Smallest room in the house: what's it for?

[Greenheart]

I was looking at the big Bavarias, not expecting to see much that I like, and I wasn't very surprised.

But...while expecting ten or twelve poor charter-customers to share two miniscule loo/showers, one variant of the 56-footer turns the port-side forward head compartment into...well, I really can't see what it is...

View attachment 33787

...looks like a cupboard with a coat-rack and a comfortable seat. Is it an isolation-chamber to enable charter-skippers to escape their boozed-up customers?

 

[Lakesailor]

Looks like a separate shower to me.

 

[nigelmercier]

A shower, surely?

 

[Greenheart]

Looks like a separate shower to me.

Ah! Could be. How thoughtful of those lavishly indulgent folk at Bavaria.

And, I note that there appears to be a porta-potti lurking under the berth in the punishment-cell, in the fo'c'sle.

I wonder if charter skippers ever get a shower too, or just a bucket on a rope and a cake of saltwater soap for each trip.

 

[Tranona]

Ah! Could be. How thoughtful of those lavishly indulgent folk at Bavaria.

And, I note that there appears to be a porta-potti lurking under the berth in the punishment-cell, in the fo'c'sle.

I wonder if charter skippers ever get a shower too, or just a bucket on a rope and a cake of saltwater soap for each trip.

No different from the good old days when your hired hand lived in the fo'c'sle. Were a special breed - short, wiry, lived on ships biscuits and never seen in the middle part of the boat. Would have cooked owners meal on a coal range in the galley just in front of the mast. Of course if the crew worked on a big stinky then chances are his cubbyhole would be in the stern shared with the jetski and washing machine. Those do at least have their own entrances off the patio so that the takeaway pizza driver can deliver the goods without disturbing the owner.

 

[Greenheart]

...Those do at least have their own entrances off the patio so that the takeaway pizza driver can deliver the goods without disturbing the owner.

Brilliant!

Actually I quite like the very modest servant's separate quarters in the Bavaria's bows...as long as it is servant singular. Looks like the only private spot aboard.

I always liked galley-forward layouts. A word from me in favour of Spirit Yachts is the totally separate galley, can't remember which hull size. I don't much like steam, stinks and dirty dinner-plates piled in the sitting-room.

I always wondered why the rather limited use made of the bridgedeck area aboard most examples of the Prout Quasar, is monopolised by the galley, when that could have been inserted into the rear of one of the hulls, with a whacking big fan evacuating the superheated kitchen-aura, and the sous-chef's sweat.

I'm going to see if SWMBO can be squeezed through the pet-door into the Osprey's forepeak, to poach my morning egg. Stuff like that simply doesn't belong on deck.

View attachment 33799

 

[30boat]

My father used to own a 42footer gaffer that had a forepeak bunk and crapper for the hired hand.I remember the man cooking for all of us and then doing the washing up.Those were the days.

 

[Tranona]

I'm going to see if SWMBO can be squeezed through the pet-door into the Osprey's forepeak, to poach my morning egg. Stuff like that simply doesn't belong on deck.

View attachment 33799

If you asked Dylan nicely he would probably make you a working fold up galley to go in there with a timer on the door so it opens when the egg is done. Could even build in a knife that comes across automatically and cuts the top off.

 

[alant]

No different from the good old days when your hired hand lived in the fo'c'sle. Were a special breed - short, wiry, lived on ships biscuits and never seen in the middle part of the boat. Would have cooked owners meal on a coal range in the galley just in front of the mast. Of course if the crew worked on a big stinky then chances are his cubbyhole would be in the stern shared with the jetski and washing machine. Those do at least have their own entrances off the patio so that the takeaway pizza driver can deliver the goods without disturbing the owner.

I seem to remember one of the French AWB, a 52.5, having one of those, in lieu of a chain locker.
You got in via the hatch at the bow.
That was about 15yrs ago.

 

[Tranona]

I seem to remember one of the French AWB, a 52.5, having one of those, in lieu of a chain locker.
You got in via the hatch at the bow.
That was about 15yrs ago.

That is what the Bavaria above has. Quite common. Just making the point that stinkys - look at the big Aquastars for example have the cubbyhole in the stern.

 

[Greenheart]

Surely the worst thing about the fo'c'sle berth, and the reason the paid hands are posted there, is the exaggerated motion in rough conditions? On that basis, the motor-yacht's crew getting an aft-cabin must seem a boon.

Come to think of it, there's quite a bit of SWMBO-space under my rear deck, too...

 

[Malabar]

Great quote from Winston Churchill: "I am sitting in the smallest room in the house and have your letter before me. Very soon it will be behind me." Good man!

 

[WestWittering]

Doesn't the big Hanse still have that - saw it at the boat show. Also Eric Taberly mentions it on Pen Duick as where their Marin used to live and cooked for them.

Di

 

[bbg]

Surely the worst thing about the fo'c'sle berth, and the reason the paid hands are posted there, is the exaggerated motion in rough conditions? On that basis, the motor-yacht's crew getting an aft-cabin must seem a boon.

In a power boat, aft is where the machinery is. Ask the paid crew how much they enjoy having the genset running all night (right next to them) so the air con can keep the boat cool.

 

[Keen_Ed]

Surely the worst thing about the fo'c'sle berth, and the reason the paid hands are posted there, is the exaggerated motion in rough conditions? On that basis, the motor-yacht's crew getting an aft-cabin must seem a boon.

ITYF that most boats/paid hands only use the foc'sle cabin when anchored. On passage/delivery, you tend not to have too many people on the boat, so one of the main cabins is free.

 

[Greenheart]

In a power boat, aft is where the machinery is. Ask the paid crew how much they enjoy having the genset running all night (right next to them) so the air con can keep the boat cool.

Ah. Hadn't thought of that.

There was a biggish motorboat on a mooring with her engine or generator droning away when I set out the other day...several hours later she was still there, the same noise coming out. Not sure where the fun is, in a boat which can't move (or even stay still) without a lot of oil-burning noise.