Midships Owner's Cabin - Most valued "extra" features. Opinions welcome

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Hugin

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I am involved in developing a Midships Owner's Cabin layout for a 42 ft. flybridge boat.

There is space to port for some extra features. These could be -

1) A combined vanity and small work desk + small all-round cabinet
2) A breakfast dinette with two seats and a table in between
3) A 2-seat settee + a small side table
4) A chaise-lounge (as often seen on Italian boats).
5) The obvious - or not so obvious - option I didn't think of.... but what?

I would be interested in a little "poll" what the experienced boaters on here would consider the most useful/practical of the above mentioned options...... and the reasons?

Thanks in advance for any input
 
I'd trade all of those for a bigger bed that will take a domestic (ie not made to measure) mattress, ideally a superking. On a 42ft boat you can't have much beam to play with and any of those features you mention is going to be a noticeable intrusion on a relatively small space.
 
first storage and decent drawers. Next something to sit on. Dressing table. Forget it. Converted ours on s65 to drawers

Several usb sockets and I am with Jimmy. Std matress. Ours is 5 ft from John Lewis to replace the dreadful original
 
a decent sized and sprung mattress, either twins with a fill in section to make up a double or a double.

Storage for clothes , shelves not hanging wardrobes.

At least 2 of 240v outlets.

A mirror on a bulkhead.
 
jimmy_the_builder said:
I'd trade all of those for a bigger bed that will take a domestic (ie not made to measure) mattress, ideally a superking. On a 42ft boat you can't have much beam to play with and any of those features you mention is going to be a noticeable intrusion on a relatively small space.
Click to expand...

Full queen size bed arranged athwart ship to starboard. There's no way to lengthen the cabin or to completely re-position the bed, so a king size will not fit. It really is the port hull side area which is available for "something" other than bed and the usual closets. The internal beam is around 11'6" ft (although not at the floor), so even with an almost 7 ft long bed there's still roughly 4' 6" to play with and the passage at the foot-end of the bed doesn't need to be more than 2 ft I guess. Leaving around 2' 6" for "something"
 
Why does it have to be one thing?

Why not be clever and do something that slides/changes use. There are plenty of builders who do.

If you like the Jack and Jane breakfast table, why not make the table slide so it can change to a two seater sofa with a consul, or drop so when required your dinette becomes a three seat sofa to lounge on

Limiting yourself to 1 use of any space is short sighted
 
Whitelighter said:
Why does it have to be one thing?
Why not be clever and do something that slides/changes use. There are plenty of builders who do.
If you like the Jack and Jane breakfast table, why not make the table slide so it can change to a two seater sofa with a consul, or drop so when required your dinette becomes a three seat sofa to lounge on
Limiting yourself to 1 use of any space is short sighted
Click to expand...

Whole-heatedly agree; I was just looking for insights into the actual priorities of experienced users before entering the design phase of the market conquering Multi-Purpose-Furniture. I really would love to invent. The one thing pulling the other direction is cost, of course. Multi-purpose costs money; simplicity is almost always cheaper...... not saying it's a show stopper; just that money is an issue on some level.

Personally I would probably face a full-fledged mutiny from SWMBO if there wasn't a decent vanity available, but obviously others will find this functionality irrelevant. My personal preference is for an undisturbed work-place; which luckily can easily be combined with SWMBO's priorities.

I have noticed quite many sport cruisers with a somewhat similar midships cabin set up are equipped with the mentioned two seater sofa....... the question is if it's ever used as anything but a convenient place to throw your clothes when it's bedtime.
 
Hugin said:
4) A chaise-lounge (as often seen on Italian boats)
Click to expand...

We have one of those Italian boats with a chaise longue (or psychiatrist's couch as I prefer to call it) in our midships master cabin and its completely useless. Total waste of space. Yes, a vanity desk with a mirror is essential for the SWMBO but apart from that what you need is storage, storage and a bit more storage and that includes both hanging and drawer storage

A few more points I look for in a midships cabin

Full headroom and a flat floor all way around the bed

Standard size bed (at least queensize) that will take standard linen

Opening portholes for ventilation (because there's no overhead hatch)

Overhead aircon outlet vents (not at floor level) with aircon control located near bed

Barrier between midships cabin and engine room to reduce noise from generator, pumps etc (eg crew cabin or heads aft of master cabin) or at least very good soundproofing between cabin and engine room
 
For me, the offset bed would be a problem.
On long rough passages, the most comfortable place to get you head down is the mid cabin bed.
I would sacrifice virtually all above just to have the bed placed midships.
Our P67 has one of the largest mid cabins in its class (at least when she was built)
We have a dressing table on one side and a sofa on the other - both are not as important as a midships bed - IMHO of course.
Having said that, the boat's chines generally rise at those points so sofas and dressing tables tend to use the space well.
Ventilation (opening windows) work well for us.
Good insulation from the engine room is also important - thermal insulation more that sound insulation.
In the summer after a long passage, our mid cabin is noticeably warmer than the other cabins so A/C is often switched on immediately.
 
Those little 2 seat breakfast tables are decoration only. That's fine of course. You'd never actually eat in a claustrophobic box of a cabin on a <24m boat. Almost ditto a chaise langue sofa- I've sat on mine half a dozen times for 2 mins at time

If you have the height then fit a desk/bureau. Mine definitely gets used as an office, and I have paper/file storage plus 230v sockets. But the floor angle might make this a non starter. Or fit drawers. A 42 or 50inch electric hilo Samsung TV would be good, viewable from the bed, and take the opportunity to run an Ethernet cable to upstairs where the router will be located
 
Good bed width and length are essential. They should be at least 6'6".

When I was looking for a 45ft ish boat the Princess, Fairlines etc , the second and third cabin always had 6ft dead beds, im 5' 11" on a good day and its too short for me and my sons are taller.
 
Forgot one thing. 240V and 12V sockets on both sides of bed for phone charging
 
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