How much of the internal cabinetry can I safely remove from a viksund combi 25 while in the water

The boat is an old viksund combi 25, I am planning to start removing anything that is not structural such as the headlining, I am not sure how much of the cabinets are structural and as there is limited infomation about these boats I was hoping for some advice from someone who knows better

Would the general rule of dont remove anything that is tabbed in be safe?

 

Yes

 

I have successfully removed cabinets (wood and/or fiberglass) modular, tabbed—and/or cut from an interior pan liner.

I have also removed entire bulkheads that were mechanically fastened and/or tabbed to the hull —In various sailboats and my pocket trawler. I know other people who have done this successfully also. The interior of the small Norwegian motorsailer episode I profiled was entirely rebuilt and customized, fwd bulkhead and all.

What I look for is the thickness of the hull and the deck and the hull/deck joint to try and understand if removing interior components will cause the hull to change shape or something get out of wack. It has not been a concern for me in heavier built boats.

It may be necessary to rebuild a removed area for strength (say you chop out a fiberglass cabinet or bench like I did ) and then build the new cabinet modular on top of that repair.

If hull flexing is a concern —there are ways to try and secure the hull shape while later removing the tabbed area and then rebuilding.

I have videos showing my process on my pocket trawler rebuild for the head area —removal and then design and rebuild.

I used similar process on my Compac 16 pilothouse build which opened the deck and entire interior to the pilothouse addition.

 

I’ll take some heat for the comment, but the other thing to consider is load bearing paths. If the pilothouse is sitting on the gunwhales or foredeck; pretty likely something is under and supporting those bearing points. So, in addition to cabinets supporting hull movement, also consider simple bearings as well.

 

The entire interior of this boat was replaced. Atle did one cabinet a time and then the forward cabin bulkhead, we discuss all the modifications.

 

Seems like a very reasonable think to consider, The boat has been modified from its orgional specs so it has somewhat of a pilothouse, More of a ridged sprayhood/canopy which I am considering fully enclosing but that is about 20 jobs down the road at the moment, Il take extra care when removing anything that might be supporting the canopy

To be clear, I do intending on replacing the internals, I will likely not be going for a like for like refit, instead swaping for more modern materials, likely with light weight materials like a foam fiberglass composit or ultra thin wood filled with foam

I am pretty set on the idea of making it positively boyent as the engine locker is the bildge and for most of the empty space the boat would need to be under water for a drop of water to ever reach most of the "bildge", If anyone has imput on that other than being very careful about expantion rate and the pressure expanding foam can exert it would be appricated