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capndar said:
Can you share some detail about the accomodations? We are looking at that boat for next May (with 7.5 people)


Sure!

Sail Pending has four staterooms, each with a standard sized double bed.
There is a single berth available in the port hull which is accessed through the bed of the forward double. The single berth on the starboard side is owner-equipment and not available for access or use.
Stateroom appointments include:
* large hatch above each bed, small ventilation hatch
* shelf (aft cabins) or storage areas (fwd) at bunk
* two 12V lights in each berth,
* one light in the floor-area,
* A single 120V outlet,
* small closet for hang-up clothes and shelf,
* A fan that can be pointed at the bed or floor area,
* AC vent,
* Head with holding tank, AC vent, toiletries caddy, hatch,

The aft port cabin has a generator under the bed which is very quiet. The steady hum was not a problem for the occupants of this cabin and does provide some "white noise" cover sound for the typical bumps, clangs, and pumps you otherwise hear in the night and say "what was that!?" This generator does reduce the storage space available in that cabin, as there is a large area generally under each bed for storage of seldom-used "stuff."

I found the forward cabins a bit more "livable" than the aft cabins.

As you might expect, the heads are small because there are four of them, but it's a good choice if you have a group of four couple that don't know each other all that well (as in our case). The privacy is nice. The toilet size is "extra small." My biz partner who is 6-foot, 6 inches tall and weighs around 280 lb laughingly exclaimed that he couldn't get both his butt and his junk aligned over the toilet opening at the same time! <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" /> Your smaller sized folk should not have any trouble, and he coped ok.

One has to make some space compromises to get four doubles and four heads in a 39ft-2in boat, but it makes for a very cost-effective arrangement if you fill all the cabins. Boat cost for our low-season 11 day charter with 8 people ran just a little more than $1,000 per person (disclaimer: I get a repeat-customer discount). In general, storage space is a bit more limited vs. larger more expensive 4-cabin cats that are 3-4 feet longer. As they say: More is more. That said, we managed to find space to squirrel away 11 days worth of food, 30 gallons of bottled water, and 10 cases of drinks.

If you want a bit more storage space you might consider Moonshadow (CYOA's Orana 44). However, Moonshadow is currently $1K more a week than Sail Pending. I've chartered Moonshadow twice.

Check out CYOA's website to compare features and costs: http://www.cyoacharters.com/cats.asp