Day Sailer Cabin Modifications for Comfort

[capta]

While I agree with all the viewpoints expressed so far, here is my perspective . I'm sensing a hard top tent camping mentality .If you good with that concept ,I hope the following will help .
A clean new porti pottie will go a very long way in making sure your wife will continue to look forward to time on the boat.
A 17' boat is not going to have a great deal of room for sleeping . I'd make the biggest flattest area I could . Followed by the thickest Therma Rest mattress I could fit . A good night's sleep is priceless . A single burner back pack type stove makes a huge differance .
Fresh hot coffee is a life saver in the morning . Being able to heat hot water for dehydrated food or soup makes for a great end of day.
These purchases can be taken off and used camping , or hunting . They can easily transfer to your next boat ...oh there will be one ..

"single burner back pack type stove", please remember to have a way to secure that stove if you get waked. The last thing you want is boiling soup or water flying around the cabin.

 

[dlochner]

"single burner back pack type stove", please remember to have a way to secure that stove if you get waked. The last thing you want is boiling soup or water flying around the cabin.

Yep. A single burner butane stove will be more stable and will heat water faster. Or just stay with foods that do not need heating.

 

[thinwater]

People don't cook in 17' boats while underway. They are not making passages.

Not that you can't get waked at anchor, but my first boat was small and I don'trecall ever having wake problems while cooking. You tend to anchor in tiny coves, not big harbors.

 

[jssailem]

You tend to anchor in tiny coves,

Like this one?

A pretty little sheltered harbor with only one exception..

It opens up onto Rosario Strait.

If wind or shipping traffic is from the wrong direction... Better to run ashore and do your campfire cooking.

 

[Davenport]

Ive had a Mac 17, Mac 26c, South Shore 23, Ericson 25, and now Hunter 260. The MacGregor 17 is nice solid small boat.

I recommend just pressure spraying inside a couple times, and then pump out the water. Then paint with nice cheerful white paint and maybe paint a bit like 5% of the inside in light blue or light green. Nice paint done in half day makes things nicer.

Without headroom its hard to make it comfier. But really most of time is spent laying down, sleeping or resting or reading. Cushions thus may be best first step. You can buy a fleece sleeping bag liner and put a 2x6 piece of foam in it for instant rectangular cushion for the lower bunks.

Replacing wood is hard. Unless it crumbles under your weight just paint it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Without headroom hard to make an area to sit upright.

You can buy a toilet seat that fits on a 5 gallon bucket, and then using 3 layers of garbage bags make a simple potty. I use a 3.5 gallon bucket which is nicely shorter and works great and I often leave off the toilet seat as unneeded.

Maybe buy a Jackery 240 to have electricity aboard. Maybe buy a nice cooler and get ice.

You can buy storage bins to let you slide them to the rear on the bunk berth seats.

GOOD LUCK. AGAIN WHITE PAINT ON THE INTERIOR CAN DO WONDERS!!

 

[pgandw]

An old thread - but I'll put in 2 cents. I am assuming you are not cruising in temps below 60, that temps may be quite warm. I have owned and cruised on a Venture 22, an ODay 25, and currently on a Stuart (ODay) Mariner 19.

• The most valuable item you can add is a usable cockpit awning for when you are at anchor. The cockpit is the most comfortable place on your boat except for sleeping. Some people make the cockpit comfortable for sleeping under an awning/boom tent. I have always cooked in the cockpit with a portable stove on a board.
• The second most valuable thing you can add is ventilation for the cabin. Whatever you have to do, add that ventilation besides leaving the hatch open in the rain. This makes the cabin, despite its limited headroom, usable for sleeping.
• A privacy screen around a head is a waste of time - everybody on board knows what you are doing, even on a 25 with an enclosed head. A head located to one side or the other may not be very usable when going to windward. Consider how much the head gets used - 2 nights in a row at anchor without a port call is about the max I can do or would consider on my 19ft.
• The solar bag shower worked great hung off the boom in the cockpit - a warm/hot water rinse does wonders for the soul.

Start off with one nighters, and evaluate what you really need/want.

Fred W
Stuart Mariner 19 #4133 Sweet P
Yeopim Creek, Albemarle Sound, NC