Head first or feet first

[Alaskaflyer]

I'm curious too!

We always slept on the saloon settees while underway because the motion in the forepeak (where the berth was) was just too much. It was also much stuffier (dorades were aft of that area).

But that's completely different than "not allowed." Anyone was welcome to try sleeping up there if they wanted to (I had one friend who loved it ).

If you are in a vessel on plane it can be more than an issue of simple comfort, in seas of any size, or crossing wakes.

 

[tpfbdf]

"Whatever way she gets in....."

LOL! We have a winner!!!

 

[psneeld]

Comfort I get, prohibiting on some vessels I get, a blanket statement still holds my curiosity.

 

[Frosty]

If you are in a vessel on plane it can be more than an issue of simple comfort, in seas of any size, or crossing wakes.

I can see that. Although I have a planing boat now, I realize I tend to think of watches/off-watches and sleeping as happening at displacement speeds. But I suppose people do plane along for long distances as well.

We don't know why the previous poster doesn't allow it, but maybe he/she will return and say a bit more about the details.

 

[MYTraveler]

Comfort I get, prohibiting on some vessels I get, a blanket statement still holds my curiosity.

I think he was talking about prohibiting on his boat, so maybe his is of the type that you would concur. Surely, he didn't mean to suggest he prohibited on boats that weren't his. But maybe he is a licensed captain and that is what he is saying. If so, you would think the owner would overrule him pretty quickly. On my boat, the forward stateroom is preferred among my normal crew (master is midship), but everyone understands they take the bitter with the sweet. One time, the guy who drew the forward moved to a sofa because there was too much pitching up there and another guy moved right in.

 

[boomerang]

I am still wondering about a few posts back why a captain would not allow sleeping forward of amidships underway?

Anyone have a guess?

I'm guessing/agreeing with others that the poster feels it's safer while underway to not be forward ,be it for a risk of fire,getting tossed in heavy seas ,collision or something like that. His boat his call but like you said, a no lounging in the forward berth while underway blanket statement is a little perplexing.
On our boat,I figure that if my wife wants to nap up there while underway, she'll move to the couch in the salon if she's not comfortable. Regarding the safety aspect of being forward underway, I'm pretty confident of our boats systems and keep a close watch on things all of the time anyway.
Disclaimer: last fall while making a 4 hour trip entirely in heavy fog, my wife abandoned me on the soggy bridge and went to her bunk forward to read. Even though I had the radar cranking, I wasn't comfortable with her being up there in such funky conditions with other boats in the area so I asked her to move up to the sofa.

 

[boomerang]

Oh, and as to the OP's question of feet or head first, I'll give the same answer I gave to the same question asked in a thread a few years back.
We have cris-crossed bunks (which so far haven't been a huge inconvenience ,but time will tell) where Liz sleeps in the lower berth feet-forward and I sleep in the upper feet aft. Thankfully, I'm not claustrophobic because I'm sure the upper was designed to be used as a feet-forward bunk , but again, I like to keep a watch on all things at all times and having my head looking aft gives me the perfect vantage-point of the cockpit in case I need to greet any unwelcome visitors.

 

[psneeld]

The caveat of not doing something safe on a boat should always hold up....no matter what it is.

As I said before....I can see sometime, some boats, some conditions...

But it is hardly all boats, all the time, all conditions.

Aft has its worries of CO deaths ( and they are actually verifiable)... haven't heard of dying from levitating off a bunk, being too uncomfortable, etc...

So if we as a community think we shouldn't do something that seems unsafe ( on TF that's about everything if we include everyone's fears)..... I don't know where it ends for new people who come here to learn. Too often they get little info in some posts on the real why something is dangerous or even if it considered dangerous by the boating industry outside of TF.

People call for posters to list their home port, their name, etc... yet little outcry they provide any backup to their post, or their real experience, or hardly anything.

 

[IntoTheBlue]

Many beds in the forward staterooms are tapered to match the curve of bow.

In my case I'm 6' 2", so my legs often hang over the bed. So I'm a head at the bow sleeper.

Enjoy!

 

[Datenight]

My wife and I slept in the forward berth of a Amal Super Maramu on a passage from Sardinia to Ustica (the Mediterranean) between watches. We had wind gusts to the low forties and 17' seas.

Other than negative G's a few times it was comfortable and we both slept well.

Rob

 

[psneeld]

You could have died!

 

[Datenight]

I lived long enough to do it again in the same boat on the trip from the Canaries to Cape Verde in December 2019. This time the wind was only in the high thirties but the seas were about 20'.

Life on the edge.

Rob