No. 1 IKEA BED SLATS
As Winter set in, our nice dry sleeping cabin became cold, wet and damp.
Causes :-
Cold air won't hold as much moisture as warm air, and it was colder especially at night. We don't like our bedroom too warm when we are sleeping and like to have a window open, which would usually be a good thing. But with the outside humidity being 95-100 percent our bed covers became damper and damper.
Closing all of the hatches would inhibit air flow and boost condensation.
Opening the two hatches underneath the spray hood by about an inch and having our electric heaters on with the thermostat controls turned down seems to be working well.
Our bed is foam cushions on plywood and each moring there was quite a bit of moisture when we lifted the cushions.
To find a solution, as usual I Googled the problem. IKEA bed slats are a very popular answer to the problem and economical.
As it happens our friends on a neighbouring yacht were going to Ikea in their car and asked if we would like to come along. Too good an opportunity to miss.
Oh and there was a sale on!
Slats were purchased and installed. It was also fortunate that our pal Laurent had a chop saw to lend us for trimming the slats to size. Alison did the cutting - I did the fitting.
IKEA Sultan Lodingen slats
The slats are quite bouncy at first but settled in after a couple of weeks.
You can feel the air flow under the cushions when you move about. This has been very successful and the moisture has gone and our bedding stays dry.
(Update: After a few weeks we could feel the lats through our original cushions so they were repaced with a high density foam Ikea clic clac 2 piece mattress)
No. 2 LIGHT DIFFUSER
Our main saloon light is two stip lights covered by a Perspex diffuser and gives a pleasant warm light.
The Perspex had a few of the corners snapped off and was on the list of jobs to do. This item climbed up the list when I removed it to replace a bulb - Alison washed it - I dropped one of the screws and sat down to pick it up - yes, I sat on the Perspex and cracked it right down the middle.
Off to Castorama ( France's B & Q ) and sourced some suitable Perspex. Their cutting department would only cut wood or glass to size and when I Googled how to do it I realised why.
Score and snap!
A bit nerve racking but we are pleased with the result. We even managed to do the rounded corners with this method plus filing and sanding.
No. 3 Companionway Cover
We have lots of opening ports and hatches on our Hunter Legend 37.5 Yacht mainly because it was designed for warmer climes.
All of them useless when it's raining and the wind is blowing from the stern.
Solution :-
I had a 1 metre square tarpaulin bought from Tesco for £1.
I used a bungee to tie it to the hand rails above the companionway and tucked the loose end between the wash boards.
It works !
We can now open the companionway hatch in any weather for ventilation or more usually, to sit on the steps and smoke a cigarette without polluting the saloon.
I'm on to Mk 3 as I continue to improve the design. This one is tapered and has a window.
For Mk 3, I cut down a 2m x 3m cheapo tarp (€2.75) Hemmed one edge for a rope to pass through ( the inbuilt eyelets on these tarps tear very easily and only suitable for the lightest of uses ) folded and hemmed the cut edges with gaffa tape and the window is just plastic packaging from something we bought.
