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

[Hurricane]

Forgot one thing. 240V and 12V sockets on both sides of bed for phone charging

+1

 

[Hurricane]

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

Agree with most of what you say.
However, when we bought the P67, I rigged the dressing table to double as a desk - a bit of a fight with SWMBO but it was eventually set up both ways.
But there just isn't enough leg room to use it as a desk/office - I also prefer to be in the main part of the boat when I work so I now have my PC fed to the dinette and thats where I do my paperwork/PC/desky things.
The desk/dressing table in the cabin doesn't really get used for either.
I agree with others on here - the bed is where to concentrate your design.
Big bed means good sleep means that you are in a good frame of mind to enjoy the rest of your boating.

 

[Whitelighter]

Is it unusual to have standard sized beds? My bed on the Ferretti is a standard size and takes regular bending. I assumed with all bigger boats ((50ft +) this was the case

 

[petem]

I couldn't see myself using anything other than a TV (as per JFM suggestion) or somewhere to perch (to put my socks on) with some storage underneath.

Might be good to ask a woman whether they would use a dressing table.

 

[davids0865]

Is it unusual to have standard sized beds? My bed on the Ferretti is a standard size and takes regular bending. I assumed with all bigger boats ((50ft +) this was the case

Too much info Jez

 

[prv]

Forgot one thing. 240V and 12V sockets on both sides of bed for phone charging

It's 2015, you want high-current USB sockets for that

(By all means add the 240v and nasty 12v "cigar" sockets as well for other stuff, but ours don't get much use compared to the USB ones.)

Pete

 

[Whitelighter]

Too much info Jez

Ha.

Bedding.

Obviously.

 

[gjgm]

Leaving around 2' 6" for "something"

How about just having some space ?Maybe less is more.

 

[Nick_H]

I'd choose a flat surface with fiddles to neatly store a couple of holdalls or cabin bags, but I'd be overridden by SWMBO who would insist on a vanity table and mirror.

 

[jfm]

It's 2015, you want high-current USB sockets for that

(By all means add the 240v and nasty 12v "cigar" sockets as well for other stuff, but ours don't get much use compared to the USB ones.)

Pete

I totally agree. 12v cigar sockets are nasty things and have no place in a nice cabin. I de-specced them all when speccing my boat. USB sockets in Vimar or GeWiss frames are what you want

 

[jfm]

Agree with most of what you say.
However, when we bought the P67, I rigged the dressing table to double as a desk - a bit of a fight with SWMBO but it was eventually set up both ways.
But there just isn't enough leg room to use it as a desk/office - I also prefer to be in the main part of the boat when I work so I now have my PC fed to the dinette and thats where I do my paperwork/PC/desky things.
The desk/dressing table in the cabin doesn't really get used for either.
I agree with others on here - the bed is where to concentrate your design.
Big bed means good sleep means that you are in a good frame of mind to enjoy the rest of your boating.

I agree mike. I mostly work from upstairs - the inside dining table is my office and has a panel with GeWiss Ethernet connections, inverter 230v, USB socket to a printer in a cupboard, and all that. Thing is, with the cabin you are looking for something to do with the space, and on that basis I think a nice bureau is the best answer to OP's question, even though it definitely isnt needed. I see the as for very rare work use when upstairs isn't suitable (eg loud ranting conf calls) or for use as dressing table, bu tmostly it is a space filler and so it just needs to look nice furniture wise

But whatever is installed there I'd design it around a big 3D Smart TV with surround sound and a sub woofer, in OP's case

 

[Hugin]

Thanks for all comments.

Verdict seems clear so far....... chaise-lounge, breakfast dinette and even a settee are all a waste of space - might look good in a brochure but aren't of any actual use.
I'm clearly steered in the direction of one seat and lots of storage. Drawers in particular. And I think I could "invent" some kind of swing-out vanity with fold-up mirror... which could be neatly "parked" on top of the drawers when not in use and swing out in front of the seat when needed. A little multi-functionality as per Whitelighter's call.

As far as the preferences for center-line king size beds go, full headroom and single level floor on three sides of the bed go....... well, sounds nice, but it ain't gonna happen on a boat this size. There's simply no space for it and full headroom everywhere would make the whole thing a floating tower.
On a beamy 50 ft it might not be a problem, but the boat in question is more comparable in length, beam and weight to a Beneteau Antares 42 or a Jeanneau Velasco 43. Both these boats are below 11 tons dry displacement. Even a Princess 43 is at least one "size" above these boats at 46 ft and 1/3 more displacement..... not to mention it's on a completely different planet in regards to price.

It is not possible to lengthen the cabin due to the engine room (and other considerations) so the bed will by necessity have to be athwart ship to starboard.
I have made a small drawing of the cabin as it currently is planned. My scanner is on strike today it seems, so you get it in photo quality. A few notes: The punctuated lines indicate shifts in ceiling height due to the interior set-up on the salon deck above. There are two floor level shifts in the cabin - both indicated with a "triangle". I have also indicated expected headroom many places. E.g. "H192" means 192 cm from floor to ceiling... or from mattress to ceiling in case of the bed. Hope the illustration is not too confusing.

Questions and comments welcome.

 

[vas]

sorry,

didn't post before with ideas, but looks I'm covered by previous posters.

HOWEVER, I don't think the design is going to go down well with ppl in here...
Bed has bulkheads on 2.5sides, right?
Walking up to the bed you go down a step and then bend under the staircase (1.60m), before reaching the head of the bed at 1.88m
Will probably be a tad claustophobic, no?
Also lying across the boat is something I don't see often in plans. Is that ok in a swell? not sure.

cheers

V.

 

[Hugin]

Bed has bulkheads on 2.5sides, right?

Bulkhead and hull side, yes..... Prestige 420 has a similar bed, except it is ONLY accessible from the foot-end of the bed and I haven't seen any criticism of it anywhere.

Walking up to the bed you go down a step and then bend under the staircase (1.60m), before reaching the head of the bed at 1.88m
Will probably be a tad claustrophobic, no?

I don't think so. It's basically a 4 sqm space with more headroom over the mattress (120-148 cm) than you will find in many boats twice as heavy and three times as expensive (e.g. Fairline Targa 53). The "opening" to the port area of the cabin is 120-125 cm wide in total, so not claustrophobic either. Bending under the salon walkway (not the staircase) is hardly worse than having to crawl up some steps to reach the bed side in a traditional bow located Master's Cabin.

Also lying across the boat is something I don't see often in plans. Is that ok in a swell? not sure.

Fairly standard in most sports cruisers up to 40-45 ft. Princess V39 has it this way as do Fairline Targa 38. Also add Prestige 420 and 450 to mention just two very popular Flybridge boats.

 

[kashurst]

One thing to bear in mind with the bed across the boat is to raise the head end a few inches above the feet end. When everyone goes to bed the boat will list a bit. Our first boat was a 1980 Princess 37 and the master cabin had a bed like this. Pretty good layout overall with hindsight.

 

[jfm]

I think the 1600 headroom at the point you enter the cabin, and I guess a dwarf 1550 high door, is going to do much harm to the appeal of this. I'd want to redesign it to remove that feature, but of course I don't know the design constraints

A little multi-functionality as per Whitelighter's call

I'd urge caution here. Multifunctionality is all very well on a VW camper van but arguably luxury in this context, at the price of a 40+ foot new boat, requires an absence of convertibility. Arguably, almost nothing should convert on a big mobo

 

[kashurst]

I think the door into the cabin is at 2000mm opposite the wardrobe. The 1600mm door is a cupboard revealing under the stairs.

 

[Hugin]

I think the door into the cabin is at 2000mm opposite the wardrobe. The 1600mm door is a cupboard revealing under the stairs.

Yep, exactly!
Will return shortly with some illustrative pics

 

[jfm]

I think the door into the cabin is at 2000mm opposite the wardrobe. The 1600mm door is a cupboard revealing under the stairs.

Ah ok thanks, my mistake sorry. I did look at that and wonder where are the stairs that relate to the "storage under stairs". The stairs aren't drawn but I see now that they must go down as you move from left to right on the drawing. Thanks

 

[jimmy_the_builder]

Bed arrangement looks wrong to me, sorry. The actual quality of sleep is the *most* important thing to deliver with a cabin. Your V39/Targa 38 examples aren't good, because the mid cabin on these boats is not the master cabin. In your sketch it seems to me that one person is always trapped in the bed at night - so what if they need to get up to use the loo? Trample over the other occupant? And where does the bedding go, if there's nowhere for it to hang over the side of the bed to provide a nice comfy gravity pull? Imho I think you need to move the bed slightly forward to create an admittedly tiny gap on either side of the bed, and you need to move the heads bulkhead into the heads a bit to provide similar slide space at the foot of the bed. There's no point providing fab storage, a convertible dressing table/desk et al if the basic function of the cabin ie sleeping is heavily compromised.