securing companionway from inside

rmeador · #1 (**permalink**) 10-04-2010

Since I'm living aboard, I thought it would be prudent to be able to lock the companionway from the inside (note that I already have combination locks for locking it from the outside). I went to Home Depot tonight and I found a couple of things that I believe were called "surface bolts" that looked like they could be made to work, but I'm wondering if there is a better solution. My companionway is somewhat different than most. The top slides back like on a normal one, but the front, where most boats have dropboards, I have two panels that fold to the side. They're hinged in the middle to each other and on one side to the hull (it's not saloon doors, where they open in the middle; mine both fold to one side). Any ideas?

mitiempo · #2 (**permalink**) 10-04-2010

I assume they hinge out in the middle. A barrel bolt on the opening side going into the edge of the companionway and something that crosses both parts of the door to stop them hinging in the middle. Or 2 barrel bolts going up into the overhead slider, one from each half of the door.

sailingdog · #3 (**permalink**) 10-04-2010

So, you have a bifold door in place of dropboards. It is pretty easy to lock those—putting a bar across them would lock them quite securely. Put a bracket for the bar on each door and then brackets on each side of the companionway, and use fast pins to lock the bar in position on each end.

Then you can use a surface mount deadbolt lock to secure the slider to the bifold door.

You may need to do something to secure the hinges, since the hinge pin is probably exposed and if it was removed, one half of the bifold door would be fairly easily removed at that point. This is why I think a bar is a better bet than using barrel bolts.

rmeador · #4 (**permalink**) 10-04-2010

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention... the hinge that connects the bifold doors to the hull is one of the lift-out types, so I can easily remove the doors (or swap them out with screen doors, which I have). That's very convenient, but also makes for somewhat less security. I'm liking the idea of two barrel bolts up into the slider. It would mean I can't fold the doors in half out of the way (since the barrel bolts are too thick to allow it to fully fold in half), but I'll still be able to have it unfolded and open, so that isn't too much of a problem.