The stateroom is done–for now anyway. Getting our berth finished was a priority. The original plan was to have the berth done before we moved aboard on August 1. That didn’t happen. Plan B was to put down the sole in the main cabin and put our mattress there. That gave me more time to do the joinery for the berth in the main stateroom. I’ve decided that it is a hard fought battle for every square inch of flat surface in a boat.
We wanted to maximize the size of the berth and we were constrained by the door opening into the main saloon, the door into the scuttle room and the foremast which sits almost right in the middle of the room. We did have control over the height, but the stateroom doesn’t have that much headroom to begin with. I can just stand upright if I stand amidships with put my back against the aft wall and I turn my head sideways so it fits up between the deck beams. At the forward end of the stateroom I think the headroom is down to less than 5 feet.
We wanted sufficient headroom over the bunk and settled on 36 inched over the mattress. That meant we needed determine how thick the mattress would be. We decided that 4 inches of latex with a plastic spring set would be less than 6 inches. The deck and corresponding overhead slopes in the stateroom. The wide end of the bunk is at the aft end of the room which, given a level bunk, has the least headroom.
To have the biggest bunk, we decided to set the headroom at the foreward, small end of the bunk. That means less headroom at the head of the bunk, but the width of the bunk is slightly larger than a full size bead at the head and quite a bit narrower at the foot. A big benefit, however, is that the bunk is over 7 feet long–luxurious for an old wooden boat.
With those decisions made, I was able to build the bunk. Of course, the bilge stringer runs right up through the bunk–adding a nice challenge. The area under the bunk was divided into three large storage areas (some of the first storage we have put on Mahdee). Meanwhile, Brenda bought a really nice latex mattress which arrived two days ago and is really comfortable.
As of the end of work today, I can also say that the entire sole is down in the stateroom. And with that done, it was time for our cat Beamer to be moved from his happy place in the forepeak into the stateroom. Actually we just moved his carrier but his carrier is his “safe spot” when work is going on. He rarely goes far from the carrier during the day. But this move makes it possible for me to start working on the forepeak for the first time since Beamer moved aboard on August 1.
