Quarter berth quandary

[Bigjim]

I just bought a Cal 27 and I'm having the interior cushions remade and recovered. I pulled out the cushions and noticed that the aft quarter berth uses several smaller cushions instead of one big one.

Does anyone know a reason this was done this way? Is there a reason I should not or could not make these smaller cushions into one bigger one?

I have a feeling that tossing and turning in your sleep the various cushions are going to wander around and you'll end up hanging between two of them.

In all my previous boats the quarter berths used one single cushion like the others.

[appick]

It might be they were sized to be able to be used elsewhere in the cabin as backrests.

[Stu Jackson]

Big long cushions are a PITA. If you sleep on them or put stuff on the forard part, it's going to get lots more used than to foot end. Then you have less to repair/replace. A LOT less.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Sometimes cushions are built in sections to make it easier to access the storage underneath of the bunk. For example in a quarterberth, if there's a seperate cushion for the top half of the bunk, it makes it a lot easier to get into the bins underneath of the head of the bunk. Ditto in terms of accessing the storage under the bunk's foot.

Note that you can, & perhaps should, have the cushions made so that there are large flaps with Velcro which links them together. That way when you lay on them, the gap between them isn't nearly so obvious. And some folks will do this, in addition to having the juncture of the two cushions cut on a bevel, for the same reasons.

[Bigjim]

All good suggestions. I don't remember a bin under the quarter berth, but that's a good point. But the berth is split into three or four cushions. I'm worried someone's going to kick the small cushion at the end into the bilges or something when they are climbing in.

Maybe combining the two end ones would be a solution.

As for wear and tear, that's a good point. But we are having the shop use heavy foam. (I'm a big guy.) I had him order 45 level foam which is designed for 200lb+

[Sea Dreaming]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

Sometimes cushions are built in sections to make it easier to access the storage underneath of the bunk. For example in a quarterberth, if there's a seperate cushion for the top half of the bunk, it makes it a lot easier to get into the bins underneath of the head of the bunk. Ditto in terms of accessing the storage under the bunk's foot.

Note that you can, & perhaps should, have the cushions made so that there are large flaps with Velcro which links them together. That way when you lay on them, the gap between them isn't nearly so obvious. And some folks will do this, in addition to having the juncture of the two cushions cut on a bevel, for the same reasons.

I had our cushions split (in the salon) for this reason. Its insane to move every little thing for 7 feet just to have good access to 30" or less.

[Sea Dreaming]

Another reason the cushions maybe split - storing things in the quarter berth its self. You can stack the cushions and just use the berths hard surface. It saves wear and tear on cushions if you dont pile stuff on them. Ill be doing that in our boat too. By the by, we have camp rest style inflatable mattresses for guests. It makes thinner cushions more comfortable, can be used by us for sleeping in the cockpit during hot weather, or on the cabin sole if the passage us rough. And makes those multi part cushions bearable too!

[JPA Cate]

Sea Dreaming,

If you think you might want to sleep in the saloon underway, you can take a regular bed sheet, sew it to fit the combined cushions, and the "fittedness" will keep the two pieces nice and tight for sleeping. I prefer to sleep on sheet material, compared to upholstery. And, I do sleep in the saloon sometimes, with a lee cloth to keep me secure.

Ann

[UNCIVILIZED]

My guess is that the reference to wear/wear resistance is one coming more from the standpoint that it's pretty much the norm for quarterberth cushions to have the fabric on the upper 1/3 of them wear out long prior to the fabric on the rest of the cushion. Mostly because this part of the cushion gets sat, or stepped on all the time. So that like the fabric & foam in the driver's seat of a car, this area wears out quicker than about anywhere else on the boat.

Also, if/when you transversely sectionalize cushions in berths, ensure that you don't do it in a location where the gap will do bad things to your spine, or back muscles while you're asleep. Since if you unknowingly have your heine fall into a crevasse while asleep, you may wake up crankier than when you went to sleep. And yeah, BTDT.
Which, a super-duty velcro flap like I described above helps. And helps even moreso if there's one on top of the cushion, as well as on it's underside. But... just watch your back (pun intended).

Also, some wise folks will build the upper 1/3 or so of quarterberth cushions with a way to attach a 2nd layer of the matching fabric overtop of the cushion. So that in effect there's a 2-layer piece where the cushion most commonly gets stepped/sat on. Whether you attach such with velcro, or by some other means. Kind of like the pieces on your lazy-boy chair at home on the chair's arm & headrest made from the same fabric as the rest of the chair. And when they get grungy, you just peel'em off & throw them in the washing machine. Same deal.