We have a Bénéteau Océanis 390 which lacked any form of book rack/stowage, although there was a wide shelf in the saloon. Wandering around Ikea, I saw a simple wine rack (model name HUTTEN) that I thought would form the basis of a bookcase for the usual collection of navigational publications. The wine rack came with a collection of dowels and battens drilled to suit, so it was pretty easy to use most of these to form the structure. All that I had to add was a length of 12mm dowel from a local builder’s supplier and a few additional holes in the battens. The bookcase fitted neatly onto the saloon shelf and I braced it off the hull lining with short lengths of dowel. A few coats of stain and varnish completed the job. Total cost about £9, and about three hours of work.

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