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With all this talk about sleeping arrangements lately, I was just wondering if anyone has ever tried putting an air mattress sideways (beamwise) on the dinette area? That pesky compression post does seem to make that area split in half. I did once put a double airmattress sideways in front of the post, by using the cooler in the walkway to bridge the gap...although the headroom was only adequate for half the bed, and our toddler kept rolling into the crevices around the airmattress (ie, putting a rectangular plug in a triangular hole). I was just curious if there is enough room to do this behind the post like with a twin mattress? I suppose you would have to put something taller than a cooler in the sole area and there would be a hassle to go over top of the twin to get to the vee berth area, but just wondering if anyone has ever experimented with this?

We have always only put one person in the dinette berth (best berth in the house) but now that I see at least a couple couple's who both sleep there, we may be willing to give it a try sometime. I'm curious what you folks who can sleep with your spouse in a twin bed do at home though. I know of a lot of couples who sleep in a double bed all the time. Frankly, we are a bit spoiled with our king sized bed that we have always had since we were married...and in fact, my wife says I still hog the bed with the width of two twins...ie, the dinette bunk is exactly half the width of a king bed.

You have to be absolutely syncopated to sleep on a twin. Like slow dancers at the RKO.

The dinette is fine for me cause I'm long and the mate snuggles in the V berth with the cooler trick platform as best as she can.

Too old and unresolved to get syncopated again.

I don't see how you could put in the matress crosswise. Are you thinking of having the port side up on the galley? That's what is opposite the aft dinette seat. I don't think there would be a way to work around the faucet let alone all the other stuff we have mounted around the galley.

We were very surprised how easy it was for the two of us to sleep on the twin airbed at the dinette. You get into the synchronized rolling thing pretty easy. My wife had the wall side and I had the aisle side. It really is better than two in the vee berth even with the forward seat back pulled out. Once we were forced to come up with 5 full length berths by our growing kids we really had no choice but to change to having my wife and I on the dinette berth. Our previous method of extending the vee berth into the dinette space meant that the dinette berth was wasted space. We no longer could put the three boys all in the aft berth and while having one in the cockpit inside the full enclosure worked we didn't like that arrangement much.

Our new layout proved to be the perfect solution with the addition of some privacy screens. I sewed a panel for the vee berth and a 'U' shaped one for the aft berth. I just put in some snap buttons on the panels and screwed in a few snap studs around the openings. Easy on, easy off. We put gear bags down the center of the aft berth as a wall. Now we have 3 private staterooms on the X for the boys, and my wife and I sleep in privacy in the main part of the boat with easy access to the cockpit, deck and dock as needed. Having the kids tucked away also worked well when we made early morning departures. We could pull the anchor or leave the dock and get quite a few miles under our belt before the kids even crawled from their staterooms.

With your small kids they should find the aft berth and vee berth plenty spacious for quite a few years and you can enjoy the extra volume of sleeping in the main cabin. Our 6 year old can even stand up and get dressed in his stateroom in the aft berth behind the head. It's a palace to them and the fabric doors made all the difference. Another important addition was a dedicated light in at each berth for reading.

I guess I must be confused...we haven't slept on our boat since early Spring (and only been out sailing once or twice the whole summer) so I suppose I've forgotten the layout of my own boat. I just remember that pole being in the way and wondering if I could find a mattress with a hole in it in order to turn the whole cabin into a big huge bed.

The privacy screens sound like a great idea, are they like sliding curtains or are you using snaps there? I presume that your reading lights for the dinette and rear starboard berth are on the front and back head walls respectively, but where did you install reading lights for the V-Berth and rear port side berths? My kids may be a bit too young for the privacy part as it may be a bit claustrophobic. They don't mind the small spaces as long as they can still see the rest of the family. I guess personal lights would help a lot though.

Wow...3 "staterooms" on a Mac...talk about cruising big on a small boat...what's next Duane...a hot tub? You will have to put that in for your even bigger cruise next year. Hey, maybe you can come visit me in Florida...the burning question being..take the Panama canal, or round the cape...

The curtain in the back is all snaps, it took 5 total. The curtain at the front rides on a shock cord that hooks to the outer sides with snaps a little lower down to hold the side wings out. It can be slid to the side for access to the vee berth.

My boys have always been into building forts and tents out of about any material they can get their hands on. Any reasonable sized empty box is always quickly snatched up in this house. It's amazing what small spaces they squeeze into. To them having two micro cubies in the aft berth behind a curtain is heaven.

In the aft berth on the starboard side the light is just a cheap white / red light attached on the back of the head where I can reach in and flip the switch. On the port side the same type of light is on the higher section of the berth ceiling. The boys like having the red 'battle' mode. The dinette reading light is on the front of the head, it is pivoting Xenon. The light for the vee berth is a halogen nav area light on a 12" flexible stalk. It and our 12v fan are mounted on the starboard edge of the center rib between the windows just forward of the switch panel which is located there on our older '96 boat. It's kinda hard to descibe exactly. I really need to get all my mod pictures posted on my site so I can just give you a link.

I think around the cape sounds fun, I'll follow Frank.

Duane,

I think you need another boat. Not necessarily a replacement of your current 26x, but in addition to it! With that family of yours, you need a fleet.

--Mike