The Big Day... Installing the cushions in the V-Berth to see if the sizing instructions actually made any sense at all. (They didn't.)
CA carefully bagged each piece so that they wouldn't get dirty in the truck. It took a bit of stuffing to get them down the companionway hatch.
But.
They're in the V-Berth. The color looks a lot brighter than the original orange and brown murkiness.
Really. Who thought that dark teak needed brown and orange fabric?
The big improvement was to get access to the storage in the V-berth.
CA cut the long port and starboard cushions into two parts so she had ready access to the storage underneath the berth.
The original Whitby interior had a small drawer inside a larger empty space. She broke the drawer apart and rebuilt it has a locker door so that she would have access to all of the space from the front. Not just one drawer's worth.
Then she cut the cushions so she also had access from the top.
She's going to do the same kind of modification in the aft berth also, dramatically increasing the accessible storage space.
The measurement issue?
For simple foam-filled pillows, one common approach is to cut the fabric the size of the foam block. The seam allowances mean that the block will be slightly compressed and will stay bouncy and resilient for years.
For precision-fit V-berth, however, the advice to cut to the foam block without seam allowances isn't the best.
To assure that the cushions are jammed tight their spaces, the fabric must be cut to fit the berth; it may seem a bit saggy on the cushion.
Saggy is no problem. She also cut pieces of HyperVent to put under each cushion. This gives some additional resilience and allows air circulation.
Plus we use "Comfy Foam Mattress Toppers" on top of the cushions. They roll up and stuff in the hanging locker.
She's going to tackle the aft berth next with a different approach using much, much more precise measurements of each section.



