Need ideas for companionway drop boards.

[preserved_killick]

My current companionway drop boards consist of two sections built door-panel style with the top section sporting a plastic window panel:



I'm thinking of making a new set consisting of three sections so they stow easier, and would like to add an opening for an air vent. Since I've got some time, I've been looking around for something a little interesting. Typically I see:

• 1. Three solid boards of wood no vent

• 2. Solid wood boards, routered angled slots for vents

• 3. Solid wood boards, one with louvered opening for vent

• 4. Plexiglass

I want them to be wood (likely mahogany) and vented. While louvers are functional and look nice, I despise all the surfaces when it comes time to refinish. I find the routered slots to be too modern and simplistic looking. What else is there? I've got a set of winter boards made up of painted plywood where one of the boards has a large screened opening and a wood awning of about two inches over the opening. Sounds silly, but it lets lots of air through. I'm considering something similar out of a nicer wood. I would also build a fourth solid board to have a solid set for storm conditions.

After some google searching, I've seen little for inspiration or ideas. Anyone have or see anything interesting in the way of drop boards? Now that the boat is in the water I've got some time on my hands.

-jeff

[Rachel]

Here's a ventilation-board that Charlie J made up for he and Laura's Meridian. I don't think he'll mind me posting it here as he has posted it on public forum(s) in the past (he's inactive here now although he is a member - out cruising :)

In his words:

Here's what I did on Tehani to get a second opening after we installed the solar vent up front. 1/4 Lexan, overlaps about 1 1/2 inches:





And I [Charlie J] made this little plug to insert when we don't want quite so much ventilation:

[preserved_killick]

Rachel,

That's neat. I've never seen that before. It looks secure & dry, although I'd need screen for the Maine coast. Refinishing looks easy too.

-jeff

[Rachel]

Tehani just got back to the US after spending the winter in The Bahamas. All told they've been out almost a year and mostly in hot climates. I know they had some pretty wet, boistrous sailing; I'll ask them how that hatch has worked for them next time I talk to them.

Rachel

[Quetzalsailor]

Clever, those overlapping plastic bits.

I used to work for a fellow who always said, as we worried some detail or another on a building design, "If it's too difficult to do, it's the wrong thing to do."

Useful comments might include making the new boards flat and without protruding trims or screws. As you'll see below, my boards have both and they tend to scratch and be scratched as well as tend to catch on the canvas 'cosie' that I put them in to store. 'Free area' is the actual opening provided once the drag of screen and louver, or Dorade box and screen, or whatever. Hard to get enough even with metal 'architectural' louvers. Slots and wood louvers are pretty poor.

When we bought the boat, one of the original boards had been lost, the remaining one was solid breadboarded Teak with Makore veneer on the inside, and the missing one had been replaced with a piece of solid 1/2" plexi. I made the ones below with the panels laminated of Teak - fiberglass - Makore and breadboarded in Teak. The glass is tempered. I made the louvers and frames in Teak. Interior trim is Makore. A Fein finger will get between the louvers.

Screws are not yet installed in the interior trim.

[preserved_killick]

Nice joinery Quetzalsailor! I had to Google Makore..pretty wood. I agree about air flow, I'd like as much as possible.

[Ric in Richmond]

I've been thinking of making a winter set out of AZEK just to save the original ones that much longer.

[Quetzalsailor]

I made a set of winter boards out of bare, scrap 3/4" CDX plywood. They're a 'nice' gray outside and rather awful inside. They warp and cup with every rain. I have to put them in the sun and warp them back.

AZEK sounds like a good idea, if overkill. There are several other brands of cellular PVC as well as the various Trex-type board products.

There's an advert. in the current Good Old Boat mag for custom hinged companionway doors to change out the loose board version. They tout the easy lift-off remove and store, the various interchangeable solids, privacy panels, glazing, and screen options; I don't recall whether there are louvers.

[Rachel]

This idea doesn't directly address your question, but perhaps it could be useful in some way:

One boat I've sailed on had both fully louvered doors (I agree with you on louvers by the way - they drive me nuts) and solid drop boards. What was in use 99% of the time was the doors, and they had snap studs mounted on the inside and then pieces of Sunbrella that fit on and covered the whole louvered area. That made it so that you could go from the large amount of ventilation provided by the louvered panels to a pretty snug, water/wind resistant set up by adding the Sunbrella. It was quite agreeable in use (although.... louvers....).

Here's a glimpse of one of the doors in the open position, showing the canvas.



Rachel

[preserved_killick]

Thanks Rachel,

Unfortunately louvers are effective for what they do. I don't even mind how they look, I think they look better than the routered slots that are flush. I'm seriously thinking of a letterbox opening with a small roof over it.

[Duncan]

...I've got a set of winter boards made up of painted plywood where one of the boards has a large screened opening and a wood awning of about two inches over the opening. Sounds silly, but it lets lots of air through. I'm considering something similar out of a nicer wood. I would also build a fourth solid board to have a solid set for storm conditions....

On the basis of "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", that sounds like it would suit you just about right. In other words, it's an incremental improvement on something existing that you like and you are used to.

Another simple idea might be to add one of those weighted screens that drop down over the whole companionway opening. With the boards out, that would provide maximum ventilation. With the bottom two boards in, but the top board left out, it would give protection from rain, but also quite a bit more ventilation than a louver?