Do crew need their own room?
We are thinking of bringing crew for our Pacific voyages. But we don't have an empty room, just a pilot berth in the pilot house. It could have a curtain, for privacy, but it's really just a
bed with a low ceiling. There's not enough room to sit up.
I met an older lady who crews on boats here in the
Caribbean, and she is only interested in boats where she could have her own berth. I guess boats are big these days, and even newer 40' boats often have four staterooms, so this could be an easy requirement for her. How common is this -- is this the new reality and it be unlikely for us to find folks without offering them their own room?
Last time I had crew I was in my twenties, on a smaller
boat, and everyone else was in their twenties. No one had their own room, we all floated between the settee's and the aft room. A pair of us turned into a couple, and they started having watches together and sleeping together in the quarter berth. The second girl and I were not a couple and mainly stuck to the settee's. But generally no one had their 'own' room, it worked well, and we were happy. At some points we even had six people on board, and everyone hot bunked. It was fine.
But if 'own room' is the new reality, with some modifications to our
interior we could make a fourth room. We'd have to remove our only
shower and a closet, and I hesitate to get rid of the
shower. It might be important later if we want to
live aboard long term in a city or somewhere cold. Or the nuclear option is to take the V berth from my eight year old, and she (and all her toys) would sleep with us.
What do you guys think?