Lee Berths for the Aft Cabin Jos Sonneville 2/1/2004 Hull #: 33
This article is from Jos Sonneville, a C380 captain residing in Holland. He gets out into “blue water” environments and finds a better rough-water sleeping set-up is helpful.–Warren
The aft cabin with the wide, comfortable bed is not an easy place to sleep when sailing through the night especially with moderate or serious seas. While it is possible to use, for example, sail bags to create a space where you do not roll around, it is not ideal. So I had been thinking about creating two lee berths in the aft cabin, without structurally changing the cabin.
Photo 3 shows an artist’s impression of the concept I came up with: on top of the mattress custom-made canvas lee-cloth ‘cocoons’ are installed. They are fixed on the bed itself by 1-inch webbing that is passed through stainless steel loops
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Several of our 380/390 captains on our Sailnet email discussion group have in-mast furling and have mentioned how they like the arrangement. Some of those without this feature, including me, have usually responded with some “buts”: but there are no battens [so less sailing efficiency], but there’s less sail area [46 sq. ft. less: about 13%], but they jam, but, etc. Some said that a better alternative is in-boom furlers, which have become a lot more reliable, and are much less expensive to retrofit. Of course, buying a new Catalina with either system installed is better than retrofitting; here, in-boom costs more than in-mast. [For the latest on in-boom furlers, see Practical Sailor, Oct. 1, 2001].
I had seen some 380’s with in-mast furling, but had not really dug deeper. Then Earle and Barbara Ellefsen [C380 # 271 “Valkyrie”],
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We all have automatic bilge pumps, but how many times have we actually operated our manual pumps? The location of the pump handle is critical, especially if the crew must pump for extended periods. This operation should have a minimal impact on the helm. And the pump itself was quite an obstacle to entrance into the port lazarette. The solution was to relocate the pump to an area immediately aft of the port propane locker. It is a squeeze, but it fits in an area not otherwise useable. One of the existing hoses had to be replaced. The old pump opening in the cockpit was filled with the piece removed from the new position, glassed in and properly finished by a glass expert. One could never see the original installation! The result is much easier lazarette access, and the operating position
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