Advice on crew numbers and sleeping capabilites

Congrats! Not familiar with the 371 specifically but if I were doing that trip in my boat I'd be looking for 3 crew eg Skipper plus 2 (assuming all were competent and able to keep a watch, including at night). I would plan on not sleeping in the forecabin (but would be ok downwind or when motoring in flat water). Ideally saloon benches would make the best berths under way. You could manage without lee cloths by stacking sails / kit bags in the gap between the table and berth (I did a passage from France - St Lucia with no lee cloths including 4 days of a continuous gale!). Aft cabin would make a reasonable berth too, again, if you wedged kit bags to divide the berth

Congratulations on getting your 371. My firstHanse was a 292 which I picked up at grGreifswald and sailed back to Strangford Lough, so not a dissimilar trip. I did the trip with a crew of 3 which worked reasonably well, however having since done a lot of night sailing my preference is for a crew of 4. Nobody leaves the cockpit at night and during the day only when clipped on and somebody else on the helm. Similarly at night I always have two crew on but have watches split so that there is continuity with regard to any events that might be happening and for everyone they share each half of their watch with a different crew member. This I feel keeps people more alert and minimises risk. I didn’t fit Lee cloths and still haven’t on my 370 and have found that for sleeping, as already pointed out, using bags to wedge yourself in or lying at the edge of the berth against the hull is very comfortable. 

sgrhma2 wrote: Congratulations on getting your 371. My firstHanse was a 292 which I picked up at grGreifswald and sailed back to Strangford Lough, so not a dissimilar trip. I did the trip with a crew of 3 which worked reasonably well, however having since done a lot of night sailing my preference is for a crew of 4. Nobody leaves the cockpit at night and during the day only when clipped on and somebody else on the helm. Similarly at night I always have two crew on but have watches split so that there is continuity with regard to any events that might be happening and for everyone they share each half of their watch with a different crew member. This I feel keeps people more alert and minimises risk. I didn’t fit Lee cloths and still haven’t on my 370 and have found that for sleeping, as already pointed out, using bags to wedge yourself in or lying at the edge of the berth against the hull is very comfortable.  The most important thing is that you’re buying the boat to enjoy it, so if the weather forecast for your planned passage isn’t great go back to the pub or do some site seeing, but wait until the weather is good enough for an enjoyable sail. You’ve got yourself a fantastic very capable boat that could do the trip in almost any weather, but the whole idea is to enjoy it rather than beating yourself up. If you’re ever up Strangford direction give ma a shout. Simon

That is really interesting Samuel - I love the day bag idea and are your types of lee cloths available online? Thanks PJ