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| This new interior is ideal for two people living aboard & voyaging with the double berth below. |
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| Optionally the control station seats & area behind them become an in port double berth. |
Penny 25 New Interior
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| This new interior is ideal for two people living aboard & voyaging with the double berth below. |
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| Optionally the control station seats & area behind them become an in port double berth. |
I think that this interior with the in port double berth option makes for about the best liveaboard voyaging interior you can have in a modest offshore vessel of this waterline length. Looking at these drawings the arrangement goes like this, working from forward to aft:
Right up in the bow are two double chain lockers. The starboard one would take 35 fathoms of chain for the 35 lb CQR best bower. The port locker would have 35 fathoms of mixed chain and three strand nylon. This is followed by a forward storage cabin with its own hatch. This would normally be where you would stow coils of spar line, extra blocks, your snorkeling equipment and cast net, tools etc.
The next compartment holds a modest head with a Baby Blake toilet and a wash basin fitted with fresh and salt water taps fed by Whale foot pumps recessed in the sole. To port and starboard of the toilet and basin are lockers. Aft of them but still appearing to be in this compartment are a hanging locker to starboard, which is actually accessible from the main cabin, and a side board and bookshelves to port. Both of these are over the "caves" at the foot of the berths which give a space to stow bedding in the daytime.
The main cabin has lockers outboard of two settee berths on either side and a table. The table is taken straight from our own voyaging experience and when at sea is in the position shown over the port half of the cabin sole. It has real fidrails rather than boat show fidrails. These are high enough so that in a rush to handle sails in a squall a cup of cocoa set down there will actually still be there when you get back. In port this whole top can hinge over at meal time or in evenings so that the rails are on the underside and you have one level surface all the way across.
Aft of the main cabin and to port is the galley which has a two burner Taylor's pressure paraffin/kerosene cooking stove with oven. This can also do a reasonable job of heating the cabin if you turn two unglazed ceramic flower pots upside down over the burners to turn the heat into radiant energy. For northern climates and winter living aboard it would be preferable to have something like a Dickinson diesel stove that you can both cook and heat on. Meals tend to get simple and robust on a boat so we've found that a galley this size is OK when supplemented with the nearby table and, in port, by the chart table to starboard. The big disadvantage in this is that the chart table makes a wonderful office as well. So if you are writing, or yacht designing on a laptop there, when it is time to prepare meals you are going to have to move to the main cabin table or close up shop. But you can't have everything in a 25' boat. Even a very rugged one like this.
Finally we come to the steering station and the inport double. The control station seats allow the person on watch to doze in a comfortable position. When the egg timer goes off you simply stand up with your head in the bubble and take a careful 360 degree look around. With the Chinese rig and the double coaming hatch it is a reasonably straight forward job to lead the sail handling lines inside, allowing you to set, furl, reef and unreef at will without going on deck. You can also arrange to steer from inside or, more likely, you will just lead the control lines for the windvane steerer inside. With all this it would be quite possible in bad weather to stay warm, dry, and reasonably rested below even while handling sails. I well remember the story of Jock MacLeod being asked how his trans-Atlantic passage had been on his Chinese rigged "Ron Glas". He allowed as how it had been a worse passage than usual because at one point a small line had come adrift forward and he had actually had to change out of his carpet slippers and go on deck! In port the back rests and ladder can be swung up out of the way so that a filler piece makes this area into a very large double berth, which also makes an excellent place to read sitting on the berth with your pillows behind your back against the transom.