Something that often prevents people from really enjoying more than one or two nights aboard, is the comfort of the sleeping arrangements. Most production boats come with a 4 inch thick reasonably dense cushion. When new, this might be adequate for a weekend or even several days.   They were not really designed for much more. Age them 20 years and you are sleeping on something that feels like it is an inch think.   You will wake up grumpy with a backache!    Fortunately, there are several good solutions to give you a much better night’s sleep.

Recut an old all foam mattress

Twenty-five years ago, we purchased an all-foam mattress for our new residence in Renforth.   It came from Sears and cost about $1000 at that time.   When we journeyed south for the winter on Tevah (2018) we used that in our main berth.   I simply removed the mattress cover, recut the mattress so that it fit the forward V berth and then reapplied the cover with a new zipper and some alterations.    The bits that I had removed to fit the V were then covered and used at the head end to provide soft night tables.   This has been our bed on Tevah for 5 years now and it is still the best bed we own!

Sacrifice a new compressed foam mattress.

If you don’t have an old foam mattress you want to cut up, there are plenty of the “Ende” type expandable mattresses available online or at your local mattress shop.   They can be cut as well but be careful as many of them have a top side and a bottom side.   You can also source custom foam mattress for boats where you provide them the dimensions and have them made for you at enormous cost.  See: https://www.foamite.com/mattresses/boat-rv/ Better to learn how to do this yourself.

Get a memory foam topper.

A good quick fix is to get a memory foam topper and cut it to fit on top of whatever you have.   This can easily transform your week of cruising into an enjoyable experience.  This might be all you really need.

Dedicated sleeping space where room allows.

One of the things that can grind away at your patience is having to set up and tear down your bed every day.   While this might be fine for one or two days, having to do it every day is a bit much.   If your layout allows, set things up so that your main sleeping berth is a dedicated space. You might pile a few things on it during the day, but these can easily be removed each evening. Having to regularly take down the dinning table in the main salon is something that gets old fast!