o maximize its floor area I’ve raised the salon about a half-meter above the hull centerline.  This  ignores the nice fit of the salon cross-section in an eight-meter cylinder, but as I’ve said or implied elsewhere, that fit is incompatible with a spindle hull.  Raising the floor permits a full six-meter aft width and limits the forward taper to about 3½ meters.  The ceiling is affected, sloping down toward the forward end.  The nominal floor area is 95 m², although this is slightly reduced by the addition of cut corners forward, consistent with the text and Riou’s illustration.  My original salon floor was tapered to just over 4½ meters at the forward end and had an area of about 107 m².  The major cost of the spindle taper is paid in available wall area.  The maximum flat wall height available over the length of the salon of four meters yields 80 m² side wall area, about the same as the original design.  The forward wall, however, is much smaller.  The usable area is further reduced by the vertical cut corners and a tapered cornice I introduced for aesthetic reasons to compensate for the severe taper and sloping of the ceiling.