Hints and Tips

 

 

Cabin Table Options

Sun Odyssey 39i

 

I finally broke down and installed a new Salon Table in our sailboat. I've got a Jeanneau 39i which is quite well designed, but I swear the designers were out drinking one night and decided to screw with 39i owners by installed a HUGE salon table.

Huge as in, there is no way you can get around the forward end, period. Huge as in when it's folded down you can't get around it to sit, and when It's up, it's like a high chair table jammed into your stomach. Anyway, in frustration I pulled it out of the boat and tossed it in our store room a few months back.

 

So, back to the install. I wanted a relatively small table that 2 to 4 people could sit and eat, or I could set up a laptop and work, and it had to be teak, and it had to fold away so it wouldn't take up a lot of space when I didn't need it.

 

Finally, it had to drop down low enough so that I could setup the bunk as well. I located a very nice real teak table from Marine Teak in the UK and as an added bonus it had the Jeanneau logo (a compass rose) embedded in the table top. For the support I located a stainless steel table base that inserted into the salon sole, and could be adjusted to pretty much any height i'd need. Plus the whole this can simply be taken out of the sole, the top taken off and all stowed away quite easily.

 

My order arrived from the U.K. in less than a week and I was ready to go. First, I cleaned up the salon sole floor unit that I planned on using. Then I played with the layout a bit and decided on the final location for the new table. Once that was decided, I layed out the base and marked the drill holes. The mounting holes were going to be no issue as they were standard nuts and bolts, but the table base was a 4" round hole, so I picked up a nice hole drilling bit the correct size and was ready to start.

 

I mounted the tabletop to the pedestal unit with 4 large diameter/short wood screws and then moved to the base. For this, I drilled the 4" insert hole for the base unit, (i wanted a bit of play to adjust the final position) then marked the 6 holes for the bolts. After drilling, I inserted the base and bolted it in, cleaned up the sawdust from the bilge and the flooring and replaced the sole floor. I then placed the tabletop and pedestal into the new receiver base and ... done! new table that can swivel 360 degrees, go up and down from over 3' to less than 1' and the table unfolds to double its size.

 

The bottom of the table is finished, but all the top teak is not. I like the color of the teak as it is, but I want to protect it from stains and water spots, so  did a thin coat of nice clear coat Poly. Much happier now. We have a nice table that works for the boat and gives me plenty of room to get around.

 

 

Shown below is the earlier design of table for the SO39i which made getting to underberth storage really difficult and was also uncomfortable for lounging.

As we tend to use the cockpit enclosure we normally eat in the cockpit, so also fitted a smaller saloon table, again from Marine Teak, on one of the original supports, then on the floor for the other leg base I fitted s/s thread inserts  so that the base is easily removable and gives a clear floor area when the large table is not needed.

I store the origianl large tabletop in a sailbag in the spare aft cabin, so is easy to refit if we have guests. We also varnished the new table, took a few coats before the sikaflex stopped feeling slightly sticky. Although the table suits our purposes for two it might be better to choose a slightly larger size for more guests.

 

Marine Teak offer a discount to Jeanneau Owners too. 

 

Above article is based on original posts from the Jeanneau Owners Forum

 

Thanks in particular to Georgia the photographs and knowledge.