Sundeck Trawler

[ancora]

We've owned our Nova sundeck for 22 years. Interior room up the wazzoo, but the top hamper makes her roll in any sea.

 

[Carson88]

Consider how you will use the boat. If most of your time will be spent at your home dock, then boarding becomes less of a consideration. Most likely at your home dock, you will make reasonable accommodations to board. At our marina, the majority of boats rarely travel to another marina.
The sundeck provides additional sheltered outdoor space that we find ourselves using a fair amount of our time aboard.

 

[Comodave]

Whatever you decide on you will learn some tricks to make it work for you. Look at some boats and it will help you decide what will work for you. When you are looking at boats sit down and just relax for a while. Tell the salesman to give you some time. Look around and see if you feel comfortable in the boat. When you find one that feels right you will know it. Then learn how to handle the boat by practicing. Our current boat is an example. When we first looked at it my wife said absolutely not. It has a walk through windshield and once on the bow the rails are pretty useless. So when we made the decision to get it I put a bow and stern thrusters on it. Now she never has to go on the bow when we are docking. She stands by the stern with a stern line. She steps off when I back the boat into a slip. Takes the stern line and makes it fast. Then she walks to the after spring cleat where we have tied the permanent bow line, unties it off the cleat and walks forward to the bow and makes the bow line fast.

 

[ranger58sb]

In your case, you went big enough on the current boat that you gain a flybridge big and comfortable enough to use as a good outdoor space. That makes up for not having the sundeck as outdoor space, I think. And at your size, you also don't necessarily need the ability to pack in a large aft stateroom to get enough living space. In other worse, scaling up the size sometimes fixes the shortcomings of one design and makes living with the shortcomings of another design unnecessary.

Yes, good points.

But also, in our case, our previous 42 was laid out the same way, same advantages (for us)... so I guess I could say our current size isn't our whole solution.

As it happens, the big improvement (goal) from our current size is all about a full household-style walk-around in our stateroom, while retaining the rest of the same basic layout we had before. (At significant cost, of course... sigh...)

-Chris

 

[Don L]

If you have the sundeck all sealed up with an enclosure doesn't it become a greenhouse? Is it really usable in the Florida sun?

Yes I understand some have air conditioning, but can it really keep up in the space?

 

[rslifkin]

If you have the sundeck all sealed up with an enclosure doesn't it become a greenhouse? Is it really usable in the Florida sun?

Yes I understand some have air conditioning, but can it really keep up in the space?

It all depends on how the enclosure is designed. It'll get hot in the sun with it all closed up, but if you can open up the sides enough for airflow then it's not an issue (and having a bimini or hardtop means you're not baking in the sun).

 

[PNW]

hey y'all I am late to the party but just bought a sundeck and found this thread in the search query just to see who else has one and what they put up there! I am so curious because I have not seen any other boats like this in the marinas I've been in where I noticed a sundeck that has hand height handrails and appears in all ways to be treated like a full usable deck. Myself it does seem a perfect place to put a dinghy but there is no crane onboard right now and there is a really nice davits on the stern. I have thought of a ton of creative ways to use the sundeck space but my main question to others with sundecks is: how big is the concern of increasing the height of the CoG by adding 500-1000lbs up there (let's say I added a few solar panels, a picnic table, some potted plants, a BBQ grill, whatever you can imagine) if there is no wind concern? (like I know I have to watch out for wind when I'm out on the hook or underway but this is just ideas for using it at the dock)

Other than that I'm just curious what you put up there?

 

[Endeavor GB 32]

We had a 36' Nova, I believe it is the same boat as a Heritage East 36 sundeck. After 3 months my wife said that she hated the boat and didn't want to go out on it again. She has short legs, and the side decks are high from the dock. She had a hard time getting on after untying the dock lines when departing, then stressed the whole trip about doing the opposite on arriving. "Happy wife, happy life," so we sold it and bought a 42 Grand Banks. Happy boating for many years until "8-foot itis" got us. Good luck!
Regards,
Scott