V-berth mattress pad options?

[dlandersson]

Ok, the factory v-berth mattress pad options are less and less satisfactory.

Anyone (and I'm sure there are) looked at options? More pad, etc.

[Danhux]

Some are using camping air mattresses, on top of the factory cushions.

[Spector]

Picked up a memory foam topper from Costco and cut it to fit. Vast improvement

[kurz]

Some are using camping air mattresses, on top of the factory cushions.

I have the 3cm air matress UNDER the factory one. I sleep great...

[Tomfoolery]

Some are using camping air mattresses, on top of the factory cushions.

I do that. Two twin size (singles), one on the galley table, the other in the vee berth. At least on the , the air mattress takes care of the lack of compliance in the OEM cushions on the table, and spans the gaps from the cushions, which don't quite compete the puzzle as well as I'd like. A 12VDC Coleman inflater works great, by the way, and even blows up my inflatable toy dinghy that actually keeps my fat adze out of the drink.

My OEM cushions are beat, so I'm watching to see what ideas come from this thread.

[sailboatmike]

Have a look at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sailrite

This will give you all the good info on making and fitting cushions and planety of other great boat projects.

[Don T]

Hello,
We opted to replace the foam with sturdier stuff. Way better BUT that was back when I was in my 50's. Nowadays we add a memory foam pad cut to size. My hips thank me.

[ris]

We put down dri-dek to keep moisture out of the mattress. We bought the high density polyurethane foam that is 4" thick, 36 wide and 82 long. You can get it several places including sailrite. It is a firm foam which we like. We used spray glue to stick the two pieces together then cut it to the shape of the V-Berth. Even after sleeping on it nightly for 9 months it is still firm today. We did extend the port side of the v-berth to match the length of the starboard side. Its under the mod page under v-berth extension by ris. There are other air vent products beside dri-dek that is just what we used.

[C Buchs]

We purchased outdoor foam from http://www.thefoamfactory.com. They had the best prices. So far it's been great. Huge improvement.

Jeff

[Herschel]

We purchased outdoor foam from http://www.thefoamfactory.com. They had the best prices. So far it's been great. Huge improvement.

Jeff

We did the same thing, but the upholsterer we paid to cut and sew new fabric covering talked us into just adding the foam we had to the old by glueing the two together. That made the reulting V-berth split cushions twice as thick. So, it is really nice for sleeping, but it does eat up some space under the anchor locker for foot room. Just saying, if you get thicker, it does take up some of the clearance for feet. But, we are still glad we did it.

[Starscream]

To fix up our mattresses, I unzipped the covers, removed the foam, and had the covers dry-cleaned. I bought new memory foam (I think it was 4" but it might have been less...I measured the original and ordered the same thickness), and using the old foam as a template I cut the new foam to size and stuffed it back in. I put a layer of plastic duct-wrap on top of the foam in a half-arsed attempt to keep the foam dry if the top of the covers got wet.

The old foam that I removed and threw out was really gross. If you haven't done it yet, you probably should for health reasons.

End result: so/so. That thickness of memory foam placed on fiberglass feels comfortable at first, but you rapidly sink down in it and are left with not much between you and the fiberglass. We ended up buying camping pads (not very thick, between a half inch and and inch, I think) and putting those directly on the fiberglass underneath the memory foam. The combination of the 1" camping pad and the new memory foam is quite comfortable, for us, but, um we are both, um, Canadian.

Once, while we were on an extended trip, the wife was having a bit of trouble sleeping, so we made a quick run to a camping store and bought an air mattress. That led to one of the funnier episodes, since we sleep in the aft berth and there ain't much "face-room". Once the air mattress was pumped up there was about 8" of airspace above the mattress down at the deep end of the berth, and my wife, bless her, gave it a shot. About halfway through the night, after not being able to bend her knees or even point her feet upward, she turned around and went in head-first (aft berth, remember), and had a good sleep that way. But the air mattress didn't last for a second night and that's when we found the camping pad solution.

It pays to buy a good camping pad, not just the $20 hard foam cheapie from Walmart. And, in retrospect, I probably wouldn't go with memory foam if I had to do it over. It sounds cool but it seems like it's really meant to go over something else that is soft, not hard fiberglass.

[LeePierce]

We bought one of those $200 memory foam mattresses on Amazon... with 3 types of foam.
Cut it to shape with an electric carving knife.
Went with 10 inch knowing it would make the feet tight in the V-birth, but I weigh 270 and did not want to sink through.
It made a HUGE difference, but, you can not put one foot on the other due to the flotation compartment under the anchor locker.
So I am either going to extend the sleeping area over the dinette seat so my feet are not under the anchor locker, or remove the flotation so I have room for my feet.
I realize that takes some of the "safety" out of the boat, but I am a Texas lake sailor, almost always can see both shores.
I think I can live with the very remote possibility of going turtle easier than having no room for my feet.

On a related note, any one in the Dallas Ft' worth area need a set of original V-birth pads, or the rear pads... Mine are in very acceptable shape, and I am tired of storing them.
Figured I would give them away before I throw them away.

[Herschel]

We bought one of those $200 memory foam mattresses on Amazon... with 3 types of foam.
Cut it to shape with an electric carving knife.
Went with 10 inch knowing it would make the feet tight in the V-birth, but I weigh 270 and did not want to sink through.
It made a HUGE difference, but, you can not put one foot on the other due to the flotation compartment under the anchor locker.
So I am either going to extend the sleeping area over the dinette seat so my feet are not under the anchor locker, or remove the flotation so I have room for my feet.
I realize that takes some of the "safety" out of the boat, but I am a Texas lake sailor, almost always can see both shores.
I think I can live with the very remote possibility of going turtle easier than having no room for my feet.

I guess we need to have a "foot locker" in place of the anchor locker!

[Seapup]

We replaced all of our foam, it really was not too expensive or difficult, just used a standard knife for cutting.

http://www.thefoamfactory.com/mattress/ ... ional.html


I like a fairly firm mattress & the 35lb firmness was perfect for mattress and the 50lb for seat bottoms to me. I would guess the factory foam is around a 12lb firmness, very very soft.


BTW, we used the aft berth for sleeping and ended up storing the V berth cushions at home and laying a piece of carpet there. Opened the boat up and made that area more functional for storage and moving around.

[BrianW]

I'm curious about the foam factory that some of you used. Did you pick 3 or 4 inch foam to fit in the existing covers? And did you pick the 35 or the 50 pound density.