Sustainable Sailing

While we absolutely love our aft cabin there are a few things we have realised could be improved.

• Access into the heads compartment is very very tight when the double bed is made (and we keep it made because we only use it as our bed).
• It is a high step up into the double bed (because the step which makes it easy to get into either single bed is hidden under the double infill).
• The bed is crazy wide at the head end. We can’t buy a sheet that will fit across the whole width and we can’t find each other in bed 😉
• When you look from the saloon through the corridor to the aft cabin (and the corridor is low and narrow) it looks like a dead end because the 2nd wardrobe sticks out and then there is the bulkhead at the end of the starboard bed.

When we have watched video’s of new boat designs (which have a lot more space because they are wider and have a more rectangular cross section) a common feature is an armchair or sofa next to the aft bed.

So we have come up with a idea to change the layout a little to keep a huge bed (5 feet wide at the head should be plenty), while adding a chair, making heads access easier (and with less chance of me waking Jane by turning on the light) and making the view down the corridor look a lot more open.

Here is (approximately) what we have now from the original drawing (actually our starboard berth is the wider one rather than the port side).

and this is what we are thinking about. Note that because we are cutting an opening in the bulkhead we are going to add a solid compression post for the mizzen mast.

We think it will add a really nice place to sit and relax and make the cabin look much more like a modern double cabin. The only real loss is of one wardrobe which will be smaller with shelves (we don’t have a lot of clothes that need to be hung anyway).

Still to be sorted is access to the under bed storage and whether we will keep or change the existing high level lockers above the bed.