Sleeping / Storage / Eating

[svReboot]

I am planning on cruising a Catalina 42 two stateroom sloop. I am trying to figure out where I want to sleep vs what I want to turn into storage. Note that I will be single handing. Sleeping options:

1. Forward stateroom - best air flow. Broad wide bed for storage (with appropriate tie downs!) Mast runs right down inside it, every rigging noise is magnified quite a bit. Also, this seems to be where everything gets thrown every time we go sailing. Was clearly considered the "owner's stateroom" by the designers.

2. A combination of a short bench seat and the chart table seat in the main salon. It sounds crazy but I have slept here a lot while racing the boat. Narrow, easy to put up a lee cloth, right next to the chart table, electrical panel, very short walk to the cockpit.

3. Aft stateroom. - Short walk to cockpit, can actually climb and/or stick my head up out of the escape hatch into the cockpit, pretty easy to rig a lee cloth, harder to get stuff stored in the back.

What do you do?

[Nausikaa]

Your boat - your choice but avoid the foreward berth. I say again, avoid the foreward berth. Oh, did I mention that you should avoid the foreward berth? Why? Well, you will be bounced arround in it in a seaway. If you don't beleive me - try it!

Aye // Stephen

[Lighthouse]

Avoid the foreward berth!

[JeanneP]

Stephen's said it all, at least while passagemaking. However, you're right that the forward berth is the coolest when at anchor. If you're single-handing, why not sleep in the aft cabin while underway, and move to the forward cabin while at anchor? A 42-foot boat for one person has plenty of space that you shouldn't have to sacrifice a berth to storage. If you've got too much stuff to keep both berths free, you've REALLY got too much stuff, and perhaps you ought to reconsider.

IMHO.

fair winds,

Jeanne

[svReboot]

I should point out that the "forward berth" is actually not forward but midships - there is a head, a shower, and the chain locker in front. But to JeanneP's point - my Catalina is set up for day and short weekend cruising - lots of open space - big salon area - etc. There is very little storage. Normally when we race the forward head becomes the sail locker - asymmetric, storm sail, lines, fenders, etc. I also have a lot of safety gear (we have about 15 life jackets, life raft, EPIRB, lifesling, mob pole, throw ropes, strobes, multiple harnesses etc.) as a result of the racing regs and the size of my normal racing crew. I want to carry most of it with me not that I will need it single handing (I don't think I can train my cats to throw the horseshoe, pole, strobe, and drogue!.) But it will be nice to have on board when my children and/or friends come to sail.

I am in the process of putting Reboot away for the winter. I plan on leaving via the "down east" route from Milwaukee WI next summer - e.g. out the St. Lawrence. I am trying to avoid putting anything in shore storage - particularly in Milwaukee as I don't anticipate coming back here (except for my son's graduation from UW-Madison.) So I am trying to see what I want to give away, what I want to store on the boat, and what I need to actually ship to my brother to take care of. Part of my putting away process to to figure out what to take off the boat and what to leave on.

As this is all new to me (both solo sailing and being a live aboard.) I intend to work my way down the U.S. East Coast for a while so that I have access to parts and advice as I sort out what I really need on the boat. But when I look at putting fuel cans, my dinghy, outboard motors, etc. etc all on a boat that is normally "stripped" to be as light as possible (light is fast!) I am in shock!

I feel like I am rambling a bit in this post but I think you have all been there - done that before - how to get ready for that first departure. So anything you can provide in the way of "this is how we decide where to store stuff and what to take and what to leave behind would be most appreciated.

[Hud3]

If you're planning to cruise in the warmer regions, I'd highly recommend sleeping in the forward cabin. Air flow is everything! Install extra 12 V fans. Have a tarp custom made to fit over the hatch so you can leave it open when it rains. If my wife and I had been sleeping in our aft stateroom, we would have given up cruising in the Caribbean. We enjoy breathing too much!

If the forward bunk isn't usable in a seaway, sleep on the saloon berth with a lee cloth just for passagemaking. That works great for us.

[redbopeep]

My husband and I empathize with your situation. Our boat is, like yours, large with a very open/airy main saloon, galley, and dining saloon midships but having all that "open" space means there's not nearly the storage space that one should have. We have a state room "forward" but like yours it doesn't start until about 10 feet aft of the stem. In our situation, that stateroom isn't breezy--the best sleeping is in the dining saloon which converts to a stateroom. We suspect we'll be using it the most. Right now, on the hard, while in the midst of the rebuild we sleep in the stateroom and its a bit stuffy compared to the rest of the boat.

Go with the breeze in port--go with the least motion at sea.

[Nausikaa]

You guys must be in a different league. I thought staterooms were to be found on royal yachts and other vessels of that dignity.

Stowage is not an issue for me as there is stuff crammed into any available space. Sleeping at sea is done mostly by taking a madress of a bunk and placing it on the cabin sole, where is fits perfectly twixed the two setees and where one lies more securely than anywhere else on board.

There us nothing in NAUSIKAA which comes anywhere close to being a stateroom thus I can only conclude by endorsing the opinion "small boats, small problems"

Aye // Stephen

[imagine2frolic]

Sleeping under way....get your head as close to the center of the boat as possible. Anytime else it is where the ventelation is. A windscoop of some sort will drop the tempature inside drastically, and then you can sleep anywhere!......i2f

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by Nausikaa

You guys must be in a different league. I thought staterooms were to be found on royal yachts and other vessels of that dignity.

Stowage is not an issue for me as there is stuff crammed into any available space. Sleeping at sea is done mostly by taking a madress of a bunk and placing it on the cabin sole, where is fits perfectly twixed the two setees and where one lies more securely than anywhere else on board.

There us nothing in NAUSIKAA which comes anywhere close to being a stateroom thus I can only conclude by endorsing the opinion "small boats, small problems"

Aye // Stephen

yea, well I'm in a 1931 schooner--the size and era demand a "stateroom" and even the dining saloon is noted on the original plans as "dining saloon"/"stateroom." Other classic names of things found in the boat or on the plans--a "chart house" rather than a pilot house. The forward hatch is labeled as the "scuttle." And, of course, there is a "main saloon" not a main "salon" as everyone pronounces it today.