On Thu, 4 Mar 2004 16:55:48 +0100, "Jürgen Spelter"
wrote:

Hi,

me and my wife bought a 28 year old dutch motoryacht for long term cruising
in european rivers and channels.

Under the after deck we have a sleeping cabin of prox. 2m x 1.5m. Height may
be obout 1.2m.
On a massive wooden ground there is a mattress made of foam, we want to
replace.

What would be the best material to built a comfortable and durable bed for 2
persons.

My choices would be:
a) another mattress made of foam, but is that really comfortable?
b) a mattress from the bed store, that fits into the cabin, but what happens
with high humidity?
c) an air bed. They are offered for camping and home use and they are
promoted in Germany the last few years. benefit would be: no humidity will
be taken up, easy to imstall and to replace for cleaning. I`m thinking of
about 1 foot heigh air beds for using at home, not of a normal camping airn
mattress.

It would be kind to participate from Your experiences and to hear Your
opinions.


regards from germany

Juergen


Another alternative is a futon matress.

When we bought our yacht up in Brisbane she came with an obviously
custom made sprung bed matress, double size and shaped to fit the
stern cabin.

It was probably made when she was built since it came with an
interesting collage of stains and wildlife. We've chucked that much
bug killer on the mattress, it's probably an environmental hazard now.

So we're just getting a futon mattress made up to replace it, plus
other futons to replace the foam mattresses on all the other berths.

It's easier (and cheaper) to get made to shape than a shop bought
mattress and we're having ties sown in to keep it in place and
intergral lee clothes to keep us in place if need be (although you
might not need those on the rivers of Europe).

Plus, you can roll them up to get at the storage under the berth a lot
easier than manhandling a big sprung or foam mattress (again ties
being sown in so it will stay rolled up while we're rooting around).

And it's not too hard to get them up on deck and thrown across the
boom for a good airing every now and again.

Throw a woolen underblanket on it and it's cool in summer and warm in
winter.

Just a thought - hope it helps.

Best wishes

Peter

www.oceanodyssey.net
"Do not measure your life by the number of breaths you take,
Rather by the number of times life just takes your breath away"