Sleeping on the Marinaut

C

C-Nile

New member
In the past year, Betty and I have slept a total of 29 nights on our Marinaut, and we continue to love it. We sleep very comfortably with the set-up as shown in our photo album.

The Hypervent has prevented condensation from forming under our berth cushion. We recommend installing it just like the manufacturer recommended.

The Mascoat Delta-T has prevented or significantly limited condensation from forming on the cabin walls, as well as keeping the cabin and cabin walls cooler on hot, sunny days. On very hot and humid nights when the berth temperature is greater then 75 degrees, our installation of a 2-speed, Caframo fan (model 747) has been a welcome addition to the berth. Using only .59 amps, we can run it all night without fear of significantly draining our house battery.
 
Very good info. I went to your gallery and found even more good info.

Thanks, I will use your data when we get out next boat.

Rick
 
Flyer":2vbaukvo said:
Very good info. I went to your gallery and found even more good info.

Thanks, I will use your data when we get out next boat.

Rick
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Thanks! I'm trying my best to help others

Rich
 
We have reached a milestone for us in our new Marinaut: 31 nights spent on our boat in the past year -- 12 nights this year. We reaffirm our findings:

1) We continue to use the topper as described in our photo album, rotating it as needed, and it continues to provide excellent padding in conjunction with our sleeping bag.

2) We sleep on top of the cloth side of the sleeping bag, using it as a bed sheet/topper on hot nights (it feels cooler). On cool nights, we sleep in the fleece side of the bag.

3) The electric fan we placed in the berth is a necessity in our view, and makes a tremendous difference on warm nights.

4) Hypervent has eliminated our condensation issues under the berth cushions

5) Mascoat Delta-T has virtually eliminated condensation on the cabin and Berth walls

6) The Lewmar hatch with self-supporting hinge is easy to use and it's screen keeps out insects.

7) We spend most of our overnights in transient berths, so to keep warm on cold nights, we prefer use our Caframo electric heater, which keeps the entire cabin and enclosed cockpit area warm. It's a toss up, though, what we like better: sleep at night with the heater on low, or using our second sleeping bag as a blanket down to the high-forties in temperature. Either way, it is very enjoyable.

9) My wife and I continue to prefer sleeping with our heads facing toward the bow. We are swimming in space so to speak. I suppose the only negative of sleeping that way is that there are only a few inches above our heads, but it does not seem confining. We look up and see the hatch, we look back, and the cabin looms large in the distance. It took us about one or two nights to initially get used to it, but after awhile, our minds adjusted, and the berth and cabin area we perceive seemed large.

We are very well pleased with our sleeping arrangement
 
June 2013 update.
The Hypervent installation raised the berth cushions one inch. As the cushions began to break in after two seasons, we tended to sink slightly. The Wamsutta bed pad rolled up the sides and placed our heads closer to the berth ceiling. My wife and I felt more pushed toward the middle of the berth. So we removed the Wamsutta pad, and now sleep only on top of one sleeping bag. What wonderful night's sleep we are having with no pressure points. We could sleep on one side for hours without that side going numb. The bed felt like it was five feet wide again, and we did not feel closed in by the ceiling. What we learned from this experience is that the cushions do break in slightly over time, which is a good thing, and that because something works excellently at one point in time, does not mean it will always be that way. Recently, we were sleeping with temperatures in the mid 50's, and we used a second sleeping bag, as we did in Annacortes, WA, for our top cover. We were as warm as toast. Conditions in Mattituck, NY were humid, yet we had no condensation in the berth or under the cushions. We do crack open the hatch window slightly to remove excess moisture. The Mascoat Delta-T and Hypervent continue to do the job as condenstation is nearly nonexistent inside our cabin with the exception of on the interior surface of our windows.

Rich
 
Rich,

Do you leave the side windows open at all, or (I can't remember if) the front window(s)?

On my 22 Cruiser, I always leave the front center window open at the (about 1 inch) point where it can still be latched, and the side windows open if it is not rainy. Of course the forward hatch is also open to the latchpoint, and it is extremely rare that I get any moisture build up. The Mascoat Delta-T still sounds like a good upgrade to before I get into the extreme weather edges of the country.

Thanks for sharing. Your threads are always very helpful.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

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Hello Harvey,
Thank you for your kind words, and I enjoy your posts, too. We have a lot of mosquitos and no-see-ums ( a very small biting gnat ) in New England, so with the exception of the center window, all windows are screened. At night, we snap all our canvas window covers in place, and I do leave the side windows open a few inches. However, due to the canvas covers in place, it helps to lessen inside window condensation, which is the main reason for leaving the windows open. We leave our hatch open anywhere from a crack to as much as eight inches, which is dependant upon the outside temperature. Our hatch is screened, which is a nice feature of a Lewmar hatch. When we were in the PNW, the water temperature was so cool, that we had a terrible time with condensation under the berth cushions. This was completely eliminated with Hypervent. However, our boating season is May 1 through October 15, where the water temperature can reach as high as 70 degrees or more in Long Island Sound. So condensation is mainly an issue early in the season.

Rich
 
We set a record in 2013 for sleeping on the boat: 21 nights, which beat out trip to Washington for our 2011 inaugural cruise.

We still sleep head first in the berth. We found that after the berth cushions broke in slightly, we no longer needed the Wamsutta pad. We added 1 1/2" memory foam underneath our 40 degree F. extra long sleeping bag. We sleep soundly. We also found that our second 40 degree sleeping bag was way too hot for New England.

It has been our third season, and we still love sleeping in our boat. There continues to be absolutely no mold or mildew physically present, and the boat smells clean and fresh. We think that Les Lampman's choice of applying enamel paint on the inside of the cabin was very wise, because it is much easier to keep clean, and offers less opportunity for unpleasant organisms to attach to its surface. We just love our berth, and have to give credit to Dave Thompson who wisely chose such an open and cheerful design for the Marinaut.

Lastly, we discovered something very important. My wife sleeps in the middle toward the starboard side of the berth, and is 5'2" tall. I am 6' and sleep on the Port side. We discovered that we only need to extend the berth with the dinette back cushion and leave the center portion of the berth unextended. My wife Betty finds it is much easier to get in and out of the berth, as do I, and she does not need that extra length.


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that's pretty inspirational and a great post. Good feedback for the Marinauts too. Already gets me excited for next season. Betty Ann looks great on the water and I really think the camperback color in your album compliments her nicely.
 
DuckDogTitus":75ar131p said:
that's pretty inspirational and a great post. Good feedback for the Marinauts too. Already gets me excited for next season. Betty Ann looks great on the water and I really think the camperback color in your album compliments her nicely.
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Thank you! I'll be sure to let my wife Betty know, because she picked out the color. Betty was not interested in boating to the extent that I was, and now she is, because she made all the decisions on interior and exterior colors. She also gave a lot of feedback to Les Lampman on things such as having two steps in the gunnels and having the copilot seat slide forward/backward. So we shared in the selection process, and we both got what we wanted.

CD 22 Cruisers are equally beautiful boats, but it is always sad when our boats are put up for the season. We won't be able to use our boat until May 1, 2014. New England has a short boating season.

Rich
 
As most of you are aware, the Marinaut's berth is open to the cabin, unlike most boats, albeit there have been a few C-Dory owners who cut their bulkheads to accomplish this objectives. There is an excellent medical reason for this type of arrangement: if one has Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD,) it can be of great benefit if one sleeps with one's head toward the bow. I have GERD, and found that when I slept with my head toward the stern, my body was at a slight, downhill angle, which exacerbated my condition. The same was true when I had my CD-16. The extra-long berth in the Marinaut's cabin achieved through utilizing the dinette seat cushions affords a 6-foot tall person the space he needs to sleep with his head toward the bow, while maintaining a slightly uphill angle of the body, which as everyone knows who has GERD, is more beneficial. I would go so far to say that in my opinion, if anyone with a C-Dory has GERD, and wants to sleep overnight in their boats, setting up a similar configuration would be highly beneficial.

Rich
 
I often sleep with my head toward the bow in my C-Dory (such as when my buddy was on board and sleeping in the main cabin which made the bow end of the V-berth higher than the stern end). I don't have the cutout bulkhead.

Maybe this doesn't work for two or taller people and so makes it unique to the Marinaut?
 
Sunbeam":2pioaw9h said:
I often sleep with my head toward the bow in my C-Dory (such as when my buddy was on board and sleeping in the main cabin which made the bow end of the V-berth higher than the stern end). I don't have the cutout bulkhead.

Maybe this doesn't work for two or taller people and so makes it unique to the Marinaut?
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It won't work unless you cut out your bulkhead as a few other C-Brats have done. I am nearly 6 feet tall and my wife is 5'3". We have no problem with space for my wife and I. Actually, when I had my CD-16 cruiser, I slept with my head toward the bow, and my feet extended into the cabin and on top of a cooler. A few C-Brats have configured their CD-16 Cruisers with a similar set up. The point is there is a lot more space with this arrangement than one would think. The key is to be able to extend the berth into the cabin area. Logistically, I think everyone needs to closely look at their current berth to see if it can be made amenable to such a configuration. Last year, my wife and I spent 21 nights on our boat sleeping in this manner, and we are now looking forward to our fourth season. Honestly, with my condition, sleeping in the berth with my head toward the stern would not be possible, and would adversely impact my health. I am writing this post to inform people that there are alternatives for people with GERD who want to sleep comfortable in their boats.
 
C-Nile":1ka8b2oo said:
I am writing this post to inform people that there are alternatives for people with GERD who want to sleep comfortable in their boats.
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I understand. I don't have the same issue, but I still don't like to sleep with my head lower than my feet. It just sounded like you were saying that the ability to sleep head-to-bow was unique to the Marinaut (but I may have read that wrong). I was mentioning that I can and do sleep with my head toward the bow in the V-berth of my 22 Cruiser - without a bulkhead cutout - so it is possible. That doesn't mean everyone (or every two) could of course.

BTW, when I slept on the Marinaut, I used the cabin sole (with one of the cushy "car camping" type Thermarest pads) and that, too, was super comfortable. I liked having the door open and my head at that end for a sky view :thup (Other occupant was in V-berth so I had a good "tilt" angle even with my head aft.) In fact, after that I no longer "convert" the dinette table in my 22 Cruiser if I (or another) wants to sleep in the main cabin. The sole berth is super comfortable with the self-inflating pad (which is easy to store in the V-berth during the day and was sized as if it were made for the boat), there's no way to "fall off" the berth, and.... well, I just liked it. Nice to keep the table up, and the dinette foot area is a built in "bedside table." Probably not everyone's cup of tea though.

I like how these boats lend themselves to so many options.
 
I agree with you Sunbeam. And I was not being specific as to the type of boat. Having an open bulkhead is certainly not unique to the Marinaut. Several people with CD 22's have had similar success when they knocked out their bulkheads, too. And I'll bet that their open bulkhead was the genesis for Dave's design of the interior of the Marinaut. My whole goal was to give people something to think about who have GERD. Further, I realize that there are a great many factors as to whether or not a CD 22 berth is suitable for a head towards the bow sleeping a arrangement. It all depends if one person is sleeping or two, or how tall a person is. In the case of one person sleeping in the CD 22 berth, a person can sleep diagonally. In fact, I was able to sleep diagonally in the berth of my CD 16! For those people who have Gerd, it is a significant affliction. Sleeping with one's head below one's feet is actually quite dangerous for people so afflicted. My goal was to inform people that there are alternatives: knock out a CD 22 bulkhead if you have to, buy a Marinaut, or find an altogether different boat that would allow for the proper sleeping arrangement.

I also agree with you about the flexibility of C Dorys. It's amazing how creative people have been and customizing their boats to their needs. In many ways, our Marinaut is really quite similar to a 22 cruiser that has been highly customized. If it were not for C-brats, and all the wonderful ideas for customization provided on this site, there would not have been a Marinaut.
 
My wife, Marilyn, and I just bought the first Marinaut "Dave's Boat" now known as Seeker. She is all ready to go. We are putting her in the water (Puget Sound) on Monday. We have been reading your posts with great interest and are grateful for all the work you have put into them. We are wondering what sort of sleeping arrangement you finally settled on after all the things you tried. Would you be willing to share this information with us?
Gary and Marilyn
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On our C-Dory we slept with our heads facing he rear of the boat. I would recommend adding a four inch memory foam available online through Wal-Mart. The kind we purchased had two different layers of memory foam one being more dense than the other. One layer a cream color and the other was a light grey color. They were bonded together. Then using your current cushions as a template mark the foam with a Sharpie magic marker and use an electric knife to cut the memory foam to size. Then we had a canvas guy cover the memory foam with a non slip vinyl on the bottom and canvas on the sides with zippers and the same canvas on top. Then we just used a comforter on the bottom to sleep on and another comforter to cover us. If you buy two different weight comforters when its warm use the lighter one on top and when it's colder sleep on the light one and use the heavier one on top. I don't have a boat exactly like yours but I've done this on a couple boats and we sleep a lot better on top of the memory foam.
D.D.
 
We sleep feet forward. We use the stock V-berth cushions, a couple of sleeping bags, and a comforter or blankets depending on the season.

We find the stock v-berth cushion to be quite comfortable, but then we prefer a firmer mattress at home.

We also did not cut out the bulkhead. We prefer a separation of the sleeping space from the "living" space. It makes the berth more private and "cozy".

IMO, the clearance in the berth from the mattress to ceiling (on the 22 anyway) is not a whole lot. Adding 4 or more inches of mattress would seem to cut a significant amount of that out and make things maybe too "cozy" in there.
 
I agree that adding 4" to the height of the mattress would seem to make that space "tight". Seems like with that much topper you could just use it to replace the existing pads and be fine, of course that is just my opinion from here and YMMV.

As to head forward or feet forward, I used to do the feet forward, (next to the anchor locker) but after an injury last summer, making it nearly impossible to crawl in, and turn around and then get into the bag, I discovered:

1. It was much easier to just crawl into the space, (head to anchor), and then
2. With my head at the front of the boat it is nice to be able to look out through the cabin and out the cabin door. Much better view. Much easier access in and out.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

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