Owners berth fore or aft

Posted by ceciltech@reddit | sailing | View on Reddit | 18 comments

Assume 45 foot aft cockpit. Would you prefer owners cabin aft or forward? Before you answer I am looking at v-berth or aft cabin with the Island style berths only.

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oldmaninparadise@reddit

Most larger motor yachts, like 50+' have master cabin as close to admidsip as possible. Closest to center of gravity, least amount of pitch and roll. Closest to getting to helm.

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Depends on the boat. Nice open aft cabins have a ton of space for a big bed, but often that isn’t ideal for a sailing passage. V-berths typically have a hatch which can create some nice after hours perks, but also can be a downside when wet sails are coming in and out during a passage. Some boats have v-berths that connect to the anchor lockers which can get stinky after pulling anchor.

For ocean passages the most popular berth on my boat is the amidships “coffin berth”. It’s a snug fit but you can sleep securely on either tack. I just recommend some ear plugs because of all the sound from water whooshing.

These days I prefer the privacy of an aft berth, it is ergonomic.

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runz_with_waves@reddit

Closest to the helm should be the Captains quarters.

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oudcedar@reddit

A sea going berth is very different to a harbour or anchoring berth. I completely agree with you that at sea the skipper’s berth should be close to the companion way. But once you’ve stopped sailing it’s whatever is the most comfortable berth and for me that’s usually the forward one as the stern berth often has a big slap of wavelets.

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runz_with_waves@reddit

I disagree. Bow bounces the most.

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oudcedar@reddit

We are talking about at anchor or in a harbour, not sailing. Yes the bow move a little more even then than at the stern but the stern shape in most boats means that you get a slap slap slap sound which just doesn’t happen at the bow.

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unhappy_thirty236@reddit

Anyone who can't sleep through the slap in settled conditions (I'm not talking about wild wakes or storm situations) is maybe not going to be very attuned to the boat. I slept aft and could sleep through normal chop AND if that changed at all, I was AWAKE and looking into what had changed. It's like another alarm system, running a routine in your subconscious. It's a feature.

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ayedeesea@reddit

This. Captains quarters aft, nearest to the nav station. Unless there is no aft bunk

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ArborealLife@reddit

Aft is wayyyy more stable than now on anchor or sea lol.

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oudcedar@reddit

If you are unstable at anchor then you have picked a bad spot. But what about the incessant slapping aft?

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nylondragon64@reddit

No vee berth so you are first to know if dragging anchor.

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Cochrynn@reddit

My V-berth isn’t really comfortable underway in any kind of sea, but usually we sleep on the lee side of the saloon underway anyway. At anchor the V is 100x more comfortable than the aft cabin because the big forward hatch basically acts as a wind scoop and gives you a nice steady breeze all night. So I would definitely go with the V-berth as long as it has a generous, forward-opening hatch.

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inshushinak@reddit

Aft the more honour, fwd the better man...

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sailslow@reddit

Are you anchoring out or in a marina? In the marina either is fine, generally the V berth will have a bit more headroom in a 45 footer, but your mileage may vary.

The V-berth sucks on passage. Way too much movement and if anything is going to leak, it’s going to be the forward hatch. Murphy’s law is alive and well.

At anchor it depends. Aft has less motion in an older boat, and is quieter if you don’t have a sugar scoop transom slapping. If you don’t use a proper snubber (in most weather) or the weather pipes up a bit then the chain is going to grind/rattle and make noise up front. Proximity to the head is another consideration: nothing says relaxing snooze like the other person using and flushing the head.

It really depends on your preference and expected use. We slept in the quarter-berth on our forty footer when my kid was little because my wife wanted to be between him and the companionway. When he was older and we cruised in a trawler there was only a V-berth and bunkbeds, so we slept in the V-berth even at anchor (we were mostly anchored out.) Now that we’re “empty nesters” and back aboard a sailboat we mostly sleep in the V-berth for the headroom in a marina or in a calm anchorage. We have lee cloths for the settees for on passage.

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