Quote:
Originally Posted by Chrisatlantic
The forward berths (really midship, the forward end of the berth is even with the aft face of the mast) in our Atlantic 55 are over the bridgedeck and are very comfortable while sailing. They’re quite high off the cabin sole which is about the only negative I see (there are steps). They are oriented fore and aft (feet forward) but that location as Matt said above is pretty much the center of rotation. The aft berths are good but I notice more up and down movement and if you’re motoring, well, on many boats you’d be right over the engine…
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Chris explains midship (definitely not forward) berths well and we visited an Atlantic 55 recently that had that arrangement - queen size berths arranged fore and aft on the bridgedeck and accessed from the hulls. They needed 3 steps each to get up to them as they were chest high. The forward ends are adjacent to the
mast, so they’re located near or just slightly forward of the centre of rotation.
Forward berths, aka v-berths, are definitely not comfortable at sea as that is where the most movement is. On our
boat, the forward bulkhead in front of the forward berth (only present on one side) is 4m aft of the bow. During a close reaching
passage in moderate seas the crew
member in that berth called it the airpoints
cabin - he didn’t have much steady contact with the mattress.
Our
boat only has aft berths and are tapered with the
hull doubles aft and queen forward. The berths are just under hip high off the floor and don’t require any steps. I’ve seen sisterships that
lift the berths higher and have a step under the
cockpit for a transverse arrangement. In that case you lose a
cockpit locker, need a step up (and lose
headroom over the berth) and I’m not sure how comfortable a transverse
bed is at sea. Other sisterships (in the Standard model) have midship berths on the bridgedeck accessed from the hulls.
Regarding sleeping in the
salon, whether just on a settee, or a day
bed, or, in the case of the A55 we visited, a full on king size bed in the
salon, that can be a great place to sleep on
passage. If
single handed them no worries about being disturbed by on watch crew, but otherwise you’d want to manage that.
Traditionally, sleeping in the salon is not considered safe when there is
capsize risk. The exit through the cockpit of an overturned
multihull is very dangerous due to the
bimini,
rigging, and width of the boat - it is much safer to exit via the hulls (dedicated escape
hatch or regular
deck hatch). But getting up into a
hull from the salon is not that easy. Anyway, that may or may not be a risk that you think is worthwhile. The convenience of salon sleeping is undisputed.