Has anyone converted a hinged companionway hatch into a sliding one -trailer sailer size BTW

[peterhull]

I am in the process of converting my GRP hinged companionway hatch on my Privateer 20 trailer sailer. I am doing all the work in GRP. I have added some 30 mm 'wings' on the bottom edge of each side.

The next stage is to form a sort of GRP shallow captive strip along the coachroof to make sure the 'wings' cannot lift.

I have added a thin 2mm Tufnol strip to the bottom edge of the wing to reduce friction and help it slide more smoothly.

I would be interested to hear of anyone who has done this to exchange experiences and ideas maybe

 

[William_H]

Looks good to me. Don't forget to fit a ridge at the front under the covedr to stop[ water running back from deck. On mine the wings sit into wood slotted for the wings. Makes it easy to remove the hatch cover. ol'will

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Hinged hatches are fitted to smaller boats because they would have been seen to be necessary by the designer. Experience with sailing a boat of this size (a Beneteau 211), would lead me to suggest that a hinged, or, in the case of the 211, pop-up, hatch, is more practical. There may not, for instance, given the scale of the boat, to slide a hatch far enough forward to be practical.

 

[peterhull]

Thanks Will, it is very time consuming. Yes it was suggested by a member of the Privateer Owners Association that I make a ' garage' for it. I want to get it in the water this coming season and I think that may just take too long now but I have not ruled it out in future. I like grp, it so strong and durable but hazardous in terms of dust and fumes. I did wonder about the ability of removing it but I am hoping it wont need removing for a decades when I have finished with the runners, they should last me out as well as the next owner!!

Looks good to me. Don't forget to fit a ridge at the front under the covedr to stop[ water running back from deck. On mine the wings sit into wood slotted for the wings. Makes it easy to remove the hatch cover. ol'will

 

[rogerthebodger]

How do you intend to prevent the sliding hatch from lifting up

On one of mine the outside vertical section of the hatch has a return going inwards the fits in a slot on the fixed hatch support.

Looking again the I see you have a return going outwards so you could fit a fixed section over the top of that return booted from the inside of the roof.

 

[bluerm166]

Not sure if this is relevant to your particular hatch or plans for a sliding version but this is a fairly simple mod. that I made on our Jeanneau Sun 2000.Made things much more comvenient and improved access.

 

[peterhull]

Experience with sailing a boat of this size (a Beneteau 211), would lead me to suggest that a hinged, or, in the case of the 211, pop-up, hatch, is more practical.

Thanks mmm I had a hinged hatch on my last boat a Dufour T6 and it lost its support and came down heavily on my fingers resting on the upstand of the companion way, quite painful. There are other reasons as well. If you want a spray hood, a hinged one may be difficult if not impossible to hinge up and in any case it would block the view forward. I am rather sold on sliding hatch.

 

[peterhull]

Not sure if this is relevant to your particular hatch or plans for a sliding version but this is a fairly simple mod. that I made on our Jeanneau Sun 2000.Made things much more comvenient and improved access.View attachment 105178View attachment 105178

Oh thats a good system I quite like that, just goes to show that different minds come up with quite different solutions!! Thanks

 

[peterhull]

How do you intend to prevent the sliding hatch from lifting up

On one of mine the outside vertical section of the hatch has a return going inwards the fits in a slot on the fixed hatch support.

Looking again the I see you have a return going outwards so you could fit a fixed section over the top of that return booted from the inside of the roof.

Yes it isn't finished yet, as you suggest I intend to fit a captive strip to retain the hatch thanks for your interest though