Convert quarter berth orientation

[Brett B]

Has anyone considered converting the quarter berth to a beamwise orientation? It looks like one could make an opening in the starboard wall and extend the berth into the starboard locker. The water heater may have to be moved, and in my case the battery charger and one battery would also have to be relocated.We find the starboard side of the berth to be too confining to use comfortably when the weather get's warm. We do not really use that locker because of the small opening from the cockpit.

 

[Don s/v Tellico]

Yes,

I wanted to do it to my former H31, but never did. There was a thread years back about someone who did it. As you say, doesn't look like it would be that involved and you would gain a wider berth.

 

[David10310]

Interesting Idea

That is an interesting idea. However, how would you gain access to the hot water heater and how would you seal off this locker from the cockpit where it now opens?

 

[Brett B]

How I would do it

Well, here are my thoughts.- Move the water heater to the area in the quarter berth that is behind the rudder shaft. That area is not usable anyway. I would close it off with a removable plywood panel. The ice box battery would be relocated here as well. Right now I just store sail bags there anyway.- Move the ice box battery to the same area at the stern.- Build a box that encloses the area that would be extend into the locker, out of plywood.This new berth would be used with your feet in the new area taken from the locker, so your head and arms would be in the area on the port side where the cockpit floor rises to make the seats. It may be a little harder to crawl in to the aft position but your head and shoulders area would have more room.One thing I am not sure of is whether the platform can be extended straight through. If I have to raise the platform to extend it then the goal may not be achieved.I am replacing both the water heater and the battery this year so now is a good time to consider this idea. Just wondered if anyone had already done it. I could not find anything in the archives.

 

[bearsails]

The Cave

BrettMy wife and kids have all called that "aft cabin" the cave, I ended up using it just as a single quarter berth and use the space up against the dividing bulkhead as a storage area. When I had new cushions made we just made that area into a large single quarter. It works great, we now just use the dinnette table as our main two person berth and the V berth. I had a seperate cushion made for the table and all the cushions there are hi density foam and it is a great bed. If you need the room for the aft cabin it isn't a problem to extend it out into the starboard locker. I moved my batteries to the port side well just before the quarter berth in an enclosed box, this also helps balance the boat better. I ditched the HWT completely but now the fuel tank resides there, I though am on a mission to get weight out of the ends of the boat so moving the fuel tank forward and lower fits for me.What you can do to extend the foot space is put a false floor into the starboard locker about 2 1/2 feet high so you can extend the foot well under this and this also then makes the cockpit locker shallower so it is actually useable, right now it is a PITA to get stuff into and out of as it is so deep.I looked over this whole subject when I bought the boat and gutted and refurbished it - when my wife said she wouldn't sleep there in any case I went the way I did.Good luck!Mike

 

[mike]

rework aft cabin

on the big boat link someone did this to a hunter 34 of this vintage. you should be ableto find this on the how site also.later mike