Use that Dead Zone

Adding custom enhancements organizes your

boat and fishing gear so you’re ready to land the

big one—and prepared for an emergency

Organization is a huge key to success when things get wild on sportfishing boats. It could be a triple dolphin hook-up or a man-overboard—in either case knowing where the right piece of fishing or safety equipment is located can make all the difference.
Having a “place for everything, and everything in its place,” is a great way to go boating. Every boat owner probably has at least one compartment that’s a miscellaneous repository of boat supplies—i.e., it’s full of mismatched junk—and if you have two or three of those compartments, you’re officially a disorganized pack rat.
Look for those hidden gems for stowage. You probably have a lot of open space, but if it’s not well-organized, an upgrade company can help. “People have dead space on their boats but they don’t know what they want [to put in it],” said John Shiebler of Custom Marine Plastics in Palm Beach Gardens. “We sit down with people and come up with a game plan. They can bring their boat in or bring in CAD drawings. We know how to maximize the useable space.”

Clockwise from upper left: Beachcomber’s lockers expand the useable space in the cockpit. Upper right: The bin is a custom size unit manufactured by Custom Marine Plastics. Lower: The under seat storage by CMP makes good use of the wasted space.

For more information:

Beachcomber Fiberglass Technology, Inc.

Stuart, FL 34997

772-283-0200; sales@beachfiber.com

beachfiber.com

Custom Marine Plastics

Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

561-516-1111 or 954-540-6610;

info@CustomMarineFL.com

custommarinefl.com

Space Maker Fiberglass Products

2331 Edison Avenue

Jacksonville, FL 32204

(904) 387-2558; info@spacemkr.com

spacemkr.com

A perfect example is under leaning posts and bench seats. There is a huge amount of space for drawers, and the cabinets may have a drop down door or two doors that swing out. Custom Marine can make hideaway doors that slide completely out of the way. “We’ll build in a cabinet with drawers and boxes, and then we’ll make the cabinet doors hideaway by sliding back inside the compartment and latching,” John said. “That way you’re not banging into the doors or breaking the doors off with your shin.”
“We assess the boat and how we can store those common items such as a boat hook, dock lines and fenders, so you can get to them in just a few steps,” John said.
Keeping your tackle organized is another challenge. It’s more than filing compartments with Plano boxes. Space Maker Fiberglass Products in Jacksonville makes a compartment with vertical slides for big fishing lures, which helps keep you from grabbing the end with the hooks.
Bert Morsch founded Space Maker 14 years ago after receiving scores of requests for custom stowage work from other owners who saw the work he did on his 20-foot Robalo.
“They liked my boat, but they wanted a cabinet that was two inches smaller or four inches wider, so that’s how the whole custom thing got started,” Bert explained. “Now we work on everything from Boston Whalers to big Hatteras yachts.”
StarBoard, a name brand of high-density polyethylene is the most common material used to construct cockpit cabinet and drawer upgrades. StarBoard is highly durable and resistant to UV damage, and it comes in a variety of colors. Acrylic materials, such as Plexi-glass, are also available in a wide array of colors to give a richer look to doors and cabinets.
Beachcomber Fiberglass Technology in Stuart, Florida., installs pre-built stowage cabinets in sportfishing boats. The company can also build or customize a slew of other marine products, such as boarding steps, dock boxes, bow pulpits, deck coolers, electronics boxes, and swim platforms.
“There are three ways to go about what we do, and we work mostly on the larger sportfishing boats and motoryachts,” said Michael Cohen, owner of Beachcomber, which has been operating since 1978. “We have a standard line of product that fits most boats. If that doesn’t work, we can modify that standard item, and if that doesn’t do it, we will create exactly what they need, a one-off.”
Cohen says over the past year he’s been into a custom project on a 52-foot Hinckley jet boat, building an elaborate hardtop, carbon-fiber radar mast and a swim platform.
“There is a lot of naval architecture involved, and between our company and Hinckley we’ve done something really special and made the boat truly unique,” Cohen said.