26M Rear Berth Bedding

[jschrade]

There have been some discussions on this topic in the past and there were a lot of imaginative solutions. I was on overstock.com and they have quite a few mattresses for around $200 that may well be more comfortable than my bed at home.

A few questions:

Will a standard Queen size bed fit without modification?
What did you cover it with?
How thick (height) can the bed be, I suspect that there needs to be clearance for the galley to slide.

We just got my kids foam mattresses locally and I was really impressed at how comfortable they were.

Jim

[K9Kampers]

Will a standard Queen size bed fit without modification?

I imagine that a standard size queen memory foam mattress topper could be folded / rolled enough to fit thru the companionway, but, if anyone is or has put a regular queen mattress in a Mac...please post a video of wrestling it thru the companionway and into the aft berth!!

[NiceAft]

The Admiral and I have no problems with the rear berth bedding. My question is for those who do replace the original foam pad. Do you also cut out a place for a cooler, or do you just place the cooler on top, or somewhere else. The (if I am corrrect) has a storage space inside the aft dinette seat. When the came out, the cooler spot was moved to the starboard side of the aft bunk. At that location, the foam pad was cut, and made as a removable insert.

When we sail, we have been known to purposely heel the boat excessivly. The cooler has never flipped while located in the cut out area (cut out removed). If the cooler is placed on top of the pad, without some way of securing it, I don't know if that would be true . Anywhere else, and the cooler may just be in the way.

Ray

[beene]

Ray

I took my family on a 5 day cruise. Loaded her up. Maxed out on the cooler also.
I put the cooler in that spot......
...... not good.

I was in powering only mode, empty ballast.

You know how tender she is like that.
Well............. I starter powering up, got up on plane, and the boat would not level out horizontally.
She was waaaay out of balance like that.
Had to stop, go below, move the cooler to the floor right in front of the keel beside the table, and put some things around it to hold it there.
Powered up again, perrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrfect.

Level, smooth, bang on.

I find when I am powering empty ballast, if anyone moves around, the boat reacts immediately, especially if that person is 200+lbs.

Cheers

G

[Russ]

Last year we got a King memory foam topper from Overstock. Fits well on top of existing cushions but needs to be trimmed just a bit.



--Russ

[NiceAft]

G,

What you say makes perfect sense.

I am not a big believer in going without the ballast. If you do motor without ballast, then you had better be darn sure the boat is ballanced. The instructions that come with the boat say that for four or more persons on board, keep the ballast full. A full ballast is more than ample to compensate for a full cooler.

I now return this thread to it's original posting

Ray

[pokerrick1]

There have been some discussions on this topic in the past and there were a lot of imaginative solutions. I was on overstock.com and they have quite a few mattresses for around $200 that may well be more comfortable than my bed at home.

A few questions:

Will a standard Queen size bed fit without modification? NO
What did you cover it with?
How thick (height) can the bed be, I suspect that there needs to be clearance for the galley to slide. Right

We just got my kids foam mattresses locally and I was really impressed at how comfortable they were.

Jim

Why not call Mike Inmon at the factory and get another set of foam for the aft berth which, of course, fits perfectly under or over the existing foam and makes a HUGE difference for about $100. I did that and it solved everything.

Rick

PS I found that making the aft berth was a real PITA - - - so I never slept under the made up covers and sheets - - - I made them semi-permanent so I didn't have to make the bed. I then put a sleeping bad over the covers and slept in that - - - bag was then easy to straighten out in the AM

[vizwhiz]

Would I contact factory or BWY for replacements for an older model? Or is there somewhere else...I know Sumner re-did some of his, but wondering if I can just buy a new set outright...trying to cut out the "must-do" work to make room for "want-to-do" work!

Edit: Checked BWY - nothing. Same on Macgregor sales site. Will dig up Sumner's instructions (and others) and check out his foam padding links...and others' which have been posted.

[Highlander]

I installed these foam 2ft squares maybe larger ! that interlock together under my aft berth cushions for now to help keep the moisture away from the bottom of the cushions they also add some more firmness off the bottom , not ideal but do for now would like to add something under them to let the air breath through that does not cost a $$$$$



J

[Sumner]

...I know Sumner re-did some of his, but wondering if I can just buy a new set outright...

We finally took the mattress out of the aft berth since we don't sleep back there. Now it is a lot easier to move around and store supplies back there and without the mattress we have more vertical height for storage and now it is a lot easier to get to the floor storage bins. In fact....



....I just put a mod on the site that I did right before the last trip to secure the storage compartment hatches so they don't come loose. The mod is here...

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-27.html

....On the cushions we bought our foam for the v-berth, cabin and cockpit all from....

http://www.foambymail.com/

.... foambymail/foamfactory (same place) and used 4 inch Lux Foam - High Quality for the V-berth and 3 inch for the cabin. We used their dryfast for the cockpit and love it. It looks like there best foam (16 year life) would be about $200 for an aft berth in 4 inch. Their shipping is free which is a big deal for us living in such a remote area.

We like the comfort of the foam we bought and sleep great on it, better than at home, but some of that is just being on the water also . Of course it seems that different people want different qualities in a mattress. One advantage to ordering one is you can get it exactly the dimensions you want and aren't limited by standard bed sizes.

Here is a picture....



....and a link to the V-berth..

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... ide-5.html

and I also just posted how we did a quick covering of.....



...our cabin cushions before we left, link here....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... as-20.html

....and a link to the cockpit cushions if that helps anyone....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... -31-a.html

...One final comment is that we bought a Big Agness Hinman Doublewide 50" x 78" x 2.5" pad that is insulated and self inflating and is normally used for tent camping. We can use that if needed in the aft berth. We bought it to use over the cushions in the cockpit when we make the cockpit into a bed....

http://purplesagetradingpost.com/sumner ... de-31.html

c ya,

Sum

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[Rick Westlake]

I put "Froli" plastic camper-bed springs under the port-side quarter berth (rear berth) of Bossa Nova. They add about 2 1/2 inches of "extra comfort" to the bed. They also provide a lot of air space for any condensation to evaporate.

Sorry I don't have a photo of them in the quarter-berth area; I do have a Mods post, with photo, from when I had them in the V-berth of my .

Plastic bed springs for V-berth

[jschrade]

Thanks for all the great feedback!

It is clearly not a queen size berth as I cannot lay outstretched with my feet at the stern. I'm 5' 10" and have to angle across to fit. The only other option on the rear berth is to lay athwart ships and for one person this is doable but for two, I suspect being in the back would be rather claustrophobic.

Not sure how many have received foam mattresses but they come tightly compressed in a roll and decompress over 48 hours (ours were much faster than that). Getting this in the rear berth is a non-issue - getting it out would likely be an issue! I am debating whether just laying some plywood for a stable platform or cutting a queen to fit and essentially sealing off access underneath is the way to go. The other thought is to just put a full or twin for one person and use the remaining space for storage.

We must be finicky sailors as the foam in the cushions that come with the boat is ... well awful for sleeping, even for my kids.

The idea of a camping air mattress is running at the top of the list for me right now as it's cheap and I can decide if I can tolerate the aft berth for sleeping.

I love the V-berth but when my kids come I get kicked out and it is a little short also. I have been eyeballing the mod to take out the dining table and make it a settee that would also make a nice berth.


Jim

[Sumner]

..........The idea of a camping air mattress is running at the top of the list for me right now as it's cheap and I can decide if I can tolerate the aft berth for sleeping....

Are you thinking of the insulated pads like was in my post above or just an air mattress. If it is the air mattress you will mostlikely need covers under you as they can pull the heat out of you. That is our experience anyway. Had to sleep on one for a couple nights the other day while in Calif. visiting. Froze the first night and then put a sleeping bag between it and us the second night. The insulated pads, like what we got for the boat to use in the cockpit aren't cheap, but they also are not cold.

Depending on the size of the people sleeping back there the narrower mattress with storage beside it can be a workable deal. We have the ....



...aft end of the v-berth where our heads are at 50 inches wide for storage on the sides there. That is also the width of the mattress we can use in our Suburban and also the width of the mattress in our teardrop trailer. It works fine for us and is also the width we have...



...in the aft berth with the frig and storage to the starboard side of the sleeping area there.

Good luck,

Sum

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[vizwhiz]

These are great posts, and I'll be going back to your mods several times, Sum...the boat we bought had no workable cushions, and the Admiral made it clear (after we bought the boat, of course) that she wouldn't have slept on any boat's old stinky nasty dirty ol' cushions anyway!
(she described what might be in/on those cushions in terms of relative human anatomy, which I'll not repeat here!)

So, needless to say, we'll be working out some interim cushion arrangements, as well as some long-term arrangements, but will probably not be going through as much effort as you have...we'll be overnighting on the boat first-and-foremost, not taking months-long trips on it as you have.

Rear berth bedding is first on the list, as you have all posted here...so we're looking into the foam for the future vs. inflatable more "temporary" fix for now (mostly because we happen to have several inflatable beds at the moment). We're thinking that we should be able to function with an inflatable bed well enough - we do it camping right now all the time - and we'll just have to make-do with whatever slight irregularities exist as part of it.

Jim, any follow-up to whatever decision you make would be great.

[Catigale]

Closed cell foam from ...drum roll

Foam Sweet Foam .com

was my solution