Scatter Cushions

[Tidewaiter2]

I don't know,I don't know, is it a boat or a sewaligo?
T2 came with 3x thin shaped pvc cushions for cockpit-P,S, and helm seats. Like those on the berths in a Jeanneau 35 One design racer. Totally decadent, but then the first owner was a Scot!

The two blue cushions with rope handles which also came with, double as crew pillows fowr the Hand(s) in the fowepeak fowr the summer/ conservatory sofa seat cushions winter. Deloused when taken orf the boat i, of course. Other SIX reployed to garden use!

With the two acrylic canvas cushions we bought for our Wayfarer trip from Southwold to Hamburgsund back in 1998('es orf again, Yawn) to rest their hips on in the forepeak, wot more does a crew want???

Yottin's goin' to the dawgs, Cawwthews, another tankard of pink gin, for GAWDS sake, Hrumph, snort, Hrumph, apoplectic fit, etc. etc.

I weally do not compwend, dontcha know, they'll be letting women into the Squadwon next:livid::livid:

 

[Hydrozoan]

48, surely?

I think Grumpybear is correct with 216 cushions if the cushion number varied with volume (i.e third power of L) as you originally suggested. But I believe it varies with area not volume, meaning 6x6=36 cushions - at least until the length increases so much that you may have a second deck to take into consideration.

 

[wilkinsonsails]

Looking at that pic I wonder how they are secured to the seats.? Velcrr maybe the boat doesn't layover.

 

[John the kiwi]

I think Grumpybear is correct with 216 cushions if the cushion number varied with volume (i.e third power of L) as you originally suggested. But I believe it varies with area not volume, meaning 6x6=36 cushions - at least until the length increases so much that you may have a second deck to take into consideration.

Cant let this go by! Double length means double beam if in same ratio so 2 dimension horizontal surfaces are 4 times bigger for 2x length therefore need 6 cushions for 27 ft but 24 cushions for 54 ft to get same cushion to surface area ratio!
Second deck idea is irrelevant as the lower decks can supply their own damn cushions - and keep them out of sight!
The confounding factor as far as i can see from looking at advertising photos, like the one earlier in the thread, is that the longer the boat the higher the probability of inappropriately dressed young women who obviously need a disproportionate number of cushions!
I can only theorise about this last bit though as young women strangely seem to find my 26 footer invisible!

 

[Hydrozoan]

Cant let this go by! Double length means double beam if in same ratio so 2 dimension horizontal surfaces are 4 times bigger for 2x length therefore need 6 cushions for 27 ft but 24 cushions for 54 ft to get same cushion to surface area ratio!
Second deck idea is irrelevant as the lower decks can supply their own damn cushions - and keep them out of sight!
The confounding factor as far as i can see from looking at advertising photos, like the one earlier in the thread, is that the longer the boat the higher the probability of inappropriately dressed young women who obviously need a disproportionate number of cushions!
I can only theorise about this last bit though as young women strangely seem to find my 26 footer invisible!

On this critical matter, you are correct - I was squaring the Basic Cushion Count (BCC) of 6 per 27ft when, as you say, I should have been squaring the length increase factor (2x2) and then multiplying that by the BCC; my apologies!

 

[Wansworth]

I wouldn't take 6 scatter cushions for a 27 foot as carved in stone, could be more or less.Personally its more a ratio linked to gross tonnage to give a more exact count,yours

 

[alan_d]

I wouldn't take 6 scatter cushions for a 27 foot as carved in stone, could be more or less.Personally its more a ratio linked to gross tonnage to give a more exact count,yours

Surely there must be a scatter-cushion calculator somewhere on the Jimmy Green website?

 

[Seajet]

Scatter cushion distribution, longitudinally and laterally, was taken into account by the Mercator Shelf design parameters at short range and Mercator Projection at a longer range.

Interestngly, both calculations when fed through an Enigma machine came out in perfect English ' Gentlemen on proper boats don't do scatter cushions, don'tya know...'

 

[Hydrozoan]

I wouldn't take 6 scatter cushions for a 27 foot as carved in stone, could be more or less.Personally its more a ratio linked to gross tonnage to give a more exact count,yours

No indeed, that would be an uncomfortably rigid position to take. I was just following the posts from your #34, proposing area not volume as the explanatory variable and - as JtK noted - getting my calculation sadly wrong in the process. In our case the SCR (Scatter Cushion Ratio) is 4/32ft.

 

[Poignard]

I think Shackleton on his trip to from Elephant Island to South Georgia would have given his right arm for a few scatter cushions.

Let me have his address and I'll send him some.

 

[Wansworth]

There ought to be some kind of limit to the number carried.Imagine offshore in a storm and the boat tips over 5he crew would be involved in a pillow fight!

 

[jfm]

Someone PMed me a link to this thread because I have researched cushions deeply and have accounted for 30% of the cushion segment of the nation's GDP in some years. The maths looks good to me. It gets more complex as you add space and decks though. As regards space, boats are a bit like Hong Kong: one definition of luxury is having space you don't know what to do with, and that particular space might not contain cushions. As regards decks, you get a step change in the square law when you add a deck. A 79'11 boat I kitted out has 65 scatter cushions (and 110 covers, to allow colour changes as the week progresses, but that doesn't matter here). Applying the BCC algorithm there should be 52, but the delta of 13 is accounted for by +17 cushions on the flybridge deck, minus 4 on the wasted space factor, thus proving the basic BCC is correctly stated at 6@27

 

[pmagowan]

We have a 28' boat and 6 cushions so I think the numbers are about right. I don't mind the ones we have as they make the cockpit more comfy when conditions dictate a G&T is in order. The one type of cushion I can't stand is the cabin berth scatter cushion of which we have none. These are the ones that sit on a bed to make it look pretty but have to be removed in order to use said bed. Their entire purpose is to have no purpose and require extra effort to use the bed for what it is intended. They should, when discovered, be fired out of a canon at the French coast.

p.s. I disagree with the calculation regarding extra space. As boat size increases you get extra space that has no purpose. These spaces have a higher cushion coefficient and thus add more to the numbers. I think once a sailing boat gets larger than 40' you will find this comes in to play. Look at it this way, if you have a seat that is never sat on then you can fill it with an unreasonable number of cushions and not have the problem of where to put them when you sit down.

 

[awol]

I'm beginning to understand Alice's state of mind when she stepped through the looking glass! I started this thread as a piss-take. The advertising blurb for the cushion bedecked Bendytoy was obviously aimed at a totally different sailing reality to mine. I can only imagine scatter cushions as impediments - always being picked up from the floor, being trapped in the spinnaker packing to be launched into the air, having to be constantly moved to get at the under bunk lockers, getting damp from oilies - but then one of the reasons I chose my boat was for its size, ideal for single-handed sailing and parking while big enough for a crew, and, though it hadn't occurred to me before, lack of purposeless extraneous space.
Perhaps the cushions do have a function on larger, open-plan, no hand-hold boats to soften the landing when the crew is thrown across the boat in "interesting" sailing weather?

 

[jfm]

I'm beginning to understand Alice's state of mind when she stepped through the looking glass! I started this thread as a piss-take. The advertising blurb for the cushion bedecked Bendytoy was obviously aimed at a totally different sailing reality to mine. I can only imagine scatter cushions as impediments - always being picked up from the floor, being trapped in the spinnaker packing to be launched into the air, having to be constantly moved to get at the under bunk lockers, getting damp from oilies - but then one of the reasons I chose my boat was for its size, ideal for single-handed sailing and parking while big enough for a crew, and, though it hadn't occurred to be before, lack of purposeless extraneous space.
Perhaps the cushions do have a function on larger, open-plan, no hand-hold boats to soften the landing when the crew is thrown across the boat in "interesting" sailing weather?

On the Alice aspect, it's interesting to reflect on the different perspectives from which we write posts awol. You write there as if (I think) the main purpose and use of your boat is being sailed, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that of course. Others, incl me at my particular life stage, see a boat as spending a lot of its time stopped. My time on board is perhaps 70% stopped at anchor, 20% stopped in port, and 10% underway - I've done only 1400nm in 2014 season but spent maybe 70 nights on board and genset hours > engine hours. This drives one's thinking about cushions and lots of other things. No big deal of course; just saying

 

[Pinnacle]

Someone PMed me a link to this thread because I have researched cushions deeply and have accounted for 30% of the cushion segment of the nation's GDP in some years. The maths looks good to me. It gets more complex as you add space and decks though. As regards space, boats are a bit like Hong Kong: one definition of luxury is having space you don't know what to do with, and that particular space might not contain cushions. As regards decks, you get a step change in the square law when you add a deck. A 79'11 boat I kitted out has 65 scatter cushions (and 110 covers, to allow colour changes as the week progresses, but that doesn't matter here). Applying the BCC algorithm there should be 52, but the delta of 13 is accounted for by +17 cushions on the flybridge deck, minus 4 on the wasted space factor, thus proving the basic BCC is correctly stated at 6@27

Classic!

 

[awol]

On the Alice aspect, it's interesting to reflect on the different perspectives from which we write posts awol. You write there as if (I think) the main purpose and use of your boat is being sailed, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that of course. Others, incl me at my particular life stage, see a boat as spending a lot of its time stopped. My time on board is perhaps 70% stopped at anchor, 20% stopped in port, and 10% underway - I've done only 1400nm in 2014 season but spent maybe 70 nights on board and genset hours > engine hours. This drives one's thinking about cushions and lots of other things. No big deal of course; just saying

I've probably spent a similar time on board this year, done about twice the mileage but at a much more sedate speed and anchoring is an overnight activity. Suspect that even if I had JFM's disposable income I would still get more kick from the travelling than the being there though if anyone wants to experiment by providing sufficient funds for a JFM style vessel then I would be willing to try .............