TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Aft or Forward Cabin?

Hi All. New here - glad the islands fared better than the Bahamas through this last storm! My family and I are avid St John fans - have been going there every year for over 10 years. We always stayed at Maho Bay Camps - mixed with villa stays. This year we're breaking away (albeit with some trepidation!) and have arranged a catamaran charter out of Road Town (captained). I'm sure I'll have a ton of questions between now and the New Year - but my wife and I were just looking at the layout - and we're wondering: is it better to stay in an aft or forward cabin? The boat is a Lagoon 450F (4 Doubles). Any thoughts?

I like aft on Moorings cat. Seems a bit roomier (maybe a couple square inches).

If your crew likes to stay up late partying, the aft cabins will be very noisy. The forward cabins will get the generator noise all night. 😱😱😱

My preference is always aft.
Or if unlucky on the draw... forward, hull on other side of genset

Just had this conversation with our crew for an upcoming charter. Lagoon 450's length of cabin fore and aft is the same. Aft cabin will have about 6" more in width. I'd prefer the extra space.

I've always preferred aft. Although if you aren't going to run the A/C at night, I'd go with a forward cabin as they have a better breeze.

Thanks everyone! Maytrix - that was my dilemma! We're going in January - so I'm thinking it might be breezy enough and comfortable at night to leave the A/C off and the hatches open. Are we going to get a decent breeze in the aft cabin? I'd love the extra room - and I'm pretty sure the "kids" (all young 20s) will probably head in around the same time we do.

You can still get decent breeze in the aft cabins but everyone needs to keep their doors open a little (and both hatches)which no one seems to want to do any more. We've found with most crews there's always someone that wants A/C so the gen stays on most nights. Each cabin has the option to turn theirs off and open the hatch if they like but the gen noise is almost unavoidable.

On all the cats we've been on, the aft hatches are mostly blocked so they don't get a direct breeze. That's why the forward cabins are better. And you are right, in January, you can get by without the A/C if you want to.

So I ended up with the port-aft cabin. Tried not running the AC - and at least on this boat (45' Lagoon) it wasn't an option. You get very little air flow (and with rain almost every night, it just doesn't work.). I think the aft cabin may be a bit quieter than the forward cabins as the mooring ball constantly slaps at the hull - and since that is happening up front, my guess is that it's louder up there. All-in-all there didn't seem to be much difference between fore and aft.

Certainly there are ways to secure the mooring lines so they don't 'constantly slaps at the hull' in the future.

Likely so - I'm not a sailor. Had a paid captain who slept up in the forward-most berth and I guess it didn't bother him! It really didn't bother me either - more of an observation.