On board Puffin - below decks

Welcome Below Deck!

This is the saloon, seen as you descend the companionway steps from the cockpit. It is the main 'living room', with a drop-leaf dining table amidships. Under the leaves are a couple of shelves on which we keep books and CDs. The vertical pole at the far end of the table is in line with the mast and supports it against the keel. Without this, the ceiling would cave in! Above the table is a net hammock, in which we store fruit and vegetables. This swings when the boat rolls and helps keep the fruit and veg fresh and free from bruising. For some reason, it also contains two sets of juggling balls.

To port, there's a bunk and a couple of bookshelves, holding mainly pilot and other reference books. There are reading lights at each end and a main light above. Puffin is fairly well-endowed with cupboards and lockers - you'll find all sorts of hidey-holes behind or under most cushions. Whatever you're looking for will be at the bottom of the last one you open. The port bunk is where we sleep when on passage. A blue lee-cloth unfolds from under the cushion and is secured at each end to make a cot; this stops us rolling out of the bunk when it gets a bit choppy.

Forward of the saloon, through the door between the picture-frames is the pointy cabin, or focs'l (after forecastle). This would sleep two if it was empty like this…

… but, unfortunately, it looks like this most of the time. Every boat has a junk room, and this is ours - somewhere in here are our sails, bicycles, more books, rucksacks, camping gear, scuba stuff, fishing tackle, storm warp and a couple of people who came to stay once whose names we can't recall. Close the door and move back into the saloon...

... where, to starboard, there are more shelves - webbing straps or nets help keep things in place when under way. As you can imagine, most things need securing when sailing. The insides of the cupboards are padded to stop things rattling, and a ring of shock-cord stops the leaves of the table from flapping about. When in harbour, however, the netting, padding and straps can be removed for easy access. We don't use the starboard bunk for sleeping on (although a small guest could use it at a pinch), mainly because the near end is used to sit at the chart table…

…by whoever's on watch. This area is where most of the instruments are located, including the marine high-frequency and VHF radio telephones, the GPS, the Navtex (which receives weather information and navigational warnings) and a second control panel for the Autohelm steering. The desktop takes a standard-sized chart folded in half and lifts up to reveal space for more charts and navigation tools like pencils, dividers and plotters. It is possible to pilot the boat from here, but safer to have a pair of eyes on deck! There is a car radio/CD/MP3 player for on-board entertainment.

Ships don't have toilets - they have heads. Ours is just aft of the chart table. There's a full-size bowl in a space compact enough to wedge yourself in when under way. Nothing goes in unless it's been eaten first. Waste is pumped away into a holding tank, rather than straight into the sea - this allows us to use the head in marinas or other places where pollution would be a nuisance. The holding tank gets pumped out when we're well out to sea. The square hatch covers a deep space for dirty laundry, although we don't use it for that. We keep clean towels in it, and our shower bags if we're feeling tidy. Cupboards hold the sort of stuff you'd find in most bathrooms. Behind the door is...

...the watermaker. This takes seawater from outside the boat, and a powerful pump forces it through a series of membranes that can filter out just about everything, including the salt. The result is pure, fresh water that we can drink. It makes about a gallon every hour, and keeps us more or less self-sufficient for drinking water. We don't use it in rivers or inland waterways that might have pollution problems, just in case, but on those occasions we can usually get fresh water ashore.

Aft of the port bunk, opposite the head, is the galley, boasting (from the left) a refrigerator, oven with two burners and a grill, a work surface and twin sinks. There is hot and cold water from a pressurised cylinder, or we can use salt water pumped in by a foot-pump from the sea (this saves us from using our fresh water for washing up). There are racks for plates, mugs and glasses, and lots of cupboards for food and pans. We lay a non-slip mat on the work surface when under way. We've cooked a complete four-course Christmas dinner in the galley, although we had to dismember the turkey first!

The galley leads to a companionway aft. Inboard of the companionway is the engine room, which is accessed through two large doors. The engine is an 1800cc Ford Escort diesel engine, adapted for marine use. It pushes us along at about 5 knots at 2000rpm and burns just over half a gallon in an hour. It delivers a maximum of 47HP, but we haven't had push it that high yet!

The big orange tank to the right is the hot water tank. A heat exchanger heats up the water when the engine is running, and there's an electric immersion heater for when we're plugged into shore power at a marina.

Past the engine room, and into the aft cabin, which is the main bedroom, sometimes called the stateroom on posher craft. This is where we sleep when not on passage. There are three berths here, a double and a single. The single (not shown) tends to be used as storage for difficult-to-stow items like scuba tanks, washing machine, sewing machine and other junk we're too embarrassed to show you.

It's a nice, bright, airy cabin with five ports, two of which open, and a hatch above that also opens. Lots of stowage for clothes under the mattresses and plenty of space for books. There's a fan suspended from the ceiling, providing a nice cooling draught when the nights are too sultry for comfort.

That concludes the tour below deck!

Go On Deck