38 Ocean CAD storage locations

[jeffatoms2]

Over this past weekend I did a deep dive into my 1998 38 Ocean and where everything is stored.  My wife had said she couldn't find anything and I think it was because I was too organized so I set out to draw her a hand visual guide to where everything lives on our boat.

Essentially, every unique location has a four letter code comprised of the primary location of every compartment on the boat, the secondary, vertical location of each compartment, the fore and aft orientation as well as the left-right orientation. 

Enclosed is our boat's key to storage, along with the "key" and the above and below deck references needed to make it make sense.

Overkill?  Maybe but now she knows.  I can see adding schematics for such things as fire extinguishers and thru hulls separately.  This is all done in vector based CAD.

Feedback?

[JEN-et-ROSS]

Feedback..?
Mmm..??
 No matter how detailed a storage plan is, within a very short time chaos will again rule supreme as usual...
Boats are a stowage enthusiasts nightmare.....
It's the reality of living in a small space with far, far too much stuff..... We get used to it.......

[jeffatoms2]

Thanks for taking the time to provide the feedback.  We have lived aboard our boat for five years and i do lnow what you mean.  You are correct that if allowed, things can become chaotic which for us puts a damper on the fun of it.  I believe that this little drawing and plan works great for it's intended purpose in a tight living space.  On our boat in the past five years we have seen temporary chaos, particularly during a feastly meal or a big project but the power tools have always been put away in their designated cubby, same goes for a tote of hand tools, as have the outboard engine spares, plumbing bits, electrical connectors and so on.  It has worked well, that is until we moved back ashore and let down our mojo.

My wife was recovering over the past weekend from a surprize diagnosis and immediate cancer surgery.  She was in and out of slumber and as I was tending to her I thought, "hmmmm I might have the time to sketch this idea out."  So I did this over three days of not much else to do and this is the result.

I quite like the results and given the number of similar boats thought I'd share.

[JEN-et-ROSS]

Sorry to hear of your wife's diagnosis and sincerely wish you both well for the future....
I've lived on boats both commercially and leisure for intermittent periods of a few days to several months over the last 30 odd years, and like you living, working offshore or in cold remote locations requires the carrying the numerous spares and supplies you describe..
But it's my experience that in the busy maritime environment chaos sets in far to easily and regular housekeeping is a necessity to mitigate the problem of numerous infrequently used items being 'temporarily' stowed 'out of place' and forgotten about prompting a panicked search some time later....Like I say we get used to it..

[sy_Anniina]

Wishing your wife the best recovery.

My thoughts - partly also as my professional role of managing lean development... You might want to take a look at the concept of 5S - visual management.

If you manage to handle finding items (from master list) using the four-letter-codes, returning them coulf be managed by labeling every item, box, container etc with fixed four-letter label. (= preventing chaos, preventing the inevitable increase in enthropy)

Having a wrench in hand - label in wrench handle saying NLSA could help it finding it's way back to navigation station low-starboard-aft locker:)

BR,

Tommi - s/y Anniina 

[jeffatoms2]

Thanks for the well wishes.  Life, post cancer is 99.9 back to normal.  Sue is done with treatment as there is no sign of any remaining cancer.

I used her recovery time to write the attached.  It was the natural conclusion to what I started with this thread, for what it's worth.