Interesting design for compact stairs

[ILikeRust]

Just saw this and thought it could be adapted for the tight spaces typical to boats:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/0 ... rcase.html

[Quetzalsailor]

That's a Lapeyre Stair, or an 'alternating tread' stair: http://www.lapeyrestair.com/. Not all that uncommon for tight industrial applications.

I think it'd scare me to death on a bouncing little boat. On the other hand, you get a full tread depth.

[ILikeRust]

There are some cool designs out there of alternating-tread stairs, some of which make for neat, compact storage space:

[Tom Young]

Interesting stuff. One of the first things I look at in a boat ad is the ladder. How far is it from the sole to the cockpit? That alone can tell you a lot about the boat and how it will feel. Those of us in low freeboard design boats (many of us here) take for granted the short rise between sole and cockpit. I get a whole different feeling looking down the ladder of a high freeboard boat. Then I imagine what the ladder would be like in a rough sea.

Those ladders should get a lot of design time.

Another stairway space saver is the winder. I confess, I've used them quite a bit but with caution, and usually just at the bottom.

Looking at the stairways in the above post, I know there are certain areas that are really not steps, but slides. So it goes with winders.

I helped a friend with a severe winder (speced in a house plan) years ago. The small house only allowed space for the full winder. It was pretty, and fun to build.....

To give you an idea of what it could be though, one over exuberant young guy(thank god) took the short route down the middle one night. It took a while to get his leg out of the hole in the sheetrock midway,....

[Figment]

I built an alternating tread in my former residence. Guests were generally freaked out. Lots of knocked-shins on the way up, many had to be "talked down".
It was absolutely the right solution for that particular application, but that application was NOT on a moving boat.

[Quetzalsailor]

I built winders in my former residence, in about 1977. The house was made from both halves of a twin, each of which had a set of tiny winders. I built the new set just like the originals except that, instead of being in a well about 30" x 60", the new well was about 38" x 74". Made all the difference in the world. Adequately safe in a house; not even my infants had problems with 'em.

I plastered them on the bottom; the originals were lathed in wood. Such a pretty shape!