Aft Berth

[dave6330]

What factory boats have centerline beds in the aft berth?

[TrueBlue]

Too many to list here.

[dave6330]

Really? I haven't seen that many. Most seem to have an athwart berth or one that runs parrallel to the hull. Guess I just haven't looked hard enough.

[Faster]

The mid-to-late '80s larger hunters (375, 40) have such berths, and there are several, as TB says, newer models that do but most will be near 40 feet or more.

[JohnRPollard]

It really depends on the size range you are looking at. You won't normally see centerline aft berths on small-to-midsize boats. They are more common on larger designs, say 40+ feet and upward, especially the centercockpit boats whose layout permits larger aft cabins. Many boats in this size range give owners the option of having the bunk oriented along the centerline or athwartship.

[tdw]

Aft cabin centreline beds in an aft cockpit boat are for me a disaster on a sub 40'er. That is on every boat I've seen. Look great on the plans but the reality is that you are lying in bed with the cockpit floor right over the top of you. In a lot of them you can barely roll over let alone try and get down and dirty. As for sitting up in bed to read, forget it.

Based purely on my observations, maybe there are exceptions to the rule.

[Sailormann]

In a lot of them you can barely roll over let alone try and get down and dirty.

...and when you are sailing it is almost impossible not to slide out of them without some elaborate and time-consuming lee-cloth setup...

[tdw]

Originally Posted by Sailormann

...and when you are sailing it is almost impossible not to slide out of them without some elaborate and time-consuming lee-cloth setup...

Although I appreciate the idea of (specifically centre cockpit) aft cabins in reality I keep coming back to aft cockpit, main cabin forward. For me it's a fine place to sleep at anchor providing the v-berth is wide enough forward to sleep with feet aft and while useless at sea the forward cabin then becomes sail locker and general stowage space.

[Valiente]

I have a stupid port side double berth I am tearing out in the aft cabin in order to go athwartships aft. Yes, I will have the "deck helm" cockpit descending toward my midsection, but it's just a matter of throwing the pillows to the high side and I won't need lee cloths. If the boat is pitching fore and aft that much, I wouldn't be in the aft cabin sleeping anyway...I'd be snug in a coffin-like sea berth of which I have four.

This will free up about a metre of space between the bed and the bulkhead which I hope to use for "office space" and as a dry, dark place to keep HF radios and computer equipment.

The centerline bed sounds nice, but it's got to be the most impractical set-up (unless you are at dock) and the floor space on either side is essentially wasted.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by tdw

Although I appreciate the idea of (specifically centre cockpit) aft cabins in reality I keep coming back to aft cockpit, main cabin forward. For me it's a fine place to sleep at anchor providing the v-berth is wide enough forward to sleep with feet aft and while useless at sea the forward cabin then becomes sail locker and general stowage space.

TDW: I can see your point. And Valiente's too.

On the flip side, I wouldn't mind at all having a boat with a proper centerline aft berth. It's a lot easier to do on a centercockpit boat, but it can also be done well on a larger aft cockpit boat (my preference). I know it wouldn't be a great bunk while at sea, so there'd have to be alternative sea berths. But at anchor -- where we spend most of our time --it could be a comfortable cabin away from the rest of the crew (i.e., the kids).

We like to stay up in the cockpit well past the kids' bed-time, enjoying the stars and lights of the night. It's the time of day when parents finally get to chat with relatively privacey. If the parents' cabin is forward in the v-berth, that means the kids' bunks are under the cockpit -- not good for parental privacey, especially on a ot night with portlights and hatches open. So, in our dream boat we want our kids' cabins forward, and ours aft -- right on the centerline with adequate headroom.

Funny how our "ideals" can lead us to opposite ends of the boat.