Overnight on a Typhoon?

[John383]

I would love to hear any tips ! First- is it possible for 2 adults? How many nights are feasible? Is a Porta Potti feasible- with a compression post? Also, I may want to sell my CD 330...

[Dick Villamil]

Install a removable compression post and a porta potty. Then for sleeping place the cushions over the porta potty after the compression post is removed. There are photos of the interior of a typhoon a few years back on this site showing it is possible.

[Tod Mills]

I would love to hear any tips ! First- is it possible for 2 adults? How many nights are feasible? Is a Porta Potti feasible- with a compression post? Also, I may want to sell my CD 330...

The answers to your questions depend very much more on the personalities of the two adults than on the boat. Does the thought of primitive camping in a small tent sound at all appealing? That is very much what life aboard a small boat is like, especially with two aboard. You will find that there is a lot of asking the other person to move so that one can access a storage locker or having to shift things around to make room to sleep, etc. Patience, as a virtue, really shines under the conditions.

I know an older lady (I think she is in her mid 70s now) who spent many summers cruising the wilderness waters of the North Channel of Lake Huron aboard a West Wight Potter 15 and now aboard a Slipper 17 (except for this year, with the border being closed). She mostly eats vegetarian for the duration to avoid having to buy ice and deal with an ice box and is usually out sailing for about 3 months with only a few stops for re-provisioning and other necessities.

I also knew an older couple who cruised aboard a Montgomery 15. The husband was well over 6', but his wife was quite petite. They limited their cruises to about 3 days before insisting on less primitive living conditions.

I've been out aboard my Montgomery 17 for close to two weeks with a second person and a mid-sized dog aboard. I can say that it is a lot easier with just myself aboard as the amount of juggling is greatly reduced, and I would have no trouble spending a summer aboard alone. With two, a boat about the size of the 22 would be much easier for extended cruising, as each person would have more of their own space.

Minimizing clutter by leaving unnecessary things home helps, as does ensuring that nearly everything aboard has multiple uses. A boom tent can be very useful by turning the cockpit into extra living space out of the weather and providing additional privacy.

Another option, besides a porta potti, would be a "WAG Bag" system. I haven't used that, but some people swear by them. There is also a small composting head made by C-Head called the "shorty" model that may work well on a Ty.

[wikakaru]

My wife and I have overnighted on our Typhoon on several trips. The longest we have spent aboard is 3 consecutive nights. For us the main problem with overnighting on the Typhoon is the lack of sitting headroom down below for 2 people. There is sitting headroom for one person if they sit on the floor.

Our Typhoon doesn't have a compression post, so when we are sailing we store the porta-potty under the V-berth where it was intended to be stored.

Using the porta-potty is a bit of a trick at night. We are what I call "junior senior citizens" and we both have to get up several times a night to use the porta-potty. If we had kept it under the V-berth at night we'd be tearing up the berth over and over again each night. The V-berth insert is essential to have enough room for two people to sleep. We tried keeping the porta-potty on the cabin sole down below, and that lasted for exactly 1 night. With it on the cabin sole there isn't enough room to put your feet down to get out of the V-berth. Our solution was to put it in the cockpit and set up a tent fly over the boom for privacy and to keep the dew off. If you're in your 20s and you bladder actually works, this isn't an issue, but if you're getting on in years like us, a boom tent is the way to go.

As Tod pointed out, compatibility with the 1st mate is essential. We lived aboard other boats for 14 years, so being together in small spaces for long periods of time isn't our limiting factor.

For us the final solution to the headroom problem was to move up to a CD22 for "cruising". The 22 has full sitting headroom below and is truly cavernous compared to the Typhoon. There is even enough room on the cabin sole for the porta-potty at night. Our longest cruise on the 22 so far has been 12 days. We now keep the 22 in Maine, where the cruising opportunities are boundless, and keep the Typhoon in Florida where cruising choices are very limited.

Smooth sailing,

--Jim

[Typhoon4Fun]

Second the boom tent! My partner and I would do 1 - 4 night trips on our Typhoon and the boom tent helped with privacy, keeping the cockpit dry and being able to open the companionway in a drizzle. Also was really nice to have some shade while waiting for the wind to pick up.

I just used a lightweight camping tarp, but I duct taped four 3' - 4' long fiberglass battens (picked up from a marine salvage for cheap) to the inside of the tarp, perpendicular to the boom, which helped create more space under the tent. I planned on sewing in pockets for the battens but the duct tape seemed to work fine enough so I never bothered.

[Ben Miller]

What do you all tie your Typhoon boom tents to? Without lifelines and stanchions, there's a shortage of handy things to tie to. The battens also seem like a pretty good idea.

[wikakaru]

What do you all tie your Typhoon boom tents to? Without lifelines and stanchions, there's a shortage of handy things to tie to. The battens also seem like a pretty good idea.

For the center ridge, tie to the mast and end of boom. For the forward corners, tie through your turnbuckles. For the aft corners, tie through the drain holes in the toe rail.

If you have trouble finding a cheap source of long battens, PEX pipe may be a good alternative.

--Jim

[John Stone]

I second wag bags. That’s all we use on the Far Reach, a highly modified CD 36, and we cruise for six months at a time.

Camp style cruising is and art unto itself. There is a delightful YouTube channel about dinghy cruising by Roger Barnes an Englishman. It is wonderfully filmed and narrated.

https://youtu.be/aC85FlAREOU

He is also the author of the fantastic Dinghy Cruising Companion who h is filled with all kinds of useful info.

[John383]

These are great suggestions-- THANK YOU all for posting! Lots to think about.... JW