companionway door sailboat

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Companionway Design: Down the (Main) Hatch

• By Alvah Simon
• Updated: March 12, 2014

Companionway Design

While most elements of yacht design have evolved with contemporary fashion, main hatches and companionways, until recently, have inexplicably lagged behind. Since they constitute the largest holes in the boat, it seems like a strange oversight. The heavily trafficked companionway is a critical area of transition from topside to below. If it’s poorly designed, the potential for accidents is high.

Let’s start with the offset companionway, often seen in older, classic-plastic production boats. This was a design response to ketch rigs, in which the mizzenmast is often stepped in the center of the bridgedeck. To limit crawling around the spar and rigging, these hatches were offset to port or to starboard. The advantage below was a larger contiguous area for the galley, but the clear disadvantage above was a vulnerability to downflooding in a knockdown. Reliable furling gear has reduced the need to manage sail area via split rigs. And as the ketch configuration waned, so did the offset hatch.

| | The saloon-style washboards on this Bavaria Cruiser 50 are stout and transparent, and stow well against the side walls of the companionway entry. |

While it’s true that many modern cockpits with wide-open sterns are self-bailing, substantial amounts of water can be funneled forward with great force when a boat gets pooped, which can happen when it’s bow down on the face of a large wave. To prevent downflooding, a balance must be maintained among cockpit size, drainage capacity, bridgedeck height and companionway strength.

Thanks to their distance above the water and the open nature of their cockpits, multihulls were incrementally moving toward eliminating bridgedecks altogether, opting instead for a sliding-door runner between the level soles of the cockpit and saloon. But enter the latest catamaran trend — the forward recessed cockpit — and suddenly their design concerns have become more aligned with those of monohulls. Making a humble concession to the vagaries of the sea, the Leopard 48 boasts a 9-inch sill aft and a commendable 12-inch rise in the forward-cockpit entry.

In theory, the higher the bridgedeck, the better. But taken to extremes, they can become difficult to step over. The Dufour 36 addresses this with a simple flip-up acrylic panel that increases the bridgedeck from 9 inches to 13 inches.

| | The ventilation holes on the Dufour 36 washboard slant downward to keep water from dripping down below. |

When it comes to sealing the vertical area of our “big hole,” a few removable washboards may suit a budget trailer-sailer, but such boards are too often found on very expensive and otherwise sophisticated vessels. To ascend into the cockpit from below, one must lift out one or even two boards (a difficult proposition in any weather, but especially in a gale); climb out into the cockpit, possibly on a heavy heel, with hands full; then place the boards back into their slots in exactly the right order and rotation. To make this slightly less inconvenient, designers changed from parallel to tapered companionway sides, which meant you had to lift the board up only a couple of inches to push it in or out. Of course, the disadvantage here is that a boarding sea can also lift the boards an inch or two and implode them. If such boards are stout enough for bluewater use, then by nature they’re bulky and heavy and take up substantial stowage area when not in use.

| | Though increasingly rare, the offset hatch on this old Alden Malabar was employed to reduce the clutter and confusion caused by a mizzenmast stepped in the middle of the bridgedeck. |

Many designers have gone to saloon-style side-hinged boards. The boards remain in place, which is good. But unless they’re in a recessed passageway with sidewalls on which to fasten, it’s often difficult to leave them in an open position; they’re also prone to snagging sheets. And why some are louvered is a complete mystery.

To my thinking, the perfect system offers robust, fixed boards that swing out, fold down, or drop into a recess built into the bridgedeck. They may have ventilation holes, but these either are small or can be sealed off in extreme conditions. The boards are see-though and offer good visual communication between the cockpit and below.

The shape and height of the companionway entry impacts its safety. The most vulnerable time at sea is when sleepy crew rush from below to deal with confused and cacophonous situations, such as a pre-dawn squall line. Sailors then may be exposed to slapping sheets, bone-crushing booms, or the possibility of being pitched headlong into the sea before they can be properly tethered in. The new concept of a recessed companionway entry offers initial containment side to side and protection from above until one can get tethered and assess the wind and sea conditions. The loss of cockpit space that results from pushing the main bulkhead aft to make room for the recessed entry is a small price to pay for such a safety feature.

| | On the Beneteau Sense 46, the walk-through hatches are similar to regular household doors. |

Finally, we seal the horizontal area of our big hole with the sliding hatch. It needs to slide easily with little play on its rails to prevent water from floating it and gushing below. Ideally, it should be protected by a forward sea hood and, arguably, by an overhead dodger. Whereas the strength of traditional building materials sensibly limits the size of the sliding hatch, modern materials such as Lexan are often stronger than the supporting hull structures themselves. This allows designers to increase hatch size for ease of access and increased light below.

And as for the old barrel bolt that secures the sliding hatch from the inside, it must finally and forever disappear from our modern fleet. Yes, it’s important to secure the hatch so that a boarding sea can’t force it open and no one can accidentally lean on it and fall in, but the hatch should have a dual-access latch that can be operated from above and below so no one is ever locked into or out of the interior of the boat.

We owed the initial progress on many of these sound concepts to such French builders as Jeanneau, Beneteau and Dufour, which employed the innovative Goiot line of deck hardware. Many other manufacturers, including Bavaria, have since followed suit. Passport Yachts also earns high honors for the overall integration of many of these features into its boats. Passport’s fixed, clear hatchboards slide down to several determined heights before ultimately resting in a bridgedeck well, creating a sill low enough to step over easily and wide enough to sit on comfortably.

| | Aboard the Hallberg-Rassy 372, the traditional companionway treatment is compact and uses sliding hatchboards. Note the robust rails, which provide secure and welcome handholds. |

The Beneteau Sense series is pioneering new ground via a designed entry that’s more like a domestic doorway than a maritime hatch. On the Sense 55, this walk-though hatch is sealed with a horizontally hinged acrylic door that, with the touch of a button, rolls down under the cockpit sole, much like an escalator step. Only time will tell if the mechanism is reliable and if the unusually large hatch can resist the force of an angry ocean, which weighs 63 pounds per cubic foot.

The height, inclination and even shape of the companionway steps will determine if entry and exit will be safe at sea. The worst-case scenario is an almost vertical ladder of substantial height, with shallow steps, ineffective nonskid, no side containment for the feet and no ergonomically placed handholds. The best is a series of wide, scalloped steps possessing sufficient incline to walk up (as opposed to climb), enough depth to accept the whole foot on descent, and a short “hallway” enclosing the upper area of the steps. Stout handholds should be strategically placed on deck as well as below.

| | Everything about this Oyster 625, including the wide steps and sturdy handholds, is just right. The hatchboards drop into a generous storage well; latches can be operated from above or below. |

Where designers were once reluctant to decrease the vertical angle of the steps, so as to avoid intruding upon precious interior space, the trend toward increased interior volume, and steps that are incorporated into the engine’s access hatch, have mitigated this concern. But the length of the sliding hatch must match the interior depth of the stairwell in order to create standing headroom at the level of each step.

A small but unfortunate feature to consider is the locking system. A tempered external padlock may be strong, but the hasp that fastens it is often a flimsy affair attached with a couple of short sheet-metal screws. Although no guarantee against a determined thief, the integral key latch offers some deterrence.

In the old days of massive crews, it was said that only admirals and idiots sat in the companionway, which is why I’m always careful to address my wife as Admiral when I find her there. But with the little foot traffic that’s inherent to shorthanded sailing, the companionway’s top step is a warm and dry area from which to keep a good watch.

In the simplest terms, the core mission of the main hatch and companionway is to let the people in and keep the water out. Whether you’re considering a new vessel or upgrading an old one, pay meticulous attention to the location, design and strength of the hatch and companionway to determine how well it serves these basic purposes.

This article first appeared in the August 2013 issue of Cruising World. Click here to read more in our Design Trends series.

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A more companionable companionway

Posted by Jim Shroeger | Hull & Structure , Projects

Dropboards give way to user-friendly doors

Companionway dropboards are cumbersome to remove and replace and inconvenient to store. When you need them, they’re often buried deep in a locker. What’s a sailor to do?

My solution on Sundew, our Watkins 27, is simple: companionway doors. They’re quick and easy to open and close and, because they’re always in place, storage isn’t an issue. Mine have screened inserts for when we want ventilation and solid closures for when we don’t. Using primarily scrap lumber, I built a set of companionway doors for less than $100.

I started with a trip to my local Home Depot, where special-order windows from Asia often arrive on Philippine-mahogany pallets that usually end up being discarded. I obtained all the lumber I needed for just the labor required to disassemble the pallets.

First, a pattern

To construct the doors, I first made a pattern. I put the old dropboards in place in the companionway to serve as a surface upon which to create the pattern, then cut and taped together pieces of tagboard (similar to posterboard) to make a single sheet that extended past the perimeter of the companionway opening. Using a Sharpie, I traced the exact perimeter of the companionway opening and drew a vertical centerline where the doors would meet when closed.

Each door was to be constructed from four pieces: two sides (stiles), a top rail, and a bottom rail, for eight pieces total. I took measurements from the pattern to determine the total length of dimensional lumber I would need. After deciding on 2 x ¾ inch for the door frames, I used a 10-inch table saw to cut some of the mahogany salvaged from the pallets to the desired thickness, then to trim them to the 2-inch width. (An alternative would have been to purchase nominal 1 x 6 mahogany boards, which are actually ¾ x 5½ inches.)

The centerline I drew on my template indicated the inboard side of each door. I laid each piece of each door, one at a time, onto the pattern and marked the ends where I’d have to cut. This method is especially useful for easily and accurately marking the angles at the tops and bottoms of the outboard stiles. It was my intention to join the pieces with lap joints, which maximize the gluing surface and eliminate the need for fasteners, so I marked each board to span the entire width or height of the individual door.

Jim assembled his companionway door frames with lap joints. The joints are easy to cut, present large gluing surfaces, and don’t need fasteners.

After cutting all eight pieces to size, I began work on the joints at the corners of the doors. I started by placing all four stiles (an inboard and outboard stile for each door) in their proper places on the pattern, then laid the rails on top of and overlapping the stiles. Where they overlapped, I would be cutting away half the thickness of each piece to make the lap joints.

I marked the boundaries of the overlap on each piece, outlining the area of the joint. Once I’d marked all the pieces, I set the blade height of my table saw to half the board thickness ( 3 ⁄ 8 inch). For each lap, I made a cut 2 inches from, and parallel to, the end of the stock, followed by several more passes between that cut and the end of the board. The material that remained between the cuts I removed with a ¾ -inch wood chisel. I repeated this process at the end of each board, creating clean notches that allowed the pieces to fit flush together.

With the joints cut, I assembled the door pieces directly on the pattern again. It was still possible, at this point, to make minor adjustments so the doors would exactly match the pattern. Once I felt all the boards were cut and chiseled perfectly, I prepared to assemble them.

Pattern board

The first step in assembling the doors was to make a pattern board. I took a piece of 3 ⁄ 8 -inch plywood big enough to fit under the entire pattern. At each corner, I attached a 4-inch-long leg cut from a 2 x 4. I then attached my tagboard template to the pattern board (glue or staples work well).

I assembled one door at a time. After covering the pattern with wax paper, I clamped the door stiles in posi- tion on the board with 4-inch C-clamps. Next, I applied waterproof glue (Titebond or Gorilla Glue work well) to the joint areas and then clamped the top and bottom rails directly to the pattern board.

After the glue had fully set, I removed the assembled frames from the pattern board and sanded each joint smooth. I now had two frames into which I would build permanent screens and channels to hold removable wooden inserts.

The battens that hold the screening in place are on the inside of the door. Fastened with brads, they can be removed if necessary.

For the screens, I used black nylon screen stock held in place by battens fastened to the inside edges of the door frames. Using the table saw, I cut lengths of mahogany with a ¼ x ¾-inch cross section. From this material, I cut eight pieces, one for each inside edge.

For each door, I cut a piece of screen stock larger than the inside opening of the door (large enough that the excess would extend beyond the battens once they were in place and I could cut it off with a utility knife). While holding the screening so it would be flush with the outside of the finished door, I used ¾-inch brads to fasten the ¼-inch stock to secure one edge of the screen to the inside of one of the door stiles.

With one side secured, attaching the other sides was easier, but I found it important to stretch the screen stock as I installed it to prevent sags or loose spots. I used brads, rather than glue, to attach the ¼-inch stock, to make it easier to replace the screen should it get torn.

At this point I had two doors that were smoothed and screened. The next step was to create solid panels I could insert into each door when we didn’t want ventilation.

Jim hung the doors on drop-in hinges

Jim fitted a barrel bolt so he could secure them

Removable panels

For the solid panels to be removable, I needed to fashion channels on the sides and bottoms of the door frames for them to slide into. I did this by fastening lengths of L-shaped mahogany to the interior faces of the frames.

Imagining panels that were just a bit taller and wider than the screens, I measured the lengths of the sides and bottoms of the doors to give me an idea of the total length of channel I’d need. I then ran a long length of ¾ x ¾-inch mahogany through my table saw to create an L-shaped cross section (like a corner molding) with a ¼-inch wall thickness on both legs.

After making precise measurements of the sides and bottom of the panel I wanted, I cut the pieces I needed from the length of channel. I then pre-drilled the channel pieces and fastened them to the doors with 1-inch finish brads.

Jim made removable solid panels to fit into channels on the inside of each door.

Once the channels were in place, I measured the space they defined, side-to-side and top-to-bottom. I transferred these measurements to a piece of 3 ⁄ 16 -inch floor underlayment I bought at Home Depot. One side of this underlayment is finished Philippine mahogany, also called Lauan. I cut out and trimmed two inserts to fit the openings.

He can slip them into place when he wants to close up the boat or remove them in fine weather when he wants some ventilation.

Next, I attached a small handle at the inside top of each insert to allow for their easy removal. I made my own handles from 1 x 1 x 3-inch blocks of mahogany, but purchased handles would work too. Finally, to complete the panel, I used the ¾ x ¾-inch square stock to make a trim piece that I attached to the top. I cut the ends of the trim piece at the same angle as the panel sides so that, when the panel is inserted, the trim lines up with the top edges of the side channels.

Finishing touches

The complete assembly: Jim can still get ventilation without bugs while not exposing the boat’s interior to the view of passersby in the marina.

Next, I installed a 1/4 x 1 1/2-inch striker board on the inside of the starboard door. it extends past the inboard edge by 1/2 inch, creating a surface for the port-side door to close against. The unfinished door assemblies were now complete and ready for me to install them and add the finishing touches.

I hung the doors with two pairs of 3-inch drop-in hinges that I found at Hamilton Marine. I attached one side of one hinge to the door 3 inches from the top and another 3 inches from the bottom. While holding the door in place, I marked the position for the second half of each hinge on the companionway frame. After I’d secured all the hinge pieces, I was able to drop our new companionway doors into position and try them out.

The top screens are made so the port side can be opened to allow passage into and out of the cabin.

When I was satisfied that everything fit and operated properly, I varnished the doors and fitted the hardware that would hold them closed. I installed a brass barrel bolt at the bottom of the starboard-side door, on the inside adjacent to the striker plate, and drilled a hole in the companionway sill for the bolt to engage. At the tops of the doors, I installed a hook latch. Now the doors could be secured.

Our new companionway doors are a great addition to our good old boat. They add some nautical charm and will make our future sailing adventures easier and more enjoyable.

About The Author

Jim Shroeger

Jim Shroeger has been sailing for 50 years. He began in Jet 14s at the University of Michigan and progressed through a series of small- and medium-sized daysailers, including a Star. In the early 1970s, Jim and his wife, Barbara, and their two kids began their summer family cruises on the Great Lakes, which they continue to this day in their current boat, Sundew, a Watkins 27.

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Doors for catalina sailboats, companionway doors.

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September 9, 2012

How to build sailboat companionway doors..

3 comments:

Great way to upgrade your boat! I love when simple upgrades that you can do yourself make a huge difference.

Thanks for the inspiration. I just rebuilt my Companionway doors based on your project. Thanks again!

Hello, I love your post. The DIY/anarchist/punk sailor tendency has been increasing, so it's time we get together. In this time we can share skills, tell stories, have races, exchange plans, swap charts, and really, anything we want. So come down overflowing with ideas, stories, challenges, discussions, and anything else you'd imagine welcome. thanks a lot!~ Wayne Williams

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Bomar’s 2000 Series Companionway Sliding Door incorporates features not previously available in a bent companionway door . Bomar (Aluminum 2000) is the country’s leading ...

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new companionway doors

• Thread starter john2
• Start date Aug 14, 2023
• Catalina Owner Forums
• Catalina 310

Last winter i made a set of doors, The sliding boards are gone! So much easy opening/closing. it has a garage door lock build in, a no lose lock needed. The windows can be changed with screens. finally i found the perfect place for storage when sailing. john.  

Attachments

Very nice. Where do you store the screen panels? My screens suffer a lot from my abuse.  

john2 said: Last winter i made a set of doors, The sliding boards are gone! So much easy opening/closing. Click to expand

Hayden Watson

I prefer the bifold doors to seperate doors. So much easier to just fold the door away. On My C30 the bifold doors have captive hinges with spring mounted pins so that they cannot come loose unless you pull up on the knerled knob to release the pin. They also fit into the oringinal hatch board track so that I can install the old drop boards for winter and keep the pretty ones at home.  

Built these out of Starboard. Not Zacor quality but good enough for me.  

Wow, very nice work, both of you! Yes, the whole companionway is a design mess in general on contemporary sailboats, in my opinion, and mine is like a half-finished design. I have very nice, solid teak hatch boards but the are unwieldy. I also have a 'smoked', one piece acrylic piece. But the sliding hatch is a mess, also smoked acrylic, 1/2" thick (strong enough to stand on), but there's no handle inside or outside to open or close it; and the locking tab was always stabbing me in the back so I just removed it. I wish I had a solution! I have often thought that a pair tambour-style doors would be cool.  

Thank you for sharing your projects. Both are very nice. I'm impressed that the doors can hang between the engine cover and the wall of the head.  

u0958901 said: Built these out of Starboard. Not Zacor quality but good enough for me. Click to expand

2023-08-22_11-44-10

2023-08-22_11-47-40

ToddL214 said: Thank you for sharing your projects. Both are very nice. I'm impressed that the doors can hang between the engine cover and the wall of the head. Click to expand

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