Extension of forecabin bunks?

[Stella Scot]

Hello everyone,

We are the happy owners of Stella Scot, hull Number 70 (1970). During last summers cruise, I slept in the forecabin, which is a good, wide bunk. But has anyone here experience in extending the length of the bunk – by this I mean removing the small bulkhead just forward of the mattress?
And is it structually ok to do this?

Kind regards

Kenneth
“Stella Scot”

[Van]

Hi Kenneth,

Rainshadow – hull 126 – has removable slats fwd of the berths. There is a non-removable wood “bulkhead” that is level with the tops of the cushions, so it about 4 inches above the level of the v-berth plywood. It extends down into the apex of the V.

I suspect the main structural aspect of this bulkhead is the area below this level, where it is solidly glassed in.

I’ll try to attach a photo.

Van

[Stella Scot]

Hi Van,

Thank you very much for your picture. “StellaScot” has the same forecabin with the slats forward of the bunks. So it was mainly the structural aspect I was curious about:-). We have an infil cushion in the triangle between the bunks, but it was not made at the yard, we are sure. It is quite hard on the hips if you lie on some of the edges holding the matresses into place.Any ideas how to overcome this:-)?

Kind regards
Kenneth

[Moderator]

Hi Kenneth –

We wanted to make the V-berth be one big bed as well. As built, most Nic 38s has two single berths, one on each side.

To fill the center V, the PO had added athwartship berth boards that rested on top of those vertical edges. This made for a flat surface for the foam bedding, but it made the bed very high off the floorboards.

We are in the middle of a redo right now. We decided to add some boards to support filling the middle V with a board that is at the same height as the existing side berths. This meant we could feel those vertical edges, as you say. Our solution is to:
1) Replace the worn out foam cushions with new ones. Foam collapses over time, so new cushions should help. (The vertical edges are 2.5″ tall, so firm 4-5″ cushions should be enough to hide the feel of the vertical edges.)
2) We chose to use 4″ Drifast foam (1.8 lb/ft3 density with a 60lb ILD), which is an open cell foam usually used for outdoor cushions that allows any moisture to drain straight through it. This is an unusual bedding choice as it is very firm, but due to the condensation problems we have in the V-berth, we thought a foam that can dry quickly might be a nice feature. We bought 3 different Drifast foam pieces, 1 for each side and the 3rd for the center V – so the vertical edges are still not covered with foam. This allows us to convert back to single side berths easily.
3) To make the firm Drifast softer, we bought a 1″ Latex topper that covers the entire area. That means it pads the vertical edges as well, in case it is possible to feel those still between the 4″ Drifast foam pieces.

This is a work-in-progress at this time – we’ve not tried the whole setup on the boat yet, but we have high hopes it will work. When anchored (rather than at sea), it is very nice to have the forward cabin be one giant sleeping area. We thought about changing to a pullman in the fwd cabin, but the loss of the possibility of separate single berths seemed a shame, so we settled on the giant trapazoid bed shape instead made from 3 seperate cushions and a removable center V.

Hope that’s understandable. We will update once we finally try this new setup on the boat in a few months. It’s got to be better than the old foam cushions!

Cheers –
Marilyn

[Stella Scot]

Hi Marilyn,
Thanks for your reply. I think I will take an idea from it, which is to find a “top matress” (not sure what it is called in english, but a thinner mattress on top of the regular one. I think one of these, made to a triangle will solve my problem of sleeping on the harder bits.

Another thing, do you have a heater on board, and what kind?

Kind regards
Kenneth

[Author]

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