Life hacks: How to find a place for jackets, bottles and ropes below deck

Hanging up your jacket made easy

As on many small cruisers, storage space is in short supply here too. In particular, there are no hooks for hanging up clothes. We have found a very simple and inexpensive solution: Hooks for pushchairs. You can find various retrofittable hooks online under this keyword, which can be attached using Velcro or clips. The advantage is that no tools are required. We have attached some of these fastening solutions to our handrails. This makes it easy to hang up an oilskin jacket.

After all, if it is a little damp, it should hang in an airy position and not be put directly into a travelling bag or cupboard. The hooks can be moved and therefore placed anywhere. Our hooks are called Hook 'n Stroll and are available as a set of two for just under seven euros.

Christoph Kissenkoetter, by e-mail

Further options for hanging

Easily accessible, organised and gently suspended: From metal hooks with or without strops to webbing with a Tenax button or Velcro fastener to segments made of sawn plastic tube - there are countless ways to store lines, cables or hoses hanging in the storage box. The most important thing is that the lines can later be reached from the lid without having to twist them.

If no bulkhead is available for mounting the hooks, a rod with threaded hooks can be used.

Airspace utilisation

On my small cabin cruiser, I lacked hanging options in the cabin. For the mast support in the saloon, we designed a split wooden construction made of multiplex. It was sealed with waterproof varnish. Chrome-plated coat hooks are screwed onto three of the six sides. The two wooden parts are placed on the pole support, pushed together, connected with two screws and pushed to the desired height. An additional countersunk screw ensures that they are firmly clamped to the pole support. The system utilises the air space in the saloon, so to speak.

Martin Zinselmeyer, via e-mail

Bottle fuse

We were tired of securing water or wine bottles in the sink. They weren't even protected on the table by our anchor buoy, let alone when sailing. We sawed a holder out of a piece of boatbuilding plywood, which consists of two parts. When screwed together, it holds onto the mast support above the saloon table. There are two cut-outs for normal wine bottles and a slightly larger one for water bottles. This means that nothing gets broken, even at sea.

Karl-Heinz Balschbach, Mannheim

Do you have any advice for other sailors?

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