Being 'on station' is perhaps the worst of all worlds. You pitch AND
roll. You don't want to even try sleeping in the bow under those
conditions.

This is the fourth boat in a series, the first having more than a decade of
operation. No complaints about comfort yet, quite the opposite. Each
institution has talked to the operator of the previous boats to get ideas
and changing the berth layout has never come up.

It's the comfort on station and the qualities as a good platform for
handling heavy, delicate, and expensive stuff over the sides that keeps
oceanographic institutions coming back to me for designs. There are now
more oceanographic vessels in the under 150 foot size range of my design
operating in the Atlantic than by any other designer. I know a couple of
captains that have spent their entire careers on vessels that I designed.

These aren't your daddy's trawler yachts. The hull weight distribution is
carefully managed to detune the roll period to the critical sea states and
the hulls have a great deal of damping. The difference in comfort compared
to a boat with freeboard and deckhouses piled high to make an impression
inside at the boat shows is remarkable. I got a letter from someone at Woods
Hole who had deployed the same gear on the original 50 foot version and on
an 80 footer of four times the displacement and proportions typical of
trawler yachts. He found the smaller boat more comfortable and a better
working plantform. That had a lot to do with my designing the one for Woods
Hole.

Someday, someone will realize what a great yacht one of these boats would
make. In that case, the berths probably will go in the middle. The purpose
of these boat is to do science; not have people sleep. The most important
function goes in the most comfortable part of the boat.

--
Roger Long