Alcanboats Forum

Hi Wayne,

I assume that you have an Alwest 370, since you mention lower forward berths already. I do not think that any of the other versions have enough forward space to make this work.

You are right that headroom is limited. Some are OK with this, others less so. This is not unlike the headroom in an aft berth which is common on many newer sail and powerboats. The big plus of making this work is that all original living space is retained without having to disassemble/reassemble a seating area each day to make up a bed, or giving up the aft cabin for sleeping only.

There is a maximum of about 30" to work with. Right under the original plywood mattress surfaces are the main hull stringers. You can't go any lower without cutting into major structure. (and the hull is narrowing quickly anyway) The lower section in the center goes down between these fore/aft box section stringers, but this is almost down to the keel.

Our boat originally had two 5 ft long single berths which we converted into a trapezoid shaped crosswise "almost" queen size. My plan is to get a full rectangular 60" x 80" queen size berth by rotating it slightly. This will put one corner of the mattress partially under the stairs, so some re-engineering will be required. It will be close but I think I can make this work! We have gotten used to 24" headroom from mattress top surface to the ceiling above. Important consideration for making this work is to choose light colours and to have excellent lighting and ventilation. The powered bilge ventilation (see tech section article) was one of the key things that we discovered. I am planning some other improvements as well.

Send me your email address and I can send you the scaled drawings that I created of what we have today and what I am trying to do.

Rob
rob.farrow@sympatico.ca

Thanks Rob we got our alwest 370 this summer dead in the water and got her running last summer, Had already planned to put a pemanent fan in for venilation instead of the portables we were using. I am with ellen so we have gotten good use of the web site and forum already. Dave helped with the formula for calculateing corect prop pitch for now but a repower will be in order but not for the upcoming season. We can fit a queen size bed in the foward cabin but construct this ourselves with foam and memory foam so the matress is only 4" thick. I was hoping to create more head room. We are located in Port Perry and our boat will be named The Georgina Marie from I Am So Happy. I don't think our boat has ever gotten to the speeds of the others but now that I have her power running decent I will give it a try. Already repowered once with merc 305s (frostbitten thou) which is what I have repaired hopping to get one more season from them. She ran pretty good but the 15X19 props were too rich going to try 15X15s that I have as spares from our smaller boat.

Hi Wayne,

Got your email as well, so I will send you the measurements taken from Catherine Ann.
I would be surprised if you could fit a full 60" x 80" queen mattress without cutting off the forward corners . . . .
Unless your platform has been raised, in which case you would have significantly less headroom.

Thinking about this further . . . . . Dave and I have discovered that there are (at least) two different versions of the Alwest superstructure. The foredeck on Buster is a foot longer than the one on Catherine Ann. Thus, Catherine Ann's fore cabin and mid cabin are each about 6" longer. This could have an affect on the space available for a lower forward berth. Catherine Ann is 94" from the step down into the forward berth to the forward bulkhead.

Catherine Ann has never (at least in the 15 years that we have owned her) gotten up to the speeds reached by Buster and some of the other repowered boats. I still have the original engines and with all that we carry, I estimate that we are probably 2000 lbs heavier than the original specs! We cruise comfortably at 7 knots and are pushing hard at 12 (unfortunately, just before planning speed). I would like to repower, but that's a $30K investment even if you do the work yourself.

Rob

Thanks Rob
Got your picks, We have 12" or so with a matress cross ways in the lower cabin and 6" to stairs with a double but have not actully tried a queen. We have not actually measured the front berth. Our boat is powered with 2X220 HP 100 more than original 10 less than buster so here's hoping and our extra weight is about the same as yours. You and Dave have been a tremendess help.
Thanks again All