Saloon table or just use knees?

[Clyderigged]

I am debating whether to build a table for the saloon of Torea, a Tahiti Ketch. I am concerned that it will block a lot of cabin area. So the questions I have are:

1. What size table to fit or do without? Maybe bulkhead mounted?
2. Should it be gimbaled or not?
3. Anyone have any photos or sources for plans?

Fair leads,
Jamie

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Hello Jamie,

I should think Mirelle's saloon is about the same size as Torea's.

Originally, due to the cabin being built as I went along, whilst sailing the boat, there was no table, but I found this awkward, and built one, roughly along the lines suggested by Larry Pardey in an article in the UK magazine "Practical Boat Owner", but somewhat modified along the lines of the standard table that Camper and Nicholson fitted to their production boats.

Opinion is divided as to this table; I consider it a masterpiece; my wife differs...

My experience with "no table" was that one really needs somewhere to put things down, even if one eats off one's knees when under way.

The table that I came up with is pivoted on two substantial stainless steel tubes that run vertically from keelson to the coachroof beams and are securely bolted,screwed at each end. Larry Pardey, more tastefully, used bronze tube, but I could not lay hands on this stuff.

The tubes are offset to give a clear passageway fore and aft to one side of the table.

This gives you an absolutely rigid basis (my previous table had been demolished by me falling across it in a gale) and a pair of useful hand holds. By making the length 43" I could accomodate an Admiralty chart, fully opened (handy for passage planning, but I don't use it as a chart table on passage)

Larry Pardey.IIRC, mounted his table on bolts with a large skylight opener coming down from a deckhead beam to one side so that the table, though not gimballed, can be "tacked", manually.

He used a single plank of teak and put fiddles round it. Neat, simple, elegant. Note that if you are going to sit on one side to eat the top need not be wide. Mine is 14".

I cribbed this but made the skylight opener come up from a beam between the staintess steel tubes, which gives a foothold when the boat is heeling.

After a year or two I departed from Larry's good, simple, design, by adding a second leaf, which hinges up and lies flat on top of the lower leaf, with fiddles on the under side - this is the upper side when the leaf is closed). This is what C&N did, with their standard table and it offers a nice big table with the leaf folded out at anchor, and a small table with fiddles for use at sea.The drawback is that you have to clear the table top when opening or closing the upper leaf. This is the controversial aspect of my table! Since the leaves are 14" this means I can open an Admiralty chart (42" x 28") on it when the table is opened.

On the whole, the table having lasted 12 years, I reckon it is a "sucess", but no doubt it could be improved.

There is a handly drawing showing the dimensions for an ergonomically correct table in Francis Kinney's edition of "Skene's Elements of Yacht Design" and another in Ian Nicholson's "Boat Data Book".

I don't think that a gimballed table is necessary in a small boat, and they take a lot of space. We find that "tacking" the table works well - you can't eat from it when heeled any more than you can eat off a gimballed table, but you can put a mug, the salt and pepper, etc on it and the cook can put plates, or indeed pans, on it straight from the galley.

[MiddleAgesMan]

Andrew's table sounds very much like what I built for my Gazelle. I got the idea for its design from interior shots of a large yacht in a movie....Dead Calm I believe it was called.

Substantial metal posts (I used heavy-walled aluminum tubes which I polished) run floor to overhead near each end of the table. I cut oval holes through the top and passed the posts through the holes. They are oval to allow the table to be gimbaled. Heavy bolts through the posts were secured to the underside of the table to act as pivots. Under the table top I hung a cabinet that cleared the posts by a few inches and extended about 12 inches down. I kept tableware in the cabinet, accessed through sliding doors.

A gimbaled table needs ballast so I secured two blocks of lead under the recessed bottom, probably about 70 lbs total IIRC.

My table could be secured with a simple sliding bolt that mated up with a hole in the after post. When I needed it to gimbal I slid the bolt out and let it swing. It had two drop-leaves but the table would have been even more useful--and simpler--without them.

[Raka025]

I am debating whether to build a table for the saloon of Torea, a Tahiti Ketch. I am concerned that it will block a lot of cabin area. So the questions I have are:


Fair leads,
Jamie

1. What size table to fit or do without? Maybe bulkhead mounted?

I had one on a 35' Knutson that was bulkhead mounted. The single leaf was probably 12 to 14" wide by about 3 1/2 to 4' long. It folded against the bulkhead which also housed some bookshelves behind it. You could use it single, and have access to the forward head/v-berth or open it up for dinner for 4.

2. Should it be gimbaled or not?

I don't think so. Unless you prepare meals underway and sit down with 2 or more people?

3. Anyone have any photos or sources for plans?

No handy photo's. The old 35mm days. I could describe it and do some rough plans if you are really interested. The table had a full length piano hinge. The legs were hinged to the bottom of the table surface. They also were hinged. The hole thing just pivoted up against the bulkhead and was bungeed to secure underway.

[MiddleAgesMan]

A gimbaled table is not really very good for eating while under sail but you will find it is a handy place to set something down and have it stay put.