Dinettes - the downsides...question for current or ex-dinette owners

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
The old style A layout Centaurs seem to be cheaper than the B and the C

is this just age - or is there another reason?

I rather like the dinette arrangement so that you can see out of the window when eating or working at the table

and it keeps off watch people out of the way of the crew and the cook

http://imt.boatwizard.com/images/1/50/78/3835078_-1_20120126061002_11_0.jpg

http://www.yachtsnet.co.uk/archives/westerly-centaur/m311104-saloon-wa-fwd1.jpg

Jill prefers the other ones with the bench - better for chatting down below apparently

plus the spade rudder leaves more room for Centaur Surgery
 
dylanwinter said:
The old style A layout Centaurs seem to be cheaper than the B and the C

is this just age - or is there another reason?
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Dunno about Centaurs, but my last boat, a wee Westerly, had a dinette and I really liked it. Mind you, I had the best of boat worlds because it was a two person dinette and could therefore be transformed into a bench in about thirty seconds.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Dunno about Centaurs, but my last boat, a wee Westerly, had a dinette and I really liked it. Mind you, I had the best of boat worlds because it was a two person dinette and could therefore be transformed into a bench in about thirty seconds.
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think that you could so something similar with the Centaur - judicious use of hinges on the table, a slight change of shape of the infills and a few scatter cushions

I am sure it is not beyond the whit and creativity of a keen sailing partner to made it look very cosy

D
 
I looked at two centaurs and found the dinnette arrangement made it akward to move about and the galley down one side meant there was only one sea berth.Ibought an albin vega with settees down both sides so two people cqn stretch out at anchour /marina and there are optional seaberths.Dinettees probably an american idea making nook posible in a Little boat.
 
Wansworth said:
I looked at two centaurs and found the dinnette arrangement made it akward to move about and the galley down one side meant there was only one sea berth.Ibought an albin vega with settees down both sides so two people cqn stretch out at anchour /marina and there are optional seaberths.Dinettees probably an american idea making nook posible in a Little boat.
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the galley is always on one side - so that is part of the Centaur deal

the has two seaberths under the cockpit - one each side

I wonder if the dinette would be cosy without the table

I really like the idea of a table to work at though
 
My Dad had a late model Centaur, ' B ' layout I think; the table got in the way and they didn't need a dinette so he cut it into 2 small tables, also clad all the grp interior in wood - both ideas worked well.

Whenever I hear the word ' dinette ' I can't resist a schoolboy snigger; when on my Carter 30 with a chum in St Helier we ' pulled ' one night - much to our amazement - and I remember my chum with one arm around a gorgeous Norwegian girl while trying to discreetly set up the dinette with his free hand, accompanied by much creaking from the woodwork and clicking of the latches. :)
 
We had a dinette on our Trapper 500. It was a good setup, especially for two as you could eat opposite each other and stretch out on an evening either side of the table. Personally, I like they layout but then never sail more than 2 up so don't know how it works when things are more busy.
 
robmcg said:
We had a dinette on our Trapper 500. It was a good setup, especially for two as you could eat opposite each other and stretch out on an evening either side of the table. Personally, I like they layout but then never sail more than 2 up so don't know how it works when things are more busy.
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that is my concern - however, my guess is that although we will spend a couple of months with four aboard - there will be many more months with just two

and sometimes just me

D
 
I had a dinette arrangement on a shipman 28, found it a practical arrangement. Dining at rest, and a decent sized charttable when under way.
 
One thing to sort out beforehand is a lee cloth; even at a quiet anchorage there's always the chance of some p'd up berk in a speedboat late at night to set things rolling, and I can say from personal experience it is then the skipper's fault when SWMBO gets thrown out of bed and into the table support - much more painful for the skipper a short while later.
 
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Always felt the dinette layout to be a total waste of interior space, granted it comes into its own when eating a meal or navigating but the downsides are myriad, the main one being classed as a double berth but the restrictive access to the port quarter berth is another, plus anything you stored in the dinette module nearest the companionway often gets lost as its bloody huge so the temptation is or was for my dad to chuck everything in there on top of each other. Again from experience you can only seat two on the dinette itself with two others perching a cheek on the edge of each respective module.

The biggest problem of all with this layout is with a centaur of the 7 bolt configuration there will be no access to port side keels bolts 3, 4, 5 and 6, which will be under the dinette floor and as i and many others have found encapsulated in glass so you'll need a dremel or some kind of multitool to crack the floor to check and inspect, from memory i used an air chesel to break the keel bolts out of their glass tops. The two furthest forward (1 and 2) can be accessed under the ice box although bolt 2 is dead inline under the lateral support that props the dinette module nearest the saloon bulkhead same as the furthest aft bolt (7) again dead inline with lateral support at the rear under the port quarter berth.

Before i consigned the insides of mine to the tip i drew up three new layouts (D,E & F) all scaled to the existing volume and was surprised how much more usuable the interior became based on four adults sleeping aboard, my favoured layout combines the saloon double berth from the Griffon with a full length galley / storage cupboards to starboard although another idea is splitting the galley across both sides by the companionway as it would make a more sociable interior having a sofa either side from the main bulkhead back as well as a huge double berth.

cheers

roger
 
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rogerball0 said:
Always felt the dinette layout to be a total waste of interior space, granted it comes into its own when eating a meal or navigating but the downsides are myriad, the main one being classed as a double berth but the restrictive access to the port quarter berth is another, plus anything you stored in the dinette module nearest the companionway often gets lost as its bloody huge so the temptation is or was for my dad to chuck everything in there on top of each other. Again from experience you can only seat two on the dinette itself with two others perching a cheek on the edge of each respective module.

The biggest problem of all with this layout is with a centaur of the 7 bolt configuration there will be no access to port side keels bolts 3, 4, 5 and 6, which will be under the dinette floor and as i and many others have found encapsulated in glass so you'll need a dremel or some kind of multitool to crack the floor to check and inspect, from memory i used an air chesel to break the keel bolts out of their glass tops. The two furthest forward (1 and 2) can be accessed under the ice box although bolt 2 is dead inline under the lateral support that props the dinette module nearest the saloon bulkhead same as the furthest aft bolt (7) again dead inline with lateral support at the rear under the port quarter berth.

Before i consigned the insides of mine to the tip i drew up three new layouts (D,E & F) all scaled to the existing volume and was surprised how much more usuable the interior became based on four adults sleeping aboard, my favoured layout combines the saloon double berth from the Griffon with a full length galley / storage cupboards to starboard although another idea is splitting the galley across both sides by the companionway as it would make a more sociable interior having a sofa either side from the main bulkhead back as well as a huge double berth.

cheers

roger
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so can In take it that any A layouts will not have had the keels strengthened

but I had heard that the early ones did not suffer from keel flop anyway

D
 
dylanwinter said:
so can In take it that any A layouts will not have had the keels strengthened

but I had heard that the early ones did not suffer from keel flop anyway

D
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It depends on the boat you're looking at, the reason i went down the road i did was after seeing the yard pick my boat up off the ground and then seeing both keels slump into the centreline of the boat, on mine this is a result of successive tightening and re-tightening of the bolts as the spreading washers and nuts were driven through the laminate. The stub on the starboard side on mine had been turned to mush for with the keels removed and the stubs allowed to air dry the immediate area around every bolt hole either opened up like loose leafs of a book or blistered cataclysmically (4" diameter).

This common approach to servicing centaur keels seems to me a self-defeating technique for as you apply more 'corrective' compressive forces you are cracking the floor of the stub introducing more water into the area then as the laminate loses its integrity through this ingress and with water again observed internally the keel is loosened off re-bedded, re-tightened and crushed again so repeating the problem, admittedly this over a number of years.

So i would have a good look both inside and out around the stub area and definately scrape back antifoul as it was only after sandblasting the antifoul off of mine the full horror was revealed with big gobs of polyester filler all the way along the outboard edges of both keel stubs to cover the cracks and deformation.

There were lateral webs fore and aft on the port side although the lateral webs used to locate the dinette modules on the hull did the same as retro-fitted lateral webs fitted in the stubs, observations from when i broke my keel bolts out of their glass caps was alot of trapped water which does the stainless no good as well as no oxygen getting to them through being encapsulated and also finding the port side keel bolts being just above finger tight.

The starboard side was strengthened in the conventional sense with two lateral webs; one fore and one aft although this work was of incredibly poor quality and undertaken by a very well known shipyard still around today, basically i ripped them out by hand as they could be moved around on the bilge a result of them being bonded down onto an oily unprepped bilge, the bill for this and a service on the engine which i have in the boats paperwork was nearly £900 in 1983!
 
Dinettes are ok if you like spending your time as if sitting in a railway carriage . Not for me I'm afraid.
 
Lynn and Larry Pardey have a rather clever system where the table is stowed up at ceiling height and lowered when needed. Can't remember which book it's in but probably 'The conscious cruiser'.
 
my wife is with you

ghostlymoron said:
+1
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She agrees - feels that the b and c looks more like a sitting room

however, it seems to me that most of my time down below is spent working or eating or sleeping

and I really like being able to look out of the window at the view rather than the sky

however, households are happiest if the women have the final say

D
 
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