Forward Companionway Doors

[Jay Knoll]

Hi everyone

Just starting on refinishing the doors and surrounding wood on the forward companionway. I was wondering how are the doors secured open on your boat? Mine has a couple of Velcro type tabs that are supposed to lock the two doors together, and then another set "securing" the folded doors to the wood surround. Hit any type of wave/wake and the whole thing breaks free and the doors are swinging and banging around. Clearly these will not be replaced after the varnish drys!

What works on your boat?

Pics would be nice!

Thanks

Jay

[tego]

Jay, I have the same type of rig for my doors except the velcro is 2"x2" and industrial grade. It works great in any conditions. I anticipate replacing it every couple of years but anything else would get in the way in an already narrow companionway. Ben

[don123]

My boat (an early '84) has separate doors, one port and one starboard, very similar to the aft cabin doors. They each have a mechanical fastener to hold them open, again just like the aft cabin doors

I'm slowly beginning to discover that the first 75 or 100 boats built are different in many small ways than the later factory built boats. My portside forward cabin door pretty much hides the electrical panel mounted above the icebox

Don

[Jay Knoll]

Well I tried the industrial grade Velcro and it was about as good as a piece of masking tape, broke free when the first wake hit us.. So I put a hook on the back of the door to hold it open and made a small wooden "saddle" to hold the other half of the door from swinging.. Works a treat!