Wide body boats

[Sababa]

I don’t know how the salon in our Nordic Tug 37 could have been useable with full walk arounds. But I don’t miss the extra salon width at all with our full walk round Maritimo 52. We looked at some Tolly 53s and 57s with full beam salons when we were in the market and didn’t think the extra interior width was worth the hassle of having to traverse that big salon to get fore and aft. It mostly winds up being empty space in the middle of the room. It kind of has to be if you aren’t going to go tripping over stuff going through it. Once you get above a certain size, full walk arounds are the way to go IMHO.

 

[luna]

The importance of side decks all depends on your use pattern.

I often have lots of able bodied people on board and may make use of one person when docking in challenging conditions. The remainder of the time (95% if it) I would rather that guests just stay out of the way while I bring the boat alongside a dock, scamper down the ladder to the cockpit and exit the stern to secure a breast line, bow and then stern.
No side decks required, all done from carefully placed lines hanging just under the rail.

I have never been through a lock, that might change things.

With 6 Grandkids and now their companions, the extra room in the Salon is used quite often as a place to sleep 4 adults. 12-14 overnight guests is a pain but easily done in part, due to the lack of side deck.

Another reason that I don't miss the side decks of previous boats is that where we boat it rains a little less than half of the days in a year. We boat all year long and enjoy the spacious Salon with 4-6 friends on those cold, dark, wet nights.

 

[SteveK]

to secure a breast line, bow and then stern.

I secure breast, stern and then bow.
Curious why you secure bow before stern as when doc helpers do that I often have to untie bow to be able to pull the stern to the dock.

 

[luna]

In most conditions the bow being higher and lighter than the stern, it blows off the dock quicker than the stern so I want to secure it, even loosely, before the stern.
When I first get off of the boat heading for the breast line I take the stern line with me and just string it out on the dock so if the stern wanders away in the next 30 seconds I have a good chance in reeling it back in as there is a 25' line on the dock, no reaching or tossing required.
If the wind is pushing me onto the dock I would likely do stern first, then bow and a couple of springs.

I try to avoid dock helpers or at least tell them to hold onto the line only, please do not tie up.
Do what ever works for you.

 

[Sababa]

I always secure the mid line first as well because then you can spring on to it and secure the bow and stern lines at your leisure even if the wind is blowing you off the dock.

 

[SteveK]

Do what ever works for you.

Thank you, I will take your advice.
I usually say "Take my advice and do whatever you want" And everyone takes my advice.

 

[Nick14]

‘Do whatever works for you’ is the very best advice of all.

To me it’s not a question of whether a full width design gives a larger salon than one with walk around side decks. Of course it will. For me the relevant question isn’t ’is it bigger,’ but how much is enough?

The attached pics show the interior salon on my Helmsman 38 Sedan (LOA 41’, bean 13’11”), along with the 20” wide covered side decks. Yes, a full body design would have been even bigger, but for our use this cabin size was more than enough.

All boats are a compromise. Unless you have Jeff Bezos money any boat requires trade-offs and prioritizing some things over others.

I’ve owned one ‘wide body’ boat and wouldn’t do it again. Doing a trapeze act on the 3” wide toe holds to hang fenders and handle lines was going to result in unplanned and unwanted swims (someone I know with the same model boat has had multiple such aquatic adventures).

Another boat I owned had narrow side decks, about 6” wide. The only way down them was feet in line. One time trying to move quickly to push off from being blown into another boat my foot got caught in a rail mount and tore the meniscus. Painful lesson learned.

Since then one thing I’d been unwilling to compromise on was deck access, safety, and utility. I’d rather trade off a little less cabin space for being able to quickly, easily, safely get to any part of the boat. But that’s just my personal trade off, we all make our own that work for us.

 

[luna]

The important phrase is "but for our use this cabin size was more than enough."

Nice boat!

 

[Nick14]

The important phrase is "but for our use this cabin size was more than enough."

Nice boat!

Thank you!

 

[HeadedToTexas]

We make it work with our wide body Mariner 37. As our knees age, I am sure dancing up and down the steps to attend to lines at each end will grow old.

The happy medium seems to be these asymmetrical designs like Nordhavn. Do those of you with such designs find it a hassle always wanting or needing to tie to the side with your walkway? Does the wide body side make it any more difficult to tie to that side than true wide body designs where no side deck access exists through the salon area?

 

[rslifkin]

We make it work with our wide body Mariner 37. As our knees age, I am sure dancing up and down the steps to attend to lines at each end will grow old.

The happy medium seems to be these asymmetrical designs like Nordhavn. Do those of you with such designs find it a hassle always wanting or needing to tie to the side with your walkway? Does the wide body side make it any more difficult to tie to that side than true wide body designs where no side deck access exists through the salon area?

We have side decks on both sides, but due to other layout factors on our boat, the port side is the preferred side to dock whenever possible (port side has an additional rail gate midship, a side door into the cabin and the shore power hookups are midship on the port side). I've never found it a big deal to turn the boat to dock port side to in any situation that allows.

 

[Nordlund Xpress]

Based on the replies it appears the decision between wide body, asymmetrical and dual side walk around is a personal 'what ever floats your boat' kind of decision. We've owned both, a Queenship 59 wide body with no need to place fenders in the wide body portions, and a Nordlund 57 with walk around. We like both designs equally, for their individual uniques attributes. How great is it to have choices!

 

[SteveK]

OK, was there not an odd boat posted here with side deck on one side only. The ideal boat for the undecided.

 

[Wtrguy]

There's an Integrity 45 on Yachtworld that has an offset salon. I actually like that design.

https://www.yachtworld.com/yacht/2012-integrity-45-9055906/