Blissful onboard sleep

[dpenz]

For anyone still searching for a way to improve comfort of the Catalina berths, I have just two words for you: "memory foam".  I bought a king-size mattress pad for about $60 at Stein Mart.  I laid out the V-berth cushions on the pad to outline and cut out the V shape.  With contact cement, I patched in a small section at the wide end (the V-berth is wider than king at the aft end).

On the boat, I placed the foam on top of the existing berth cushion.  Then I also fitted king-size sheets over the whole affair, as has been described in the FAQ and on the list.  

The result is a truly remarkable improvement in comfort.  This memory foam material is only 1.25" thick, but it conforms to your body and distributes your weight more evenly.  I also added a memory foam pad to my innerspring mattress at home, and there was some improvement but not so dramatic as the improvement on the boat.

[Alohman]

We did the same thing, bought a foam mattress pad, king size, on sale at Wal-Mart for $20.  The comfort difference was fantastic. However, we did not glue the foam down.  We cut it to size and simply laid it on top.  It does not move at all when we are in the berth and we take it off the boat at the end of the season.

[dpenz]

The only gluing I did was to extend the pad in width, to cover the entire V-berth area.  I agree there is no need to fasten the pad at all, it just lays on top of the berth cushions.