I am looking at building the Weekender, Pocket Cruiser or Vacationer.
Which of the 3 has the largest cockpit? Would enlarging the cockpit and redulcing the size of the cabin affect the structural integrity of the hull? I figure on mostly day sailing and little or no onboard camping.Â
I need the cuddy for a porta potty so the daughters and wife will be willing to sail more than an hour from the nearest bathroom, otherwise I would build a Super Skipjack.
I'm not sure any of them have a high enough cabin for a potty inside. The vacationer has a hugh cockpit, no need to make it bigger as it can sail a crowd as is. The weekender holds four as is, but two or three is better I think. How about "Depends" for them?Â
I have a porta potty in my Vacationer, plenty of room for it and wash basin, and stove, etc. The cockpit carries 5 in good comfort. I'd say the next best for space would be the beamy PC, The plans look to have lots of cabin space. The cabin walls can be built raised for any of the designs. I wish I'd added a few inches to the cabin height on Ginny Rae, it's still pretty good with stock cabin sides.
Greg
A vacationer is literally three times the volume as a Weekender, so the elbow room inside the cockpit and cabin is much better. The Pocket Cruiser is a fatter boat, but about the same as the Weekender. The PC and Weekender are quite comparable, but the Vacationer is a much bigger build.
A cuddy cabin, in my opinion is a better choice on boats the size of Weekender and PC. Lets face it, 90% of the time on the boat you're in the cockpit. The cabins are cramped to be polite. Other then having a place to store your beer out of the sun and maybe diving into when a rain squall turns up, it's just along for the ride, taking up valuable boat length real estate. If it was me, I hack the cabin down until it was just big enough to hold sails, beer and a couple of wet bodies as a thunder storm rolls through.
As long as the wet bodies are consenting...
Non-consenting can be fun. "That better be your elbow Fred . . ."
You could shorten the cabin by a couple of feet and deck over the extra space instead of lengthening the bench seats, then there would be a large flat area in the cockpit to put some big cushions on but you would still have full leg room if you ever did sleep in the boat. I've had a couple of unplanned overnighters and it's nice to know you can go in there. I'm 6'4" and I can sleep in reasonable comfort in there, as long as you don't forget where you are when you wake up and sit up suddenly. If I was looking for a boat to spend more than, at most, two nights in, the weekender would get tiresome in a hurry. But as it stands right now if too many people at the marina are passing around the sauce and it gets to the point where I don't want to sail or drive I sleep in the boat and it saves me a lot of trouble. (Not the most wholesome of reasons to put a cabin on a boat I realise but there you go.)
I can't imagine anyone being able to sit on a potty in there but the odd occasion has arisen where the bailer and the privacy of the little cabin have worked together to save a female passenger from discomfort or "over-exposure".
I'm building a weekender but after sitting in the boat with the next step being building the cabin I realized that the cockpit was too small. I ripped out the aft cabin bulkhead, recut the deck, and installed seating the full length of the boat. It really slowed down my progress because I had to make it up as I went but I think it will be worth it when it hits the lake.
You also could completely omit the cabin and make a tent to hang from the boom instead. Camping in one of these can be pleasant. Or make a removeable top?