Vee vs Walk Around Berth

Vee berths look mighty cramped to me but I am not seeing a lot of talk about getting a bigger boat to get a walk around berth. Is the difference not as much as I would think? We are looking to do the great loop so 10 to 15 months straight on boat, also I am 6'4" wife is 5'10".

For now, we have dropped back from actively shopping to window shopping. Last winter when we going to see boats they were all stored for the winter with stuff piled on the berths so couldn't try out the berths.

I am 6'2" so close to your height. For my wife and I, size of berth was one of the big considerations when boat shopping. I could not find a boat in the 32 foot range that would meet our needs. Admittedly, there could be one, we just did not find it. We did look at a lot of boats. The smallest boat we found that worked for us was the American Tug 34. Our Nordic Tug 37 has the forward master with a "queen" sized walk around berth (not 360, but bottom and both sides). The AT 34 has a similar berth. Our 37 is a 2 cabin boat whereas the AT 34 is a single cabin. We did not want a "side berth" where someone has to crawl over the other. True V berths can be cramped in "smaller" trawlers. The V berth in our Bavaria 36 sailboat was big. It was wider than a King size bed at the widest and about 6'8" long, so it can be done. We saw nothing even close in the v berth trawlers we looked at.
Good luck.

It all depends on the boat. We had a vee berth in a previous boat that had over 7’ on each side. Some are way shorter than that though. Really the only way to know is to lay down and see how it works for you. We have a boat with an aft cabin with a walk around queen. The forward cabin has an offset double. The forward cabin is used mostly for storage. If I were to live aboard for a year, I would not want to do it unless we had a walk around berth. Too much trouble making up the berth if it is against the bulkhead.

How old are you and how easy are the V berths to get into and out of..
Island berth is easier esp. if you use a filler in the V berth.
Our V berth's seem awful high. Need a step up to get in and out comfortably. We are looking at redoing the mattress to make it thinner and lower.

I'm 6 feet and the V birth on my Mainship 400 is barely enough, but works. Much taller could be an issue.



Seems like the choice is a V birth or an aft cabin without a cockpit. I'd take the cockpit hands down. Now, if you go bitter you can have both.


I'm shopping now and looking at those options, but because I'm "depth challenged" as my dock, my choices are limited.


Good luck.

AdkChris said:

Vee berths look mighty cramped to me but I am not seeing a lot of talk about getting a bigger boat to get a walk around berth.

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We had V-berths, with inserts. We got a bigger boat in order to get a walk-around. Much easier in/out...

-Chris

A walk around berth is very nice, in fact I wish I had one in my 36.

But beware of chine slap in the bow. It can be very annoying. Keep looking until you find an aft cabin with a walk around bed. You might have to buy an extra couple feet in length to get exactly what you want.

pete

Our main bedroom had a walk-around queen, but first-world problems had us expand that to a king because... reasons Actually, it is two Twin XL mattresses in the space because getting a King down the hallway and into the bedroom wasn't going to happen. But is has turned out great.



Anyway, my issue with V-berths has less to do with size and more to do with orientation.With your feet forward, there is no headboard. Nothing to "prop" your pillows up on... which is something I have done my whole life. It feels like I am sleeping on the side of a cliff and any second my pillow will fall off into the void. Therefore, I have to try and scoot down, thus losing foot space. It always just feels awkward and I just can't seem to fall asleep up there. Well, that and we have a planing hull so chine slap is a huge issue too.



I am in the process of building a removable headboard so visitors (or myself) can sleep there with relative comfort knowing that their pillow will not fall into the fires of Mount Doom in the middle of the night. It's removable so getting in and out of the bed is easier and so I can continue to use the bed as a workbench of sorts.

V-berths are also hard to make up. For me, 2 deal breakers on a long term cruising vessel are a walk around berth and an enclosed shower. 2 things that make a boat feel like a home.

Some walk around doubles, queens, kings you can just buy off the shelf sheets that fit well enough; it's nice to not have to pay for custom size bedding.
Also if you get a boat large enough to have a laundry washer/dryer, many buyers don't necessarily consider whether the size of the bed means you cannot fit a full set of sheets in the washer.
I sometimes see larger yachts at boat shows and I have to laugh at the King+ massive master beds and I think; who needs or wants a bed that big? have fun dragging those sheets to a laundromat or dry cleaners, and what a huge waste of space when you could use that square footage for much more important things if you just settled for a double or even a modest queen..... of course that's the boat designer that is putting a big bed in for show.

Slap drives a lot of people crazy.

Pete Meisinger said:

A walk around berth is very nice, in fact I wish I had one in my 36.

But beware of chine slap in the bow. It can be very annoying. Keep looking until you find an aft cabin with a walk around bed. You might have to buy an extra couple feet in length to get exactly what you want.

pete

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We had a V-berth master on our 50ft trawler. It was comfortable enough but did require us to sleep athwart to facilitate getting in and out. Being in the bow ther does tend o be more noise but you get used to that as well. Biggest negative about the V-berth came when we went to sell the boat. Seemed like most people want a "walk-around" and several "walked away" because of the V-berth alone.

sledge said:

I sometimes see larger yachts at boat shows and I have to laugh at the King+ massive master beds and I think; who needs or wants a bed that big? have fun dragging those sheets to a laundromat or dry cleaners, and what a huge waste of space when you could use that square footage for much more important things if you just settled for a double or even a modest queen..... of course that's the boat designer that is putting a big bed in for show.

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One of our favorite boats was our GB50 with a walk around King bed. Loved it! Can't think of any better use of that space. May have a correlation to the size of the person making the judgement. I never once thought about the size of the sheets when taking them to the laundromat.

Tator

Sledge: Was it the same vessel that we saw In Newport one year that had an 8-burner professional gas range on a 55ft vessel?

Standard king sized bed and sheets for us.
Full walk around.
Laundry on board, no need to take ashore

I wish we had a king size bed in our boat, we have a walk around queen. A king would be nice since our 85 pound lab sleeps in bed with us. A walk around is an absolute must. We have an offset full size in the forward cabin and it is a PITA to make up. The same with a vee berth. We ordered a memory foam mattress from Amazon. I paid extra for 1 day delivery. The marina helped me get the old mattress out. Night came and no new mattress. I called Amazon and the person offered me $5 for the inconvenience. I said give me to a manager. Explained the problem and the manager refunded me the price of the mattress and the expedited shipping cost. So the mattress is really comfortable since it was free.

Chrisjs said:

Sledge: Was it the same vessel that we saw In Newport one year that had an 8-burner professional gas range on a 55ft vessel?

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Ha! you're probably right! To be clear, we are blessed on our AT41 to have a full size stacked washer and (vented) dryer, which we absolutely love. our master is athwartships midship below with a queen walkaround and yes we can wash all our sheets. As seen in this discussion everyone has their personal preference but we love our queen size mattress and we've never had a desire for a king; we'd never use that much space.

The vee berth in my Mainship 34 is the one thing I don’t like about it. When the filler is in it’s very difficult to get out of the berth. When the filler is not in, each side is too narrow for me and I never get a good sleep. It’s too high so we have to have a step stool there all the time and it’s constantly in the way. Any boat I get in the future will not have a vee berth.

AdkChris said:

Vee berths look mighty cramped to me but I am not seeing a lot of talk about getting a bigger boat to get a walk around berth. Is the difference not as much as I would think? We are looking to do the great loop so 10 to 15 months straight on boat, also I am 6'4" wife is 5'10".
.

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We have had both and even went from a walkaround queen on one boat to a v berth on the next.

This became one of two essential items when choosing our current boat (1. walk around berth, 2. walk in engine room).

So yes for us it is of prime consideration. Our last V berth required that we 'caterpillar' down the bed to get out. Not at all elegant or comfortable now we are in our 60/70s.
~Alan

We're currently shopping for our next boat as well for extended cruising. We've decided that a walkaround is a firm requirement which limits us to an aft cabin. Our current boat is an aft cabin with a queen but still is not a walkaround which we find very inconvenient. On one side it's a 'squeeze around'. We want a full beam aft cabin not only for the walkaround but also for the additional storage space that comes with a larger cabin. We've slept in our v-berth a couple of times. No way that we'd want to do that on a regular basis.

Love your wife? Get an island berth. The bigger the better.

Some smaller AFT cabin boats were offered with squeeze around, also there are many sedan motor Yacht models out there with a full walk around mid ship cabin.
For my admiral, first top 3 must haves, deal breaker were... Full walk around bed with 2 night stands, on suite enclosed shower stall, house size fridge.

In your home, push your bed up agaist the wall. Sleep that way several nights so you get the feel of climbing over someone when nature calls at 2. Take turns being the one against the wall or in front.
Fun huh? Get a walk around queen.

The hassle with a fwd V berth that has a middle filler to make it a double is climbing down to the foot of the bed to exit. For some getting older means more head calls and 6 or more trips can be a huge PIA.

V-berth - side entry - walk around

Very good advice preceded this post. Of course a walk around is going to be the most convenient. But for some sized boats a walk around is not going to be an option. I passed on a 1 side entry bed because I did not want to climb over my partner. (Turns out she gets up more often than I do.) That leaves a V-berth (which is what I have). The center cushion stays put 100% of the time because I added a mattress topper.

My advice is, if you get a V-berth, be sure you can sit straight up in bed without hitting your head, making it easier to crawl, scoot, or lay down and spin around to get in. (I can easily stand erect anywhere in my boat - (requirement of a bad back). Also, due to my anchor locker, my v-berth does not end in a point, but a rather flat end which allows more foot space. Of course, lay in it and see if you can put your arms folded above your head (on your pillow) with room to spare for 2 pairs of feet. I'm 6'3" and have all the room I need. It works, and works well for us (no cramping). Finally, I never thought about the headboard issue, since my "headboard" is the back of my helm, but I can see that being an annoyance.

I'm not saying a v-berth has no issues - it does - but it's not an option for a LOT of smaller boats. We're VERY comfortable in ours (but it is different than our house).YMMV

Todd

Our Bluewater 40 had a a Vberth forward and a double against wall in mid stateroom. PITA

Took out Vberth, couple bulkheads, cabinet and built a queen size walk-around. A true queen, 60" X 80" with square sides and corners, not coffin shaped. We use a latex household mattress.

A walk around is the only way to sleep. Don't have to crawl over each other.

Bow slap is a non issue since we have no chines.

Conrad said:

Love your wife? Get an island berth. The bigger the better.

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Have a starboard-side double berth in the forward, master cabin. I use the inside as needing greater access to the head. I enjoy whenever, however rarely, my partner needs to slide over me to exit.

A friend had a queen berth that not only was against a bulkhead on the side but also top and bottom both too. He said it was the worst decision he made when buying a boat. He hated it not only for crawling over his wife but also trying to make the bed.

While I would prefer a walk around berth, our current boxed in queen has worked fine for 15 years. I'm 69 years old, 6'4" and 255# and have no trouble making the bed, although we do use duvet covers. I admit I am also lucky that I have no prostate problems and don't have to get up and pee. My wife has the easy access side. She is also the one that does most of the anchor watches. The only problem is that I am the one that arises early so she must get up and let me out.

That being said, Syjos I am curious how you fit a queen in your v-berth area on your Bluewater? Not sure if you started with the same layout as we have. Can you provide more details?

Tator

Tator said:

That being said, Syjos I am curious how you fit a queen in your v-berth area on your Bluewater? Not sure if you started with the same layout as we have. Can you provide more details?

Tator

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Sandpiper was built with only one head and no stairs coming down from pilothouse.

There were closets on either side of the hallway adjacent to the forward stateroom. I fabricated a beam and removed the bulkhead/wall between the closets and stateroom. Also took out a built in chest of drawers and a desk from the stateroom.

Unfortunately, I did not document the project with pictures.

Converting the stateroom to a queen was planned before purchase and completed within a couple months after taking possession.