Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Pez Vela

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Dec 4, 2004
Messages
504
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Ok, what we are really wondering is........how many older couplses (our age bracket:60 plus) have/had a cuddy and sleep in it?

How many others I can't say, but here's the unvarnished truth for one 65 year old couple. Our boat is 25' and, in our 40's and 50's, the admiral and I would liveaboard with ease for 3-4 consecutive nights. During the same time frame, two buddies and I would spend up to 10 days living on board during extended fishing trips into remote areas. Times have changed however. At this point, "roughing it" has become so uncomfortable that much of the fun is gone. After a couple of nights onboard, we feel we need a hotel. Having fished on friend's 23 footers, I find their cuddy cabins too small to overnight. If I can't stand up in the cabin without hitting my head, it's a no go, period. I think your hesitancy to subject yourself to the cramped quarters of your cabin is reasonable, not that you shouldn't do it, but understand that we "geezers" have to know our limitations.
 

Summer Fun

Banned
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
2,251
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

My late Wife & I used a 2150 cuddy into our late 40's just fine.:)

We started boating with a 16ft cuddy. :eek:

She was 5'6" and I'm 5'8" tall with no problems.

Now I own a 30fter with more room than you could shake a stick at. :)
 

rbh

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
7,939
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Eventually you will take the plunge to hit a lake or river and you will need to set anchor.
This takes a little practice, but not hard.
Food, when your boat camping the same rules apply as when your in the bush.
 

four winns 214

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
757
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

When staying on our 1984 '21 Sea Ray cuddy, we put up the camper canvas and lay out the back-to-back cockpit seats and sleep on them. They're surprisingly comfortable. That leaves the cuddy open for storage and the porta-potti in the cuddy always available.
 

JoLin

Vice Admiral
Joined
Aug 18, 2007
Messages
5,146
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

A few years ago, we started looking at full-size cabin cruisers (25') after selling our old bowrider. We also looked at a few cuddy's, but I could barely fit into any of them! Problem with the cruisers was the buying cost and maintenance cost/cleaning of them! We looked at one cruiser that we really liked, but it was quite big for us to be hauling around on it's trailer. The couple that owned and towed it were 30 yrs younger than us! As it is, we can wear ourselves out just cleaning the cuddy (inside/out) we have now! A cabin cruiser is awefully nice to have, if the money is available to put it in a slip or dry storage and don't have to haul it around on a trailer! We chose the cuddy we have cause the inside of the cuddy was a nice size and the cost was right.

I can certainly relate to that. I thought long and hard about the upsizing before I did it. I'll be 58 in a couple of weeks, and the reason for the upgrade from 24' to 27' was simple. The Chris*Craft 240 Express v-berth was too short for me, so I slept in the mid-berth. There was plenty of room once I was in it, but it got to the point that I wished I had some kind of power winch/pulley systm to drag me in and out of it! Add to that the fact that at my age, I need to get to the head at least once during the night. It was just too hard.

So, I did the math, decided how long I could keep an untrailerable, marina stored and maintained boat before I went bankrupt (I estimate about 5 years), and pulled the trigger. The mid-berth in the 4Winns is an easy crawl in and out, and the head compartment is roomy enough for me to shower while standing up straight.

We just plain enjoy our weekend raft-ups too much to throw in the towel. Also, for the first time, we're going to join the USPS Division 3 Rendezvous (7 LI and Metro NY chapters) out on the north fork of LI at the end of July. It'll be a 6-hour voyage (in each direction) with a small convoy, 7 nights at 3 marinas... and by far the most ambitious undertaking we've attempted yet. I really can't wait, and wouldn't have considered such a long outing in the smaller boat.

(I apologize for taking the OP's thread off on a tangent. Fact is, overnighting can be so much fun that you really need to try it out, whatever you're boating in. If you're young and flexible, you can manage it in darned near anything that floats)

My .02
 

Edko

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Aug 4, 2008
Messages
247
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Having never owned anything bigger than my current 21' Cuddy (cannot imagine actually sleeping overnight in the berth), at what general minimum size does things like ceiling height not become an issue? I'm guessing just by perusing lots of boat ads that it is somewhere around 24-25ft and I am sure the answer has alot to do with make and model, but just shooting for a general rule of thumb.

I think my wife and I are going to move up in size to something like a 28' or perhaps a few ft longer, but I don't mind a smaller model if I (well, she) is comfortable with it.
 

JoLin

Vice Admiral
Joined
Aug 18, 2007
Messages
5,146
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Having never owned anything bigger than my current 21' Cuddy (cannot imagine actually sleeping overnight in the berth), at what general minimum size does things like ceiling height not become an issue? I'm guessing just by perusing lots of boat ads that it is somewhere around 24-25ft and I am sure the answer has alot to do with make and model, but just shooting for a general rule of thumb.

Model/type more than make. For instance, my 24' Chris*Craft 240 Express (an 'express cruiser' with 6' of headroom in the cabin), was also available in a 'cuddy' model that was visually similar but had a lower foredeck and consequently less headroom in the cabin. That's true of many makes in the 26' and under range. You need to be aware of type...

Express Cruisers, cabin cruisers, fly bridge boats will all have stand-up cabins. Cuddys and 'weekender' models are usually short on cabin space and headroom, but there aren't any absolutes. You need to look around, browse manufacturers' sites, and look at those who have model archives available- Searay, Four Winns, Carver and Wellcraft all have good info on past models.
 

Art Bernard

Banned
Joined
May 4, 2011
Messages
333
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

If you can rig it up and it's a nice night outside I recomend a good hammock, it is an awsome nights sleep and a hammock for 2 is good as well:)

Art
 

LuvBoating

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Mar 16, 2009
Messages
718
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Man have you got this 100% RIGHT!!
I remember back in 2004, we went on a weekend boating/camping trip with some folks from a fishing club in Colorado (we were the oldest couple there). We used a tent and sleeping bags that my wife had had for many years. As for me, I hadn't slept in a tent/ground for 20 some years! The 16' bowrider we had then, was put into a slip for the weekend. After an "uncomfortable weekend in the tent, I told my wife "never again!" and she totally understood! The next time we went on a boating trip, the boat was put into a slip and we stayed at La Quinta Hotel.
I can not stand up inside this cuddy, but it does have more room for both of us than some other cuddy's we looked at before buying this one. In fact, there were a couple of cabin cruisers that we looked at that I couldn't totally stand up in! However, one I could, but the cost.....well, we won't go there! And, wife and I don't have the nice/trim/slim bodies we did 10 plus years ago.

How many others I can't say, but here's the unvarnished truth for one 65 year old couple. Our boat is 25' and, in our 40's and 50's, the admiral and I would liveaboard with ease for 3-4 consecutive nights. During the same time frame, two buddies and I would spend up to 10 days living on board during extended fishing trips into remote areas. Times have changed however. At this point, "roughing it" has become so uncomfortable that much of the fun is gone. After a couple of nights onboard, we feel we need a hotel. Having fished on friend's 23 footers, I find their cuddy cabins too small to overnight. If I can't stand up in the cabin without hitting my head, it's a no go, period. I think your hesitancy to subject yourself to the cramped quarters of your cabin is reasonable, not that you shouldn't do it, but understand that we "geezers" have to know our limitations.
 

sasto

Captain
Joined
Jun 1, 2010
Messages
3,918
Re: Overnight In A Cuddy Cabin?

Go for it. Worse thing that can happen.....I hope....is you loose a little sleep.
 
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