How much storage do you need?

[JerryTx]

I am looking to get as much free deck area as I can for maneuvering my wheelchair around and have some fishing setup for my wife. So far the best I have found is the Harris Cruiser 250 FC(fish&cruise). If I wind up buying new, there are options that I could bundle up I think. There is a DH for double helm, just seat no console, and there is a 2PC for 2 port chairs instead of a front port couch. So it would be a 250 FCDH2PC model.

That would take it down to just one couch, in front on starboard. My brain says that doesn't leave enough storage room. I "think" that they put the battery underneath the live well fishing station at the back, but don't know for sure, not sure what they do for 2 batts.

Here's what I like about each:
FC - the only layout anywhere that leaves enough room behind captains chair to place my wheelchair within reach
DH - 99% of the time it will just be the two of us, kinda like her next to me
2PC - this would give her a reasonable place to fish from the bow. It's more of a social seating vs real fishing, but would work

The little couch across from helm would probably work, but doesn't look comfortable for a layback position, so she'd either have to face me or grab a chair elsewhere. This would give me 2 couches for storage needs.

The 250 has a port gate wide enough for a chair, from the factory too, kinda nice.

So, 2 questions for y'all;
1. where does your SO sit while you're underway?
2. How much storage do you use? Is it a matter of junk will grow to fill all available space or do you legit use/need the space?

Thanks, Jerry

[Rick McC.]

That floor plan looks like it’d be workable for y’all.

my wife absolutely loves the port “passenger” captain’s chair. They’re extremely comfortable, and it’s actually the single feature (aside from the overall “looks” of the boat and fancy appointments) that made her want to buy that exact boat. So; she sits to the left of me, on that side of the boat.

Now for storage:
Underseat storage uses are:
Bow port bench seat; both front and rear anchors & ropes, along with a four foot length of stainless steel chain on each (I picked up the stainless chain from a local mining supply company years ago) “live” under there. I use the front anchor frequently, and the rear only on those occasions (wind/waves) where it’s necessary.

Bow starboard bench seat; The bow table and hardware, four docking lines, two fairly large fenders, and a large watertight plastic bin that holds tools, parts, gas grill mounting hardware, fuses, aerial flares, flaregun, and assorted stuff that needs to stay dry.

Starboard storage area; I usually just keep the two Bimini boots, and firearm carrying fanny pack in there.

Port rear storage area (lockable) Hats, rain gear, and a small first aid kit stay there.

Starboard Bar; has a locking door area big enough to hold a medium sized cooler. There’s plenty of space above the cooler to stack food that doesn’t require refrigeration. It also has a lockable drawer where I keep the boat registration, plus other odds and ends. It also has a pull-out cutting board.

Port rear bench seat; the towel bags, and another bag of incidentals are put there whenever we leave the dock. The dual batteries are mounted back in the corner there, along with another storage area that odds and ends live in.

Stern Lanai large bench seat; the power steering pump, raw water wash down pump, plus some heavy duty electrical things live there, and I put the life jacket bag containing four jackets and a throwable in there.

Here’s our floor plan:

A7EA22D9-33E2-4EB9-9DE1-5338D5E11EB9.jpeg (15.67 KiB) Viewed 14338 times

It looks like removing the port captain’s chair would give a decent amount of wheelchair access via the port side door.

[JerryTx]

Dude, you have storage out the wazoo.

Sounds like you have your storage setup nicely, everything in its place. Question; is there leftover space, so that if you had less, missing couch or something, could you comfortably combine some items into less? Seems that I need to keep as much storage as possible.

Thanks, Jerry

[steve1313]

One thing to keep in mind is the size of the underseat storage. For example, in Rick's diagram the two front benches are 67", but if they are like the ones on my boat, the seat bases might be shorter or have dividers in them. On my boat, I don't have any in-floor storage and even though I have some long benches, the bases are split to the point that I don't think I can store anything over aboutg 30-36" long (unless I can bend or fold it).

[JerryTx]

Steve - that's a good point. I hope to have in-floor storage for long things, like maybe her fishing rods, if it can be a lockable place. I guess I'm more thinking of where and how many life jackets to keep onboard. I don't envision ever having like 14 people on there, but could have a group of 8-10 if a bunch of family is in town. That's a whole lot of pfd's to have stored "just in case". I guess we could store them in on-dock storage, keep like 6 onboard and only break out others when the need arises. Me, I'm going to be wearing one of the auto-inflating style vest, I can't get to one if an emergency arises.

Like most anything, I'm probably overthinking it, but a lot of my daily stuff has to be well thought out, so it runs into other things in life.

Thanks for the input.

[Rick McC.]

Dude, you have storage out the wazoo.

Sounds like you have your storage setup nicely, everything in its place. Question; is there leftover space, so that if you had less, missing couch or something, could you comfortably combine some items into less? Seems that I need to keep as much storage as possible.

Thanks, Jerry

I believe so Jerry.

[Rick McC.]

One thing to keep in mind is the size of the underseat storage. For example, in Rick's diagram the two front benches are 67", but if they are like the ones on my boat, the seat bases might be shorter or have dividers in them. On my boat, I don't have any in-floor storage and even though I have some long benches, the bases are split to the point that I don't think I can store anything over aboutg 30-36" long (unless I can bend or fold it).

Steve: There is framing in the middle of the bench seat frames; but it’s open; so longer things are easily stored.
I’d take pictures; but this site’s so eff’ed up that it’ll never allow me to post any pictures without screwing them all up….