Companionway door ideas

[Rustic Charm]

Originally Posted by Jolly Roger

I just got fed-up lifting the two heavy solid teak washboards in and out of my companionway, and there was no place to stow them in the cockpit either. I spliced and glued them together, then cut them in half to form two doors. Then I hinged them and fitted two nice leaded light infills of Florida lighthouses.
Perfect!

Very nice Jolly, I appreciate what you mean with not having bad weather so don't have to plan for it. Unfortunately for me, it's not that I'm even trying to comply with any standards, but whilst I do my best to avoid really heavy weather, I've twice got caught in heavier enough weather that having doors that open inwards would be a risk to me. Which is the same reason I've decided I need a new way of stowing my tender, alternative to the rear davits, as I've been dumped on once from quite a height.

[Jolly Roger]

It wasn’t possible to make the doors open outwards because of the stupid cockpit seat moulding. And like I said, the slots for the washboards are still there, so if I am ever in fear of swamping I can easily slide in a piece of wood to raise the threshold, and another to block the entrance completely.
But then, my center cockpit coamings are six feet from the waterline, which is higher more than most sailboats, (measure yours and see), so it would have to be a real whopper of a curly to swamp the cockpit.
By the way I was only being facetious about never having heavy weather. I’ve crossed one of the worst seas in the world, The Bay of Biscay—twice. So I know what the ocean can be like.