Storage is always at a premium on my boat. In refitting, I made some simple boxes that fit into odd empty spaces where the squared off drawer cabinets are fitted into the rounded hull. Boxes 1,2, and 3 are fitted outboard and aft of the top drawer. Box 4 is fitted immediatly below the inboard edge of the bottom of the bottom drawer. With the drawers in place, the boxes are held in securely and are out of sight. To keep their contents not out of mind, probably a good idea to make a map of the cabin with all box contents.

starboard drawer hidden storage

Drawer 1 and 2 fit behind the top drawer. There is a lot more room behind the top drawer than the lower ones since all of the drawers are the same size while the hull width increases with elevation. Drawer 3 fits aft of the drawer guide. A smaller box could be fitted forward of the guide also. Once the drawer is removed, the boxes slide out easily. A round finger hole toward the top of the boxes helps.

View of boxes stowed around top drawer

Boxes 1 and 2 are both 7 1/2 deep. Box 1 is 22 1/2 long by 5 3/4 high. Box 2 is 7 3/4 long by 5 3/4 high. Lengths of boxes 1 and 2 can vary as long as the total length of both boxes remains the same. Box 3 is 3 X 6 1/2 X 12. Box 4 is 4 3/4 X 4 3/4 X 28. box 4 is fitted beneath the inboard edge of the drawer guide board which is left loose to facilitate access. I leave this box in place as it is hard to get in and out. Before building any boxes would be a good idea to check the dimensions.

Dimensions of boxes

The support for the leeboard on the drawer front was evidently the design reason that only two drawers were fitted. Left in the drawer cabinet is a rather large space between the two drawers. To take advantage of this storage, I made a bottom out of 1/4 teak and holly plywood left over from sole replacement and installed it just above the top opening of the bottom drawer. It is supported by cleats on the forward partition of the drawer cabinet, a cleat on the outboard partittion colored blue in the figure and by a cleat in the aft, inboard corner. The partition is 11 3/4 x 12 1/2 with cutouts for the cabinet corner cleats. The useful height is 7 so this is a pretty large volume. The existing walls of the cabinet form the sides of the box. The partition colored blue in the figure is removed to allow the bottom to be slipped in place. Access to the box is obtaind by taking out the top drawer and simply reaching through the opening down into the box.

Hidden storage forward drawer set