New Member-Looking for Storage Ideas 22’

Hello!

We are new C Dory boat owners. I am new to navigating this member forum as well and apologize if this is the wrong forum for my question.

I am hoping to begin outfitting our 22’ for some beginning shake down overnights. Was looking for different storage ideas that members have utilized for maximizing space.

We have an alcohol burning stove top as well and are wondering if anyone uses this or has changed this out. We have a trailer and do quite a bit of backpacking but are used to using propane stoves or JetBoil instead.

Is there a particular place I should post for that information? I would love to see photos if possible of solutions to storing food, clothing, etc.

Thank you for any information. We are so excited about our boat and upcoming adventures. We hope to join everyone at some point!

-Stacey

I use butane stoves on my 22. I have two of two different sizes. One or the other or both can be used as needed. I have a tabletop that goes across the back of the cockpit so I can cook outside if the weather allows it. I removed the original stove and replaced it with a countertop.
I took the 20 gal tank out of the compartment under the rear dinette seat. This provides a lot of room for storage. We would use water containers for drinking and cooking. If you stop in marinas from time to time, we found that you don't need to carry lots of water (a couple of gallons is fine). FWIW, for longer trips in areas with fewer services, I am considering adding a water tank to the forward compartment under the v-berth. This would add water capacity in an area of the boat that is little used.
There is lots of storage space under the v-berth. Depending on the model year of your boat, this area may already be accessible for storage. On older boats this area was filled with foam. It is a easy but messy job to convert the foam filled compartments to storage areas.
We use plastic bins of various sizes to store things in the galley cabinet. This makes loading and unloading for a trip easier and keeps things organized.
The CD22 has a surprising amount of storage if you use it efficiently.

For storage, I think SoBelle covered it well. we use mountain smith cubes for personal items, keep in the v-berth during daytime and can store easily elsewhere at night.
For water, I use a portable 5 gal., place under the sink and connected with a hand pump. It’s easy to cary for refill or you can bring more the one and swap when empty.
I found the alcohol stove to work well and are a bit safer for boat use. It’s biggest draw back I think is that the fuel will evaporate overtime, but once you get use to it, not that bad.

The volume of the cabin in the CD 22 is quite small and I would be hesitant to use any kind of heating/cooking system that uses combustion without very good ventilation. The problem (in addition to carbon monoxide) is carbon dioxide; something most people don't consider. CO2 levels above 1000 ppm start causing drowsiness and poor concentration, while levels above 5,000 ppm (the OSHA limit for 8-hour workdays) can lead to headaches, nausea, and dizziness. If you use a combustion system in the cabin it is important to have good ventilation. When my wife and I are in the cabin with just the windows cracked open the CO2 levels get to 1500ppm and higher just from our breathing. When we sleep we need to keep both the windows and door open about 1 inch, and even then the CO2 levels are around 800 ppm. We have an alcohol stove but use it only in the cockpit. I have not tried using the alcohol stove in the cabin but I did try it in the kitchen of our 750 square foot apartment. The CO2 levels there climbed to 1500 ppm within 5 minutes when I terminated the experiment.

The only time I have had issues with the cabin air from combustion is when using a Little Buddy propane heater. The air quality degrades if there is inadequate ventilation. Being in the closed cabin even when sleeping, I have never noticed a problem with CO2.

Here are a few ideas we have come up with over the years. We mined under the Vberth as many others have done which is a significant storage addition. In this area we keep a spare anchor and rode, spare props, tools and some food storage. I built two drawers under the helm seat. The shallow top drawer holds our logbook, registration, etc. the large lower drawer has a partition that holds the minimal clothing we cruise with (wife’s side is larger ). I also added drawers under the alcohol stove that holds silverware, utensils, dinnerware, etc. There is some storage under the lower drawer and a large removable shelf in the forward cabinet. The whole unit under the sink and stove is readily removable to access the bilge, wiring, etc. Under the aft dinette seat the 20 gal water tank was removed and replaced with a 9 gal. tank. On extended trips we carry two 5 gal water containers in the cockpit. This freed up room for a large drawer which holds all of our nesting cookware. All of the drawers are on full length, soft close slides with push button latches. The Wallas 1300 sits outboard of forward dinette seat with the fuel tank and other items under the seat. During and after each extended cruise we have made a list of improvements we think up. Good luck and enjoy customizing your boat. Ken

Welcome aboard! We don't worry about "proper forums", more about excellent posts like your first one--you fit right in. The personal Albums got scrambled in the transition to the new site, and not yet fully worked out. I have all of below pictured in my albums, but have go thru and re-order them at some point. Any specific questions; post here, or send Private messages.

You will find many opinions about the best way to do anything. We stowed clothes in net hamocks on each side of the forward V Berth, hung from under the deck/where stanchon posts nuts were. We also used packing cubes of various sizes which were held under the deck from the ceiling of the V Berth area, with 3/16" shock cord. These places give plenty of storage for clothing for a month.

We put LIFePO4 batteries under the V berth (100 amp hours x 2) on one side and an inverter/charger: (victron multiplus 2000/80/50 (watts inverter output/ battery charger/ line boost in amps if shy from mains supply. For charging we used the output of the primary outboard, and it usualy charged up what we had used with daily runs. For fixed locations we used a honda 1000 or 2200 generator, and ran it an hour or two a day thru the inverter charger. We had a very simple 120 V system, with a battery charger 15 amp input plug, an industerial motor 30 amp switch and two 15 amp 120 V receptale one under the table and one at the forward end of the galley counter.

We cooked with a single burner induction plate, and a small. microwave oven. Stowage for food and utensis under the galleb (put in a shelf and used plastic containers. Usually a chest type refrigerator or Freezer under the port forward seat on slides. A second in the cockpit---also an outdoor type of box in the cockpit for extra canned goods, and bulky items. The stern anchor (fortress FX 7) extra chain and several hundred extra feet of three strand nylon 1/2" line. We did also carry a 6 gallon container for extra water or to ferry water. This gave us enough supplies to spend a month at a time at Lake Powell and in SE Alaska or the Broughtons. We also did most of the major Eastern Rivers,

We also either put a 5000 BTU window air conditiner thru the front center window, or had a 9200 BTU RV air condtioner on the roof. We used the boat as a Camper on the road, staying in parking lots, RV campgrounds, or along the side. of the road/service roads when towing from Florida. Our "range" was from Key West to Maine to Icy Straits AK to the Channel Islands off the coast of Los Angeles CA. Primary base, Pensacola, Florida--where we lived the last 30+ years.

Another thing you can do is modify the helm seat to either tilt out of the way or for the back to fold down flat. This gives a lot more work room when using the galley.

https://www.c-brats.com/media/96235/full?d=1461022176

We have a 2004 22 Cruiser with the wood cabinets. I was able to gain a lot of storage using 10 gallon rubermaid totes. They work well for us because we can pack them in the house and then just carry them out to the boat when we are ready to leave on a trip. 4 of them fit nicely under the stove counter with one and a half under the helm seat. I also have a number of other storage solutions that are fairly easy to do and if you go through our album you can see them (a picture is worth a thousand words). We never have utilized the space under the V-Birth and don't feel that we need to. We have taken several trips of 3 weeks and many shorter ones and we can fit all we need.