What design features make life aboard comfortable & practical for females?

" i am however also playing with the idea of a cockpit-tub on a flybridge tho"


Perhaps you have the concept up side down.

I have always thought a 13 ft Boston Whaler would make a grand cockpit cover for offshore boat that could stand the size / weight.

Would take a wave top loads better than a canvass dodger ,

but alas the practice of stowing deck chairs , fenders, and other life aboard items would be harder with the dink inverted.

FAST FRED

 

not an inverted boston whaler top but looks attractive also dont you agree


i was thinking having the fly bridge cockpit as a tub, perhaps a folding in and down door as water lock
holding my wallet upside down i realise all i can do is dream tho

 

Yipster I thought you'd got the star ship "enterprise" there! Mind you I think that Wilma is only after a simple 'dip in' tub rather than an olympic size pool which you are going for! that can be accomplished fairly easily with a 'canvas' liner for the cockpit/dinghy and an awning around for privacy! I guess an alternative would be one of these big garden buckets, in the saloon - if your table is of the fold up type?! (just a thought, but your at the stage now to be able to plan for it! also if you can get a 'bucket' / tin bath to do the job, you can always store stuff in it when not using it! After all you did say you only wanted to use it when in harbour)

 

Brilliant all these options for the bathtub. No yipster, if it isn't a full size olympic pool what is the point to have one at all? This is just a miniture size pool to show off on the boat, while you have the sea to have a real swim in. However the hot pool on the top looks good, but all the decking around it, is a waste of space. Those rich people don't know how to put things into proportions. Murielle just wants a hot soak without all the sily surrounds, don't you Murielle. The only problem with the cockpit as a bathtub is when you are staying in colder climates which Murielle lives in. So, I think an inside one is the preference, with the dingy or the cockpit as a bath when in the tropics. But again if you don't mind the damp of the steaming water making things wet, the tub could be under the base of the double bed. Lift up the mattress and the boards, get all the gear out and you have your tub. Would that work, Murielle? Or cover it with wood to make a seat and at sea the tub would be great storage for veges and things wherever it is?
How would you fill it as the taps are usually a problem as they are in the way. I would not put it in the bathroom itself as it would take up a lot of room and to make it into a seat, bed or table in the bathroom is not helpful. Will, I don't like showering in a bathtub, it gets slippery and is hard to clean everyday after showers. I think safewalrus has a point in that it can be used as stowage and covered up to make a seat or bed.
Another problem to solve inside would be the steam that makes walls and everything wet. Maybe an oilskin hood around it to keep the steam in, or a plastic cover that you can do up like a breadbin lid could work? Cool idea, I never thought about a bath, wrote that off as an option however......

 

hah! You might be having some bad influence on us Wilma - the bath-under-a-bunk idea sprang into my head too
And before we get off the bed, so to speak, Walrus has a point about the board on the bed. Back in the days before we had a boat big enough for a chart table, my father used a sheet of ply a bit bigger than a chart which we only took aboard when we were competing in navigation trials. We still have it - and it still gets used.
Now from the bed to the bath - oh what a life we lead!! - ventilation for the bath is no different really to that required in the head or shower. It's gotta be good, but shouldn't really be a problem. I wouldn't get carried away with hoods or anything - just a decent dorade vent, ensure flow-thru, &/or put in a fan.
Why is a bathtub any more slippery than a shower? And if it's hard to clean, then it ain't designed right.

Ari - yes, I would consider it essential to have a hot shower when cruising the lands of Oz and NZ. Then again, I am a powerboater, and we tend to be a bit soft!

 

oh - and I think the tub in the cockpit idea is a great one, so long as you aren't planning on bathing too often, and you can still operate the boat....

....lying back in a hot, steaming bath, sucking on a cold beer. A warm gentle breeze.... The moon casting a ripply path across the water. A quick touch on the auotpilot remote, another to tighten the main a little....

Oops - you guys'll have me on a stick boat before long!

 

Pool on a phinisi

This boat is up for sale last year..maybe with new owner now..they had just installed a pool on her.Look like quite a practical pool.

 

The trick to a hot tub on a boat is to fill it with SEAWATER .
A childs plastic pool in a cockpit works well

Heat , an exchanger from the engine coolant , or co generated with a noisemaker (gen set) .

In sunny places a simple insulated black cover will do it.

No simple answer for bubble jets tho,,,,

FAST FRED

 

Oh, that's easy - just run the exhaust into it!

 

after swimming in a salt sea you like a shower on the swimplatform
how where and when undicided but it seems we all like a tub aboard

 

Although we are having fun with the bath and the chart table, what it shows to me is that we don't have to take certain things on a boat for granted, even if they have been so for years. If you want to have a bath, think about it and see if it is better placed somewhere else than in the bathroom where it could be a space waster or make it inot a pantry to put food in when under way. On an ordinary sailboat of between 40 to 50 ft, luxury can be combined with practical can it not?
I didn't know that those dorades could provide enough ventilation for that much steam, but if they do the possibilities for a bath inside the boat are there.
For the chart table, if it was placed (as one of you said) with the option of 2seats abreast than it could also serve as an office desk for 2 laptops. How the chart table is positioned on most boats at the moment is with one seat in front of it and thus it serves only one person with a laptop. This I consider a waste of space. Currently with all the technology a mobile office is the go and I would like to see the chart table double up as an office space for laptops, paperwork and -charts of course if you so want to- for at least 2 people. The dedicated space will be multi functional and then it doesn't need to be a part of the kitchen or dining area.

 

Wilma - whilst some overlapping is necessary on a smaller boat, you don't want to get too hung up on making everything multifunctioning.
If you have to pull everything out of the pantry every time you want to take a bath, I'll wager you wont do too often...

 

Thanks Will, point taken and I would not use the bath in that case and then why have it....
I do see more and more that no design will ever appeal to everybody. I personally don't care much for a bath, but that doesn't mean that Murielle doesn't. I also realise that new technologies change things rapidly. Laptops, GPS, water makers all change how we live our lives and how that will change the interior of the boat. Now most furniture in a boat is built in, some argue that it adds strength to the boat or that it is because of the round shapes of the hull. However with all the changes that are happening so fast these days, and different tastes would having modular furniture that can be easily removed not be the way to go. I know that everything needs to be bolted down, but couldn't that be done in a way that it is easily dismantled and replaced if one so wants to. Instead of dismantling the whole boat, you just unscrew/onbolt some of the settees/cupboards to put a bath in if you want to for example or put tables where you want them to go. Is that ever done in a boat?

 

Interesting book on this subject is:

Voyaging on a Small Income
By Annie Hill

Tiller Publishing 2001

CapKos

 

Thank you CapKos, this is what I am on about. I have read Annie Hill and living like Annie Hill is EXACTLY what I (and probably most women) absolutely and positively want to avoid. I am NOT a young woman, I am 50 and I have no intention to going back to the level of living as a student or making do. I have done that and during the months that John and i go sea kayaking I adore crawling in and out of the tent and living primitively without guests or kids and eating very simple meals. But after a month I go home and I am soooo happy with my shower, my washing machine and my cooktop with four burners. I will not live on a boat if it is not geared to some form of normal living and Annie Hill can be as happy as anything, that will not be me! I do want chilled wine and cheese and a normal kitchen and a door I can walk out of upright and a shower and some space and light. I am an educated woman who also thinks and I do that wherever I am and thus I use my brain on boats as well and as a result certain boats can be imporved enormously and I am finding out how. And once the boats work well for women, there will be more of us on the sea with our men having a good time. No more Annie Hills!