Hi all!

I've just bought a 1982 J30--very excited! Relatively new to small boat sailing, plan to use it for cruising and also as my office during the week as most of my work is remote. That's where my question comes in. My boat does not have the original table. At first, I was considering buying it from someone, but I can't find anyone anywhere near me, and I also don't think it will work well for my purposes--for 'desk' purposes the ridges to keep your plates from sliding off are a repetitive strain injury waiting to happen.

I found a table at a second-hand chandlery which could work, but the issue is figuring out how to mount it. The holes in the bilge hatch where the original table legs were are still there, but if I mount it there, the table will be too far away from me. Yes, I could get a bigger table, but I kind of like the idea of something I can leave up that's not too much of a pain to get around.

My question, though, is: could I screw a base into the floor? The teak isn't that thick--only about 1/4". And I'm not sure that drilling into what's underneath that would be advisable?

I'm attaching some pictures. Another issue: ideally, I would prefer to mount it on the port side, but the floor slants up there, so it would be hard to get a base to be level (pedestal bases all seem to be around 6.5/7"). Unless I either find a smaller one (which from my online searching seems virtually impossible), shave the ends off it (which is risky and maybe a little nuts?) or make it level some other way (which brings concerns about structural stability). I feel like it would be nicer there because I love the arched doorway into the V-berth and don't want to block the sightline to that. But again, I don't want to do anything dumb.

Would really appreciate some input. Be gentle with me here, I'm a newbie trying to find a solution (ideally an affordable one), with limited carpentry skills, but also don't want to do anything stupid!

Thanks for reading,
Ember

Consider building a bracket assembly that plugs into the existing holes in the deck, but have a right angle offset with tubes you may insert your table as desired. That way you aren't drilling any new holes in the boat, but have a strong, removable solution to locate your table in the position desired.

ps - if done right you may be able to make the brackets rotate for easier entry and exit. You could rig some sort of latch to lock it in place.