doors ?

[PhiB]

An old 30ft grp sailing boat I'm refitting has four cabins, only one of which has a wooden door. That rear quarter used to be the heads but things have changed about and it's now an aft quarter guest cabin. For a big guy on a small boat refitting a boat from use as a weekend cruiser to be a liveaboard - are doors more of a nuisance than they are worth ?

Alternatively are curtains not always in a twist ?

Thinking aloud - What are doors for :
a.) to contain heat within a smaller space for heating ? / lessens drafts ?
b.) to contain dust and dirt while working within a smaller space for ease of cleaning ?
c.) to keep cabin berths closed so as to avoid humidity or bugs coming in?
d.) to hide an un-made-up bed and personal items of clothing behind it ?
e.) to hide junk / stores piled up behind it ?
f.) for some false sense of security ?
g.) because they double as watertight door should part of the hull be breached. ?
h.) as visual modesty screens ?
i.) because wood look nice ?
j.) because the hook on the back of the door is where you hang your shirt ?
k.) it gives you something to slam to announce that you are angry ..even when no-one else is on board ?
l.) it's a keep out of 'my space' partition ?
m.) as a tool for pulling out a loose tooth ?

The option of sliding doors doesn't appear to be viable when cabinets are both sides of the bulkhead, and the doorway cutouts are so close to the overhead. NB the overhead is quite rounded and so always at an angle to the horizontal above the doorways.

Should doors be on hanging lockers ? ie. without air movement induced by a fan - is it still best to allow for ventilation, or is it not better to only use the lockers for putting very dry things in, and then closing them up so humidity stays out ? NB. the hulls are unlined single skin grp, and the deck is mainly balsa core.

What are your thoughts ?
Thanks

 

[Arcady]

I bought a boat some years ago with a mid cabin that was pretty much open plan with the rest of the accommodation and had no doors. With some reservations I fitted a curtain instead fitting doors. We came to love it - it provided plenty of privacy, it was more flexible (literally!) than a fixed door would have been when moving around in a confined space, and when pulled back it maintained the original open plan look. We made it of heavy-ish material, double sided.

Try it. You might be pleasantly surprised - and if you don’t like it, you can still fit door(s) later.

 

[Yngmar]

a.) to contain heat within a smaller space for heating ?
b.) to contain dust and dirt while working within a smaller space for ease of cleaning ?
e.) to hide junk / stores piled up behind it ?

n) keep cooking smells out of the bedroom
o) stick whiteboards on them and write boat maintenance jobs on those
p) privacy on the loo (there's two of us)

So ours are mostly latched open, except for the occasional case from the list above (cold winter nights, visitors or doing frying/boatwork)

Should doors be on hanging lockers ? ie. without air movement induced by a fan - is it still best to allow for ventilation, or is it not better to only use the lockers for putting very dry things in, and then closing them up so humidity stays out ?

Moisture comes from the hull, even if somewhat insulated, so that wouldn't work. They must allow ventilation. Lockers mostly have doors to keep the stuff inside them when the boat rolls. You can get away with netting or canvas just fine though, doors perhaps keep more dust off the contents though.