I'm about to head to the San Juans for a couple of weeks, and while I've replaced most of the cushions in the boat, I have yet to replace the V-berth cushions. And since the foam is 40 years old (I'm assuming they're original based on the fabric).... they don't provide much support to sleep on.
No time to get new ones made, so I went to a local mattress/upholstery/whatever shop that advertised sheets of foam. Found one I liked - 3" thick, a composite of memory foam and a slightly firmer substrate - and when the guy was done pounding keys on his adding machine he told me a sheet of that foam would cost $650, plus $75/hour to template the v-berth and cut it to shape.
Nope.
Turns out, Amazon sells 3"-thick king-size mattress toppers out of (what appears to be) very similar foam. For 89 bucks. Delivered to my front door. (well, lobbed toward the door from halfway down the driveway, but... I digress)
Today I templated the v-berth platform, and just finished cutting the foam to shape (*). Probably not professional-grade work, but no one will ever see it but me, and it's more than good enough for purpose. I even tapered the edges to match the inside contour of the topsides.
(*) pro-tip from the young lady who made my other cushions: cutting foam with an electric carving knife is easy and clean. It would have taken me daaaaays to do this with scissors or an x-acto knife.
Currently has a little hump down the middle, an artifact of having been shipped in a very tight roll, but I'm told that'll go away after it has had a chance to breathe for a few days.
Now...anyone need a template for the v-berth of a 32-III? Kidding, mostly, but if anyone local wants it they can have it, just need to pick it up before next week's recycle-day.
Bruce
No time to get new ones made, so I went to a local mattress/upholstery/whatever shop that advertised sheets of foam. Found one I liked - 3" thick, a composite of memory foam and a slightly firmer substrate - and when the guy was done pounding keys on his adding machine he told me a sheet of that foam would cost $650, plus $75/hour to template the v-berth and cut it to shape.
Nope.
Turns out, Amazon sells 3"-thick king-size mattress toppers out of (what appears to be) very similar foam. For 89 bucks. Delivered to my front door. (well, lobbed toward the door from halfway down the driveway, but... I digress)
Today I templated the v-berth platform, and just finished cutting the foam to shape (*). Probably not professional-grade work, but no one will ever see it but me, and it's more than good enough for purpose. I even tapered the edges to match the inside contour of the topsides.
(*) pro-tip from the young lady who made my other cushions: cutting foam with an electric carving knife is easy and clean. It would have taken me daaaaays to do this with scissors or an x-acto knife.
Currently has a little hump down the middle, an artifact of having been shipped in a very tight roll, but I'm told that'll go away after it has had a chance to breathe for a few days.
Now...anyone need a template for the v-berth of a 32-III? Kidding, mostly, but if anyone local wants it they can have it, just need to pick it up before next week's recycle-day.
Bruce
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