Featured Project: Replacing an Icemaker with a Tackle Center
February 23, 2023 5 min read
When Louis And Megan Caruso purchased their 2005 Silverton 42 Convertible, Sweptaway, from the original owner last year, they inherited a minor dilemma along with her: a small, non-functioning icemaker in the cockpit. The icemaker had been broken for several years, and it wasn’t really hurting anything, but things like that bug Louis. “Everything has to have a home,” he says. “I’m that kind of guy.”
Contents
The Perfect Location
So leaving the broken icemaker there, taking up valuable space, wasn’t an option. The only question was what to replace it with.
If anything was lacking in the Silverton’s cockpit, it was usable tackle storage, and it occurred to Louis that the icemaker just happened to be in the perfect location for a tackle center.
The small icemaker in the cockpit of Louis and Megan Caruso’s Silverton Convertible had been non-functional for several years when they bought the boat last year.
Boat Make/Model
- 2005 Silverton 42 Convertible
Reason for Project
- Old, broken cockpit icemaker replacement
Solution
- Removed old icemaker and designed custom tackle box to fit inside the cutout
Required Tools
- Drill
- Screw Driver
- Marine Sealant
Finding a Solution
From there, he started searching online for options and, on the Boat Outfitters website, found a tackle cabinet, the 7 Tray Tackle Unit with Catch-All, that almost perfectly matched the dimensions of the cutout left by the ice maker. The problem was that it was too deep to fit. Inside the icemaker cutout, the drain from a small sink above would keep the tackle cabinet from sliding all the way into the opening.
Maximizing Available Space
So Louis called Boat Outfitters and got customer service associate Kate Nowicki, who assured him the company could make a modified version of the 7 Tray Tackle Unit to fit his application. He just had to supply the dimensions. “I measured this thing seven ways to Sunday,” Louis says. “I wanted to get as much depth as I could, but I also wanted to be sure it wasn’t going to hit the sink drain. A lot of emails went back and forth, but Kate and the engineering team were more than patient.”
Louis worked with Boat Outfitters to modify the design of the tackle center, making the top portion shallower to accommodate the drain from a small sink just above.
The final design featured a “stepped” back, shallower at the top to make room for the sink drain and deeper at the bottom to still accommodate tackle trays.
That made the top half of the cabinet too shallow for Plano-style tackle trays, but Louis, with Kate’s help, settled on a full-width bulk storage shelf in place of the upper tackle trays, reasoning that he needed room anyway for items too big to fit in tackle trays.
Expectations Exceeded
The finished product, Louis says, exceeded his expectations. “It seemed a little pricey. I run a lumberyard, so I could easily have had my guys build something out of Azek or PVC. But the boat gets top treatment, so I thought let’s give these guys a shot. The craftsmanship was second-to-none — no mistakes, nothing cheap. Which was nice; when you spend good money, you want to see that kind of quality.”
The finished cabinet, Louis says, looks like it was original to the boat and adds great functionality to the cockpit.
Installation was easy, even though the friend who was supposed to help couldn’t make it at the last minute. As advised by the instructions, Louis built a simple plywood platform on the floor of the compartment for the bottom of the tackle cabinet to rest on, taking some of the strain off the screws around the flange. Then he used the pre-drilled holes in the flange to mark and drill holes in the bulkhead, applied a bead of sealant, and screwed the cabinet in place.
Dual Purposes
So far, the new tackle center has served exactly as intended, keeping fishing tackle out of the way when it’s not needed and readily accessible when it is. That’s important, since Sweptaway divides her time between pleasure cruising and fishing. In the summer, the Carusos spend nearly every weekend on the water with family and friends, anchoring out around New Jersey’s Sandy Hook, and occasionally making longer trips to Long Island’s East End. In the spring and fall, they fish the bays and coast, primarily for striped bass.
Coming up next? Likely more inset tackle storage in the steps that lead from the cockpit up to the flybridge and some improvements to make the helm station more functional.
