Just a thought on that sliding entertainment door, I believe it was originally designed to house an old style CRT Television. Its the same on late model MKI's as well. Its not, in some opinions, the best way to use that space and there is at least one project article on here somewhere that describes a beautiful conversion of that space to a nice stroage cabinet.
I've thought of doing just that with mine, as I will never want to have a CRT TV on board.
Sam

Exactly, Sam. That cabinet was designed to house a fat CRT TV set, and I am sure there must be much better uses for it. As mentioned, there is at least one redesign in articles in the Technical - Upgrade library, but maybe this thread can be a trigger that causes our Owners creative juices to flow. Any ideas out there? Maybe you can describe in words, or attach a scan of a sketch.

After Katrina boats started showing up on eBay and similar online auction places. That will likely happen again so you might want to keep an eye out there.

Welcome to the forum. You might want to consider making an auto signature, it helps folks here provide information more specific to your exact boat. Click the UserCP link, then Edit Signature.

If you are a member you could post a "wanted" in our classified items for sale area. Any member who has upgraded to the cabinet configuration would probably like to sell their sliding door.

Jworth3,

My sliding door "bit the dust" (turned into multiple sliding doors) and I ended up ordering a replacement through Catalina. I sent them measurements and the new one fit perfectly.

Kent is the contact you want when you call/email in.

I am sure there are other options out there.

On a side note, with the help of a fellow C36 Owner, I pulled the CRT TV out and installed a 19inch Flat/DVD Combo unit on a mounting arm. The TV size limitation is the size of the opening for the cabinet opening and the "lip" that is infront of the cabinet, so pull dimensions. The arm is attached to the bulkhead. The TV is secured via bungee to the support rod that runs through the cabinet on the MKII. The door can be closed to hide the tv when not in use.

[QUOTE=jmontani;15800]Jworth3,

On a side note, with the help of a fellow C36 Owner, I pulled the CRT TV out and installed a 19inch Flat/DVD Combo unit on a mounting arm. The TV size limitation is the size of the opening for the cabinet opening and the "lip" that is infront of the cabinet, so pull dimensions. The arm is attached to the bulkhead. The TV is secured via bungee to the support rod that runs through the cabinet on the MKII. The door can be closed to hide the tv when not in use.[/QUOTE]

I have the same arrangement with a 17" LCD and folding arm, TV folds against bulkhead leaving all kinds of room in the cabinet for storage. TV folds out to face of cabinet opening when in use. (We also have a small dvd player in the cabinet, as we don't do 'tv' shows when cruising, but enjoy a movie on rainy days...)

I could not figure out how to make the old TV-cabinet into a better-utilized space.

I gave up on trying to figure someway to replace just the sliding cabinet door with something more useful. I gave up and just replaced the whole cabinet. I was inspired by John Lively’s article featured in this site last year. Lacking his skills and patience I just wanted to make cabinet doors that would “seamlessly” match the rest of the existing interior.

The challenge for me was to wanting to make the louver doors. I finally found an excellent design for a jig for making louvered doors from an old episode of the Old Yankee Workshop. Almost spent as much time making the jig as the actual doors.

Being a cheap SOB I used white oak and stained it to match the rest of interior. I would have had a fit making mistakes in hard to get and expensive teak. Filled in the track. Laid over an iron-on laminate. Moved the base of the chain plate rod outboard a few inches to clear the door frame.

Anyways I still have to the sliding door and the rest of the cabinet. You can have the sliding door for the cost of shipping. Or I can drop it off personally next October when my wife and I are taking our C36 to the Bahamas.

As for a TV, I am contemplating getting a pico projector to watch movies. The prices have come down on them and the specifications are getting fairly good.

[IMG]http://vermontsailor.net/Sail/New_cabinent_closed.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://vermontsailor/Sail/New_cabinent_open.jpg[/IMG]

Looks very nice, Nile!

I too have an LCD TV in there on an arm. I swivel it back inside when not in use and bungee it to the tie rod for the forward lower shroud which holds it in place. Also have an inverter to power the TV and DVD player on the bulkhead.

My tambour door split into multiple pieces. I removed it by backing out the screws in the cabinet top. I took the pieces home and glued a piece of canvas-like cloth onto the back; it's now good as new.

One day I may redo the whole thing, but for now, it works fine as is.

Nile really did a nice job on that cabinet. I wish there was a turn-key solution I could buy to replace mine. When I purchased the boat one of the first things I did was throw out the TV and DVD that was in the cabinet. I go sailing to get away from it all. TV seems like more of "it all".

I did a great deal of custom teak work in my Catalina 25 ([URL="http://webpages.charter.net/compassrose/1989Catalina25.pdf"]http://webpages.charter.net/compassrose/1989Catalina25.pdf[/URL]) but these days I have neither the time nor motivation to go through that again. The fact that my boat is 2 hours away instead of parked in the driveway is part of the problem. Having the table saw parked under a bunch of junk doesn't help either.

If there were enough people looking to purchase a turn-key replacement for that cabinet, maybe someone will build a few for us.

When I bought my boat it was missing two louvered doors. I contacted H&L Marine Woodwork in Compton California. (323) 636-1718 They apparently made a lot of the earlier Catalina woodwork when Catalina was in California. They sent me some forms for dimensions which they used to make the doors. The price was reasonable and they were a perfect fit. I finished them myself to match my cabinets. Worth a call.

I see that you're in Atlantic Highlands; How did you weather the storm (Sandy)? I've seen some of the pictures and I guess you're lucky to still have a boat. My family has a house in Cape May Point and we were holding our breath to see where landfall was going to be. We live in Turnersville and were lucky enough to only have a 30 second power outage.

Nile- Very nicely done on the cabinet rework.... Looks like the way to go.

For those of you looking for the laminate on the shelf in the cabinet or nav table, it should be available from Home Depot, Lowes or a local counter top shop (cabinet shop specializing in kitchen/bath work should be able to point you in the right direction)... Made by Formica and/or Wilsonart.

Same cabinet shop should also be able to provide the tambour door if you want to stay with that look, they have several different options for material.

Anyone who can't locate either the laminate or tambour could contact me, my brother has a cabinet shop and can provide the materials.

I used Band-it Melamine facing, 24”x96” iron on sheets that can be purchased on-line at

[url]http://www.opentip.com/index.php?cPath=&keywords=melamine+band-it[/url]

for $31.51. They also sell a Band-It Edge Trimmer ($10.10) which makes it very easy to trim the front edge flush after ironing the Melamine facing on over the old laminate. The track slot was filled with auto body filler. The Melamine can be cut with scissors.

I have used this stuff for facing 1/2" MDO used on a number of drawer projects.