Food for thought 🤔🤔🤔

[Stemar]

 

[Bouba]

showing me the comfortable atypical…is agreeing with me

 

[ylop]

Because it’s impossible to make a yachtie happy

Have you considered that the way to make a yachtie happy is to go sailing not lounge around on massively overpriced deckchairs - if that was how to make them happy they’d own a caravan or book a cruise.

Happy people don’t shed their clothes at the first opportunity

Are you sure? Ive had a number of enjoyable experiences without clothes!

My observation comes from marinas…

The problem is probably not the seating!

 

[Dellquay13]

My observation comes from marinas….yachts up to fifty foot…the crews spend as much time outside as possible…summer or winter…eating, reading, talking…incessant talking…and please…guitars belong overboard. In winter they are bundled up trying to stay warm and awake till the early hours.
But my observation is that horseshoe seating is just so uncomfortable…whether they are crammed in together socialising or one or two reading or napping

Discounting the uncomfortable seating, I see most of that behaviour happening on loads of big Mobos around me that never leave the marina.

 

[Bouba]

Discounting the uncomfortable seating, I see most of that behaviour happening on loads of big Mobos around me that never leave the marina.

A lot of that is due to the age of the owners…..boat not leaving port is the first sign that all is not well with one of us

 

[Dellquay13]

A lot of that is due to the age of the owners…..boat not leaving port is the first sign that all is not well with one of us

No ill health could excuse having a guitar afloat.
I wouldn’t expose any of my treasured instruments to such a damp and salty atmosphere, or my boaty neighbours to wildly overdriven valve amps.
Besides, full Marshall stacks aren’t that stable, especially at 30deg heeling

In all seriousness though, I didn’t intend to touch a nerve if infirmity is stopping anyone’s boating activities

 

[Supertramp]

Sirius and Moody DS yachts are designs that take comfort seriously. I could enjoy either, perhaps not as in the photo.
When I was boat hunting I decided that much of my time would be spent at anchor or with the boat sailing itself so comfortable seating, rest areas and easy cabin access were high priorities. Very similar to motor cruisers perhaps? The shortlist was not long, and included a catamaran.

Another £500K would have expanded the options to the Moody above!

 

[capnsensible]

Sailors rule #1

Any idiot can be uncomfortable.

 

[johnalison]

Sirius and Moody DS yachts are designs that take comfort seriously. I could enjoy either, perhaps not as in the photo.
When I was boat hunting I decided that much of my time would be spent at anchor or with the boat sailing itself so comfortable seating, rest areas and easy cabin access were high priorities. Very similar to motor cruisers perhaps? The shortlist was not long, and included a catamaran.

Another £500K would have expanded the options to the Moody above!

I certainly looked for 'floppability' when buying, at least for the last two boats. In the cockpit all you can ask for is seat backs that are reasonably angled and not so wide that there is nowhere to brace your feet against. One disappointment was the Westerly Ocean 33 which was about the boat that we were looking for, but the saloon seats were worse than our church's pews and not somewhere I would want to live in. the earlier Merlin was similarly inconsiderate, with seat thats narrowed to almost nothing, having been pushed forward by the aft cabin.

 

[Bouba]

Sirius and Moody DS yachts are designs that take comfort seriously. I could enjoy either, perhaps not as in the photo.View attachment 195419
When I was boat hunting I decided that much of my time would be spent at anchor or with the boat sailing itself so comfortable seating, rest areas and easy cabin access were high priorities. Very similar to motor cruisers perhaps? The shortlist was not long, and included a catamaran.

Another £500K would have expanded the options to the Moody above!

Surprisingly spacious for 41 foot

 

[Supertramp]

Nordship and HR boats have well thought out interiors with "armchair" options although the deck layouts are very conventional.

I have always liked the design features of the SP Cruiser (Rotrax?) which although a bit boxy at least make some different deck layout choices and use the opportunities grp mouldings offer.

How many yachts offer a comfortable steering position with back support for long watches? Or a comfortable on watch sitting position with back support - no good looking aft! The requirements for racing or fast cruising are very different but much of my cruising involves many hours without having to touch sails or hours under engine.

Bouba - I think you raise a valid question. Interesting to get a view from any manufacturers or designers on here.

 

[johnalison]

Nordship and HR boats have well thought out interiors with "armchair" options although the deck layouts are very conventional.

I have always liked the design features of the SP Cruiser (Rotrax?) which although a bit boxy at least make some different deck layout choices and use the opportunities grp mouldings offer.

How many yachts offer a comfortable steering position with back support for long watches? Or a comfortable on watch sitting position with back support - no good looking aft! The requirements for racing or fast cruising are very different but much of my cruising involves many hours without having to touch sails or hours under engine.

Bouba - I think you raise a valid question. Interesting to get a view from any manufacturers or designers on here.

Comfort while steering is perhaps a specialised question. In my 34 with a tiller I can sit comfortably with either both feet on the other side or with one on the mainsail track - those who don’t know the boat will have to take my word for that. Because I am fairly small, I generally sail with one of those expensive cushions with a curved backrest to support my back and bring me a bit closer to the helm. Like this, I can helm for hours at a time, but off the wind it becomes a strain because my head is turned the same way for too long. This is where a wheel can come in. Having been awkward when on the wind, there is no doubt that it scores off the wind. All of this is totally academic of course if you are one of those who just puts the autopilot on for whatever passage is undertaken.

My vote for the worst helm position must be for the Gibsea 34 that came out in the early 2000s. Equipped with a wheel, they decided to save space by pushing the helmsman right aft and giving them a small ledge to sit on mounted on the pushpit (or it may have been a section that hinged to form a boarding ladder).

 

[mjcoon]

...

How many yachts offer a comfortable steering position with back support for long watches? Or a comfortable on watch sitting position with back support - no good looking aft! The requirements for racing or fast cruising are very different but much of my cruising involves many hours without having to touch sails or hours under engine.

Looking at reviews in YM, many yachts assume the helmsman will be happy sitting beside the wheel on a side deck looking forward over one shoulder. I don't think I would find that comfortable for long...

 

[Bouba]

Looking at reviews in YM, many yachts assume the helmsman will be happy sitting beside the wheel on a side deck looking forward over one shoulder. I don't think I would find that comfortable for long...

So....the reason yachtsmen don’t look where they are going is ergonomics ? I certainly don’t feel comfortable giving them justification

 

[capnsensible]

Nordship and HR boats have well thought out interiors with "armchair" options although the deck layouts are very conventional.

I have always liked the design features of the SP Cruiser (Rotrax?) which although a bit boxy at least make some different deck layout choices and use the opportunities grp mouldings offer.

How many yachts offer a comfortable steering position with back support for long watches? Or a comfortable on watch sitting position with back support - no good looking aft! The requirements for racing or fast cruising are very different but much of my cruising involves many hours without having to touch sails or hours under engine.

Bouba - I think you raise a valid question. Interesting to get a view from any manufacturers or designers on here.

You have to look back to a bygone age to find people who actually steer at sea....

 

[geem]

After the attacks on me fade into history....does anyone think the outside seating on yachts will get more comfortable ?

We started using bean bags in the cockpit 20 years ago. We first made them from old sails and polystyrene beads. We now have them in acrylic canvas with an internal bag so you can wash the outer bag. They transform the most uncomfortable cockpit into luxurious seating. We have lent the pattern to countless cruisers who have copied them.
We have even taken them with us when visiting other cruisers when we know their cockpit is nasty!

 

[capnsensible]

We started using bean bags in the cockpit 20 years ago. We first made them from old sails and polystyrene beads. We now have them in acrylic canvas with an internal bag so you can wash the outer bag. They transform the most uncomfortable cockpit into luxurious seating. We have lent the pattern to countless cruisers who have copied them.
We have even taken them with us when visiting other cruisers when we know their cockpit is nasty!

Only 20?

I was tipped off about the comfort of bean bags some 10 years before moving aboard full time in 1998!!