MacGregorSailors.com

Our first trip out in our 26x will be a week long trip to lake mead. 650 miles from home. what do you do for sleeping arrangements? It will be my wife and myself and our 15 yr old son. I"m 6'3 and found if I take the seat back out the v birth is ok. That allows us to look out the front vent??? Under the back is low, does that work just as well? Do many sleep up on the seats outside? Do you use bedding (blankets and sheets ) or a sleeping bag? Some have said they put foam under the cushions. Is that soft foam for comfort or hard foam like insulation sheets for the housing industry? I'm looking for a good night sleep and need help!!!

We sllep in all ares

Depending on the head count I sleep in the cockpit with just a blanket unless its raining, then I crawl into the aft berth.

My wife prefers the v-berth because of head room. We just use blankets, lay on one and another over you, when we first got the boat my wife had sewn fitted sheets for the v- and aft beth. We used them for a couple years and decided it was too much work.

We try to keep overnighting as simple as possible, using a sheet over the cushions, with another sheet & covers as needed in the rear birth. Personally, we find the cushions comfortable.

The front birth works well for a tall person if you remove the back rest of the dinette.
We have some sleeping bags, but theyre still in the original packing and havent been used yet. Just hasnt been cold enough with the use of a small thermostat controlled cabin heater.

..

We prefer sleeping on the Vee birth. Love having those two windows overhead when we wake in the morning. We remove the dinette backrest, and have made a spacer board to place across the forward part of the walkway, between the port side settee and the dinette seat. Backrest cushion goes on this board. We also made a Vee birth foam mattress pad in a fitted sack, made from bed sheet material, which makes the mattress much more comfortable. Since we usually go overnight without others on board, we use the king berth for gear stowage. I've removed the pads from that area, and replaced with removable carpet. This gives a couple inches more in headroom. Inches count with the Mac.

Im 6'1" and just fit in the rear berth, port side. I think you will be tight for space there. Give that one to the youngster and take the starboard V berth with seatback removed as posted. Admiral to the port.

We sllep in all ares

Even allowing for spelling errors, is there a little bit of surrepticious showing-off going on here??????


Tried the V-berth (extended version), but we prefer the aft berth. The kids use the V-Berth. I'm lucky in that my superior regards the width (ie, ability to get away from me) more highly than the headroom available directly under the footwell. I get the starboard side, so no complaints.

Comfort - Try a thin hard hiking mattress (1/2 - 1"); then the Mac standard cushions; then eggshell foam over the top of that. I'm 110 kgs (240 lbs) and I don't touch down at all.

Eggshell Foam


We put a sheet down and then use a doonah over the top. The kids have their sleeping bags (usually openned right out).

You can search "Foam Sweet Foam" for some other options on foam cushions - click on 'search all terms'

We prefer the vee berth. Two kids go in the aft berth and one in the cockpit (we have a full enclosure so he sleeps there rain or shine). As far as I'm concerned the aft berth on a X is too tight for adults. It's left for the kids.

We use the vee berth with the stbrd seat back removed and the port side extended to match it's length. This makes the berth quite roomy. We have a fabric divider that mounts at the compression pole giving us privacy.

We have stiffer foam in our cushions than the terrible factory stuff, but even so we supplement that with a topper of egg crate and memory foam, 2" total. This makes the berth comfortable.

We use sleeping bags all around. The boys just use their individual bags. My wife and I use a modified pair of bags. They were std flat (not mummy) style bags. I zipped them together and then cut out a vee section at the foot in the center. Then I brought the cut edges together and re-sewed the bag back up. Now it is a custom fitted vee berth shaped bag for two. With the vee berth extended you can get reasonable foot room for two and the bag does not need to come to a point.

Everyone also has a fleece blanket to use with their sleeping bag as needed. Sometimes you use both, sometimes just the bag, sometimes the fleece alone with the bag folded back. It all depends on the person and the day. Most everyone also has a pair of smaller pillows to use as they want.


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We each also have nice storage organizers now. In the first picture you can see the stored board used to extend the port side vee berth.


http://home.comcast.net/~duane.dunn/ima ... CT0077.JPG


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I remove the Port side cushions and sleep on the settee. Throw a sheet over the cushion and use what ever cover the temperature dictates. Easy access and easy up if I need to take care of any business during the night. I use a 12V fan purchased at walmart for air movement and white noise. Sleep like a dead man.

On the X, I slept on the extended starboard side of the v-berth and 4' 10" Barb slept on the port side. It was really nice to look up at the stars and the anchor light reflecting off the Windex. The table was my "night stand"

But I really like the 7-1/2 foot long quarter berths in the C-18 even better. Due to the side decks and sloped cabin sides, we can still look up and see the stars and anchor light.

On both boats, we've had the Hella Turbo Fans. I sleep like a rock with the gentle breeze and white noise from them running on low, and the boat gently rocking.

--
Moe

I bought a travasak for the V birth. It has high count sheets velcro tabbed in. And it has a side marked winter and the other marked summer. So you can use it year round.It is really comfortable and the Admiral ranks it as the best mod. Cost is in the 200 dollar range, got mine off of Ebay for 52 dollars. They are made in V shape as well as queen and king. Built for the RV crowd.

I have tried all possible configurations that seemed available: Depending on how ready I am to give up my sleeping place to a visitor according to the rules of hospitality: when alone, V berth starboard side. If I have one visitor, I move to the rear birth, port side (easier to squeeze myself in and out.) If that place is taken, Rear birth, starboard. Next comes lowering the table and sleeping there. Next: cockpit. And I slept in the dinghy one night, at the end of the pier on Devil's Island, away from snorers.

There seems to be a hierarchy here.

Captain Steve wrote:I bought a travasak for the V birth. It has high count sheets velcro tabbed in. And it has a side marked winter and the other marked summer. So you can use it year round.It is really comfortable and the Admiral ranks it as the best mod. Cost is in the 200 dollar range, got mine off of Ebay for 52 dollars. They are made in V shape as well as queen and king. Built for the RV crowd.

Nice! And they are on sale now here (2 other colors also available):

http://www.adventurerv.net/travasak-vbe ... -p-53.html

As I've noted here before, wife and I sleep in the V-berth, using the back of the forward dinette seat laid down between the dinette seat and the port settee to extend the port side of V-berth. Like Moe did, we enjoy the 'skylight' windows and use the dinette table as our nightstand.

The boys, when they are on board, sleep in the aft berths, on either side of the fuel tank enclosure (which affords them some limited privacy).

When I'm on my own, I sleep on a Coleman inflatable twin mattress that fits nicely on top of the lowered dinette table.

And Moe's right about the Hella Turbo Fans - they're the best you can get in terms of quality and they also draw far less current than any other fan I've ever found.

Checked into the 30 plus mods I have posted....and, sure enough, there is one addressing my version of the conversion of the forward dinette seat back to a V-berth extention. Another is unique...my cockpit conversion to double berth during warm weather. Check em out.
http://macgregorsailors.com/cgi-bin/mod ... record=675

http://macgregorsailors.com/cgi-bin/mod ... record=655
I prefer the V-berth with my extension...feet to narrow bow-end of the berth. We added an additional dimpled mattress pad...2". Blankets etc dependant on season, venue etc. I also have a mod which uses quick-release pins to release the passageway ladder...for better access to the aft berth...which I use for gear....stowed on WalMart snow sleds! Jack