Sleeping arrangements?

[DavidF]

Out of curiousity and because I have never slept on a boat large enough to sleep on the port-starboard axis, is there a reason most boat bunks run stem to stern? Maybe sideways you get seasick? But I have fallen asleep in my rocking chair without ill effects.

[bamamick]

I await some of these answers with baited breath! This should be interesting.

Mickey Lake

[ 07-15-2005, 09:10 AM: Message edited by: bamamick ]

[Dan McCosh]

We sleep beamwise on the bridgedeck in the cockpit all the time, but you wake up pretty fast on the opposite tack.

[ErikH]

1) the side to side motion is MUCH less unpleasant on your eardrums. go find a hammock and rock in it comparing the feeling with you at 90 degree angles.

2) on the lee side you can snuggle in against the hull and actually get yourself relatively horizontal. Large boats don't move all that much. leecloths work on the weather side

3) sleeping with your head raised way up is a pain. unless you're in a chair you always tend to slide. And with your head down all the blood rushes there. there is no way to use pillows to level yourself out.

4) doesn't disrupt the flow of floor space (in the boat plan) as much.

all I can really say other than this is 'try both; you'll understand quickly'.

[Andrew S/Y Rocquette]

most boats are longer than wider....do the maths!

smile.gif

[Ian McColgin]

Athwartships berths are hard to work in to the normal yacht but can be refreshing.

I remade Grana's "afterberth" (aft stateroom) for an athwartships double because the dimensions were just right for that to improve locker space and access and enabled me to dispense with the awkward into the V berth lee cloths I'd originally installed.

I try not to tack except at watch change anyway.

The motion in the afterberth was pretty rowdy and generally it was best to doss down no more than four in real seaberths in the sleeping cabin amidships, but I occasinally flaked out aft, essentially sleeping standing up given Grana's routine 45 degree heel, and found it nice.

At anchor in calm weather it made no difference. At anchor in a blow, given how Grana could tack on her rode, athwartships was not particularly comfortable.

One summer a friend from Oregon lived back there and she like the layout and its great distance - completely seperated air flow - from my pipe.

[Alan D. Hyde]

Mickey, it's " 'bated " short for "abated."

'Bated breath therefor means that you're holding your breath...

Alan

[martin schulz]

Now :D

...how about sex? Is it better on a port-starboard axis, since there is more of an rocking-motion? Or is it better the classic way, because the question who is on top is regulated by the ship motion?

[ 07-15-2005, 12:28 PM: Message edited by: martin schulz ]

[bamamick]

Alan; since it was kind of a 'baited' question, you could use it as a pun, I suppose. But indeed, my spelling was incorrect. Thanks.

Mickey Lake

[hikingchrs]

Oh I thought you had just eaten some worms.
Chris

[John Turpin]

As for sex, what goes on behind the lee curtain, stays behind the lee curtain. ;)

[Katherine]

If this boats a rockin, don't come a knockin.

[ 07-15-2005, 05:31 PM: Message edited by: Katherine ]

[paladin]

Then it's not a question if the berth is wide enough for two people...but izzitt high enough for two people...

[Dan McCosh]

Why do you think they designed "V" berths?

[Katherine]

Dang it Dan, my boat's V-berth area is two narrow bunks. :( However the dinnette berth is a nice big double. :D

[Ian McColgin]

Cuddling, noodling and post coital sleeping underweigh are far far far better in an athwartships berth. I've lived afloat since 1981 and of this I am certain.

[DavidF]

Thanks. That is what I was hoping to learn. I am dreaming my next project and it looks like a funky sailing houseboat, think Gypsy Caravan with a junk rig instead of horses. It'll be more a mobile vacation home than a transportation device. The entertaining facilities take priority over blue-water capabilities.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Colchester smacks used to put their apprentices in an athwartships berth just ahead of the rudder trunk - this was only fit for apprentices because of the discomfort and the noise of the wooden rudder stock in the wooden trunk (Mirelle has one, and it is noisy enough, wind over tide, at the other end of the boat!)

The bunk was nicknamed "Yarmouth roads" because nobody got any sleep in it.

Personally, I don't fancy sleeping on my head, but maybe I'm picky.

[ 07-19-2005, 08:20 AM: Message edited by: Andrew Craig-Bennett ]

[Oyvind Snibsoer]

The coast guard ship I was on in '88 had athwartships bunks. Not very comfortable when going full speed all night in the North Sea in a stiff gale with 40' waves on the starboard beam, and the ship rolling through a full 100 degrees of motion.

But at the age of 20 I could sleep anywhere, anytime, anyways ;)

[ 07-19-2005, 09:18 AM: Message edited by: Oyvind Snibsoer ]

[martin schulz]

But waking up on a "danske jagt" looking out of the backwindow watching the wake is a special treat :D

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid85/pce823a30f58a1a821c6b093b861b40a3/fabfd473.jpg

[Alan D. Hyde]

A guy I knew years ago who swore by a fore 'n aft hammock he had hung in his cabin, but I've never tried one (except for afternoon naps in the side yard, slung between two trees :D ), so I don't have a personal opinion.

I think he had it because he thought it was "salty."

I suspect a good pilot berth might generally be better... Anyone here tried a hammock at sea???

Alan

[ 07-19-2005, 12:46 PM: Message edited by: Alan D. Hyde ]

[nelstomlinson]

Yes, that's right. ``Baited breath'' implies that you haven't brushed your teeth after munching those herring.

HTH,
Nels

Originally posted by Alan D. Hyde:
Mickey, it's " 'bated " short for "abated."

'Bated breath therefor means that you're holding your breath...

Alan

[Sailman58]

Baited breath is about the cat that ate some cheese and then waited at the mouse hole with baited breath.

[Ian McColgin]

I've tried a hammock. Most unsuitable for a small boat. You need to get the attachments close together - 7' max. If you streatch it like a normal hammock, like I'd do on Grana between the masts, the swing period is really huge and uncomfortable underweigh. But close means lots of sag (creating its own swing period problem) just to give room to crawl in.

The excuse for hammocks is simply that the navies of the day could care less about sailor's comfort and they needed compact removable berthing.

Canvass is wonderful as a berth bottom. I've fitted several boats, my own and others, with "Root Berths" named for their creator Jeljha Root the promminent Republican fixer of about a century ago and most formidible yachtsman.

The Root berth is like a pipe berth except there are no pipes at the ends. The outboard pipe is affixed to the hull and the inboard can be placed in a choise of notches allowing anyting from a very deep U shape for stormy weather to a ver tight flat bottom.

Usually there's a storage position to fix the inboard rail out along the hull and allowing all the bedding to just hang there out of the way.

Like a hammock, pipe berths (which sag and are harder to make work well) and Root berths are n ot wonderful for sleeping on the stomach but, unlike the hammock, at least you can get on your side.

A Root berth made with some closed cell foam between two layers of strong fabrick like sunbrella is most comfortable. But for hot weather, a Root berth made of that strong fine plastic mesh is so wonderfully airy that that's my primary material and a cloth covered mat can be added when it's less hot.

I found that making the bottom in three pieces with plenty of overlap to provide double fabric under my hips and sholders is all that's needed to prevent streatch-sag.

As with all cabin arrangements anyway, you'll want grab rails at the overhead to facilitate swinging in and out.

Sweet dreams.

[mbogo]

Ian- have you any pics of your mesh Root berths and their fastening/adjustment setup to share? They sound great!! Thanks much.

[Ian McColgin]

They all sleep with the fishes.

But the description is easy enough. If you take a berth at 6'-3", and your material is 36", you can make it essentially 8 generously overlapping panels after you slit them into 18" widths.

That will give 7 doubled laps of 6" each - more than enough to ensure so stretch with even the weightiest sleeper.

The pipes tend to bend in. Though it added weight, I put an outer 1" OD ss tube with whatever it is fits right inside - 5/8" or so. The doubled tube could handle my weight.

Root designed a sort of up-arced bracket for the inboard (adjustable) side that seemed finicky to me. I made all the slots in the same plane, the inboard most being very tight and hard to set in and the other two introducing more slack. I made the U's of the brackets slope just a bit bottom outboard so's everything would stay in place.

The berth does not need to be parallel but I find I sleep better if my legs have as much room as my shoulders.

[Meerkat]

FWIW, old Don Street, in his "Ocean Sailing Yacht" said berths ought to be 28" at the shoulders.

[mbogo]

Thanks Ian. That was a good description. It's a lot like what I had visualized, but I wanted to be sure, as I've not seen any like this.

[Ian McColgin]

My copies of both Street volums sleep with the fishes so this is from memory, but I took Street to mean no less than 28". Wider can be nice.

You don't want a berth so wide that you can be really flung about in it, so stop at 36". That's wide enough to sprawl on a hot calm day and narrow enough that with the boards up (so much better than cloths) and extra cloths and such stuffed along side you, you can nestle in and await the dreaded off-shore anaconda.

On Goblin, there was an an over-wide berth/seat on the port side of the centerboard trunk/table base. It was too wide to sit on comfortably especially trying to lean back past the cabin trunk to where the headroom was low, too narrow to be a double, and too exposed to be a seaberth.

I'd found a lovely mahogony plank on a wrecked cabin cruiser - all hidden under a billious green paint at first - which fashioned nicely into a padded seat back, fiddle board or extension transom to make a real double berth.