V-Berth Cushions

So the first order of  business to make this boat really enjoyable for more than about 30 minutes at a time, is to put some cushions down. And if we wanted our first visit to our newly-in-the-water boat to be an overnight, the first cushion to make is the v-berth.

As the name suggests, the v-berth is the V-shaped section of the cabin all the way up at the front, and as one might guess, it is not easy to get into. On our boat, the v-berth is about knee-high, in a space where neither of us can stand up fully, and it's about two feet high, if I'm being generous.

Who's up for trying to wiggle in feet first?! Anybody? Hello?

As the picture above illustrates, there is a small hatch above the v-berth for ventilation, and a bit of storage below that we are not overly concerned with right at this moment. The strategy to making this into a sleeping area consists of finding a suitable surface, cutting it into a triangle, and muscling it into the space. Fortunately, the previous owner left the cushion covers with the boat, so we have at least a template to use to cut all the cushions.

We ended up going with a queen-size memory foam topper, and while the internet recommends using an electric bread knife, we tried it with a cheapy manual (?) bread knife I had at home. If you're reading this thinking about whether it's worth it to track down an electric bread knife, I will tell you now- IT IS.

"Close enough" -both of us

Notice the very tip of the cushion how it hangs off the edge.

Our first try we thought, let's cut the cushion a little big, so we can squish it in. And here's what that kind of thinking gets you:

The v-berth would have a v-berth.

We painstakingly pulled the foam back out and cut off a very wobbly few inches on each side, and crammed it back in. 

Tip: you'll really only want to wrassle a foam topper into a fitted sleeve one time. Measure three times, don't try to get fancy, and you'll only have to cut once.

Proper size, but that tip is still looking a little sad.

I personally was pretty ambivalent about this empty tip, but Brian, being a taller dude, wanted to have as much padding as possible. Totally cool, totally understandable, but I am NOT pulling that thing back out again. Fortunately I am a small to medium sized lady with sizeable determination.

"Stay there, this is hilarious, where's your phone?"

So I was able to wedge a trapezoid of scrap foam in there and Brian on the outside wiggled it into place. Success!

Brian took the cushion down the the boat without me but sent some victory pictures:

Looks downright intentional!

One down, five to go. At least the rest are more or less rectangles!