ARRANGEMENTS: switching stern and bow cabins

On a typical diesel duck (38 to 41ft range) there is the stern cabin with double berth and the bow cabin with galley/dinette and head. The proposal is placing the galley/dinette/saloon in the stern cabin and the head followed by V-berth up in the bow.

In calm weather either arrangement works fine, but for a cruising couple in rough weather:

1) The bow cabin is either unusable or at minimum quite uncomfortable;
2) Galley forward means that preparing proper meals is difficult which leads to risk of fatigue and health issues on long hauls;
3) Galley in the stern cabin, with a long settee, provides a sea berth since the other person is in the pilothouse.

A passage maker needs to be designed/built for safety in rough conditions, but in reality the majority of one's time onboard is at anchor or local cruising with very little time (percentage wise) being spent in rough or storm conditions. It's all a compromise of course.

When at sea, sitting to pee, would be a necessity.

I find fwd sleeping cabins can be very noisy at night at anchor due to wave slap and in some cases noise from the anchoring gear. Then there is the motion you can get up there. I'm not a big fan of making them the master.

The centerline double sells the boat, if you jamb it into the bow the space doesn't work as well. Its impossible to sell a smaller boat as "ocean going" with the only berth up forward, ask me how I know this. Dashew gets away with it, but only in 65' plus lengths. Nordhavn gets away with it by adding midships single berths in their 40'.

Years ago Ed Monk Sr. wrote, "The skippper sleeps in the bow to monitor the anchor." Which is right, he also rarely drew in double berths.

Below is my solution for the PL39.

Anyone have experience sleeping athwartship?

it seems you wouldn't move as much as rolling when lined up and gentle rocking of the boat...but in a rough sea way it may be impossible to get sleep that way.

psneeld said:

Anyone have experience sleeping athwartship?

it seems you wouldn't move as much as rolling when lined up and gentle rocking of the boat...but in a rough sea way it may be impossible to get sleep that way.

Click to expand...

Yep.
Double athwartship about a foot ahead of the rudder. Worked well.
Ran paravane stabilizers (chicken irons ) most of the time at sea,
commercial salmon troller.
Ted

Mako,
Are you considering these questions with Single-handing in mind?

nemier said:

Mako,
Are you considering these questions with Single-handing in mind?

Click to expand...

No. At minimum, crew would be husband-wife.

I was asking because I was in contact with both George Buehler and Bill Kimley about building a 38' single-hander. I had considered the cabin switcheroo myself. My chosen layout would have no resale value though,,, so perhaps only as a very last boat. I've got another sailboat in me before that though

Makobuilder,
Many single chine FD boats probably like the DD have a bit of the bottom of the hull slightly above the WL at rest. Any wave action (even 1" ripples) will produce slapping water in that corner of the hull. So in the above design a fwd berth may be much quieter .. especially in a steel hull.

I have the original DD. We changed the interior and put the dinette forward and the galley aft in the fwd cabin. In the aft cabin we put a queen size bed offset to stbd with a settee to port. This has worked out nicely. With a lee cloth the settee makes a sea berth.