Bed under a tug deck?

[Dominic M]

Another advert with no price!

 

How much for the replica rivets, please Dominic?

I'm sorry Alan. We have to be selective about our customers.

[WJM]

How does the development of - say - clothing fit in with your view on this Darwinian tendency?

 

And IMHO you are making a value judgement rather than an observation on tug decks. The observations are being made by those who have them. And if we're talking 'optimum shape' then surely the optimum shape of a bedroom where one lies horizontally in a bed is one which offers the minimum necessary headroom (eg an under deck bed). Look at the space saving pod bedrooms in Japanese hotels as another example.

 

But then, I'm biased...we sleep under a tug deck very happily

Bedrooms, along with all living spaces, are at their optimum when they have a good volume and movement of air, it reduces the risk of disease. Japanese 'pod' bedrooms have pumped filtered air to achieve this artificially. Small spaces with no air circulation are not healthy places.

 

A second observation about tug-deck underbeds: The higher above the cold damp baseplate you can sleep the better. Most narrowboat beds are built very high off the floor.

 

I dont think a small closed space down at the waterline is a healthy place to sleep.

[alan_fincher]

I'm sorry Alan. We have to be selective about our customers.

That's OK - I would have wanted to have them surveyed anyway......

[starman]

Bedrooms, along with all living spaces, are at their optimum when they have a good volume and movement of air, it reduces the risk of disease. Japanese 'pod' bedrooms have pumped filtered air to achieve this artificially. Small spaces with no air circulation are not healthy places.

 

A second observation about tug-deck underbeds: The higher above the cold damp baseplate you can sleep the better. Most narrowboat beds are built very high off the floor.

 

I dont think a small closed space down at the waterline is a healthy place to sleep.

Air circulation can be an issue - in our last boat the bed space was always chilly in winter as there wasn't much air movement from the saloon. On our new tug I have vents ducted down from letterbox slots on the front cabin bulkhead to provide fresh air flow to the bed space and also a small finrad to keep the space warm. So far both seem to have been beneficial. We also have built in clothes cupboards behind the bed so, in short, we have a functional, comfortable bedroom that doesn't take up valuable space in the boat for the 16 hours a day that it's not being used.

I can't see any issue in sleeping close to the base plate - an inch and a half of plywood and then oak floor provides pretty good insulation from any potential damp.

Personally I think the only demerit in the arrangement is that access to the bed could be tricky for someone who's getting a bit creaky.

[Zayna]

I couldn't sleep in an enclosed space, I wake up in the night gasping for breath. That could be down to him and his beer and kebabs though.

 

We had a motorhome once, there was a bed over the cab and I just couldn't, I was wheezing. I didn't even like sleeping against the wall when we bought our boat and it had a lengthways bed, I felt like I was trapped under the gunwales.

 

I think the bed under the tug deck is a great idea, just not for me.

[BudgetBus]

If you can handle the lack of space and feeling of confinement surely the issue of temperature is just down to quality of insulation.

[Athy]

As well as ease of stepping on and off, a well-proportioned tug deck can be part of a balanced design. I have seen few boats more handsome than well-proportioned "tugs". I am not so keen on what I call "extreme tug" decks (while recognising the historical value of, say, Alan Fincher's 'Sickle'), but to me a good tug can look purposeful, graceful and chunky all at the same time - which is just about my idea of the ideal narrowboat.

 

If your "optimum shape" = clonecraft, include me out.

I remember Emerald, we saw it at Whilton years ago.

Gorgeous and i guess very swift!

She was moored in March for some time, between the town bridge and Fox's. She was, from memory, put up for sale shortly after Trojan had been launched (at Fox's); had she come on to the market a year earlier, there might have been no Trojan.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Athy

[Dominic M]

Bedrooms, along with all living spaces, are at their optimum when they have a good volume and movement of air, it reduces the risk of disease. Japanese 'pod' bedrooms have pumped filtered air to achieve this artificially. Small spaces with no air circulation are not healthy places.

 

A second observation about tug-deck underbeds: The higher above the cold damp baseplate you can sleep the better. Most narrowboat beds are built very high off the floor.

 

I dont think a small closed space down at the waterline is a healthy place to sleep.

There is a mighty degree of incorrect assumption in your claims. Mine had under matress ventilation. The forward lower air vents for the boat from fore to stern entered at the forward end of the under deck space. The heating pipes (boxed in with vents) ran round both sides of the space at floor level. The insulation was very thick spray foam as in all the Davis boats. There was a hatch in the deck that could be propped ajar in warmer weather. OK, my partner died of bubonic plague during this time, but apart from that there were no health issues whatsoever.

Edited June 4, 2013 by Dominic M

[WJM]

If you can handle the lack of space and feeling of confinement surely the issue of temperature is just down to quality of insulation.

It doesn't matter how well insulated the area is if it is fundamentally cold in the first place. I very occasionally sleep on an air-mattress on the floor instead of on a bed 1m above the floor and it is definitely colder down there. Thats why some people have a wine store in the galley floor.

[Athy]

It doesn't matter how well insulated the area is if it is fundamentally cold in the first place. I very occasionally sleep on an air-mattress on the floor instead of on a bed 1m above the floor and it is definitely colder down there. Thats why some people have a wine store in the galley floor.

So that they can reach for a bottle without getting up from their mattress? Now that's what I call good boat planning.

Is the fly in your avatar feeling unwell? It hasn't moved for ages.

[blackrose]

If you can handle the lack of space and feeling of confinement surely the issue of temperature is just down to quality of insulation.

 

Perhaps, assuming it's actually been insulated under the floor. The other issue of course is ventilation. It could get a bit clammy down there.

Edited June 4, 2013 by blackrose

[blackrose]

And IMHO you are making a value judgement rather than an observation on tug decks.

 

Couldn't it be both? I think we're all making value judgements - nobody can make purely objective observations.

 

Personally I think tug decks are a waste of space, serve no useful purpose and aren't even aesthethically pleasing - not to me anyway. The fact that tug deck owners say that they like this design with its reduced internal space (for the length of boat), but then feel the need to maximise the space by creating a bed under the deck in which they have to crawl to go to sleep, does seem slightly ridiculous to me, but that's just my value judgement/observation. I'm sure some think my widebeam is just as silly - each to their own.

Edited June 4, 2013 by blackrose

[WJM]

 

Couldn't it be both? I think we're all making value judgements - nobody can make purely objective observations.

 

 

Ah, thank you, some intelligently reflective discourse!

[starman]

 

Couldn't it be both? I think we're all making value judgements - nobody can make purely objective observations.

 

I think we're making different use of the word 'observation'. I was thinking of the scientific type of observation - e.g. you dispassionately observe some events and use the evidence acquired to come to conclusions. Without objective observations Sherlock Holmes wouldn't have got very far!

[davey b]

The bed on our tug is under the deck and I quite like it.... It reminds me of the protective concrete igloo I slept in to avoid the rockets landing near us in Iraq!

 

The temperature issues are as much to do with convection currents as anything - good heating and ventilation is essential. Deep draught is good for headroom, and sitting on the deck is very pleasant. I'm sold on it!

[junior]

The bed on our tug is under the deck and I quite like it.... It reminds me of the protective concrete igloo I slept in to avoid the rockets landing near us in Iraq!

 

The temperature issues are as much to do with convection currents as anything - good heating and ventilation is essential. Deep draught is good for headroom, and sitting on the deck is very pleasant. I'm sold on it!

 

Interesting. Were you at BAS? I spent 2 six month tours there in 2005 and 2006 dodging rockets in a protective igloo.

[andywatson]

And you can of course procreate in numerous other and often more exciting places than the bedroom, Andy

 

Oh yes I know that and so does my ex wife's solicitor.

[blackrose]

I think we're making different use of the word 'observation'. I was thinking of the scientific type of observation - e.g. you dispassionately observe some events and use the evidence acquired to come to conclusions. Without objective observations Sherlock Holmes wouldn't have got very far!

 

Except that the owners of tug decks aren't necessarily making dispassionate observations on this thread... they like tug decks and so their conclusions aren't objective either. That was my point.

 

Objective observations are certainly possible in all spheres of knowledge, but we tend to see more subjective opinions on this forum.

 

And as for Sherlock Holmes - he is a fictional character.

Edited June 5, 2013 by blackrose

[WJM]

 

 

 

And as for Sherlock Holmes - he is a fictional character.

I rest your case :-)