companion way doors

[River]

I have been thinking about converting the wash boards on my pearson 30 to swinging doors. What are the opinions on safety, leaking, and strength for doors. I''ve seen boats with doors but the p-30 has a very large opening. Thanks

[paulk]

Swinging doors aren''t as waterproof, burglarproof, or safe as drop-sliders. They also take up space, requiring not only the room to swing but space in the cockpit once they''re open. Unless they''re planned out well, the open doors may also cover instruments mounted on the aft cabin bulkhead. If you make them with the lift-off hinges, you have the same storage problem as with drop=slide hatchboards. Swinging doors are also difficult to make. Getting the two sides to match properly and latch in the middle, overlap the bottom of the opening so as to keep water out and not warp out of alignment is really tricky. I think Chappelle must have at least an entire chapter on how to go about selecting the wood, examining the grain, matching the sides, figuring out the hardware, and rabbeting out the sides. This tells me that it must take about 20 years to get it right the first time, and then maybe another 5 years to get it right again. Of course you won''t know if you''ve got it right until you''ve tried. Then a wave or a crew will break it by falling against it in a seaway, or someone will kick it in so they can steal your radio too. I''d stick with the drop-slides.

[BigRed56]

Ahoy foolish one, paulk has it right stick to slides, but if yer of a mind to change let me know wher ye be I be needing a few things for me boat . Pirate of Pine Island

[obiec]

My Islander 33 has a swing door and I love it at first it turned me off to th boat but it s disigned well never is it in the way it opens and closes so quikly that I think it makes it safer. for I am much mor likly to have my cabin closed I dont have the boards in my way. and during the winter with heat it is realy nice when you are in and out. but the boat was disigned that way. I just sold her and bought a 38 Ingrid so I am back to boards, Bummer.

[tsenator]

I put nice companionway doors on my C36 and I love them. At first I thought I would only use them in at dock or what have you, but I have left them on virtually all the time. The light that they bring in and the ease of opening and closing due to inclimate weather is a godsend. They align very well even though they are fairly long. They are very nicely custom made hatches , albeit, not cheap.

Take a look they are at http://www.cruisingconcepts.com/Codoor.htm

I have left them on even when sailing in 10-12 foot seas. No I wouldn''t want to fall against them, I really don''t think they''d hold up that well and would most likely turn to tinder if I did.

But another nice feauture of these doors is that they can lift off and you can still use the original drop in hatches. If it got *really* snotty, I would put the drop in slides, but in the 2 years I''ve owned the doors I have yet to put the drop in slide back.

As far as safety goes. If anyone really wants to break into a boat with drop in slides, all they need is a bolt cutter. I would argue its not much harder to break into any boat when a thief wants something.