you look at a small screen you see a small picture and miss out on detail.  Our TV is mounted on a swivel wall bracket and will swing out from the cabinet when we want to watch TV.  We will be looking at it down the length of the boat and can therefore be further away.  There is one disadvantage to this setup.  The TV may partially obstruct the doorway to the bathroom.  However this is a compromise we have decided to live with.

Above and below the TV are shelves.  The top two shelves have glass doors.

Beneath the hatch and portholes is a full length bookcase.  It’s not very deep and we won’t have many books as we will mostly be using eReaders.  The top shelf has a small vertical ‘lip’ to prevent things falling off during our anticipated crashing and banging!  Beneath the bookcase are full length dual finrad heaters.