I was tired of the Hatch Boards on my ODay 23. I had seen some for larger boats online, and my brother made some for his friends Hunter 34, so I decided to try my hand at at.

First I got some cardboard (U-Haul had several large pieces they were throwing away they gave me.) and traced the opening. I then used a protractor to get the angles. (Mine was 12 degrees) When I had rough facsimiles, I removed the retainer boards the hatch boards slide into and patched the screw holes with a little white epoxy putty. I used stainless-steel half-hinges from West Marine to mount them with. I mortised the posts into the opening of the companionway, pointing up. I mortised it with a 1/4 drill bit, a dremel and a chisel. BE VERY CAREFUL to line them up correctly, leaving room for the top halves to sit on top and swivel on the posts. Try to align the center of rotation of each to be parallel to the slant of the door opening. A jig that held the door hinges aligned and the correct distance apart would have helped a lot! I mixed up some white epoxy putty and glued the bottom posts into the mortised slots. I found the putty to be quite messy, so be sure to have some rags and cleaner around to clean up your self and the parts of the boat you DON T want to epoxy...

I made my door frames out of 3/4 Oak. Most larger boats have thicker doors, but much thicker will stick out beyond the cabin bulkhead. I mounted mine in the location the hatch boards used to occupy, and thicker doors would not have been able to rotate. I used a table saw to cut a 5/8 s rabbet out of the inside surfaces and used some square aluminum C channel to act as a wearing surface in the groves. The top is two pieces (each side) of 1/4 oak. I put a tendon on each end of the side pieces, and made an open mortice in the large bottom sill with a drill and chisel. The 2 pieces of 1/4 oak go on the top tendon. This leaves a 1/4 opening in the top to slide the removal panels through.

After it is all dried, cut slots that match the location of the hinges in the door sides, allowing enough room to pull the door up and off the half hinge. This is a critical step, as the slots MUST line up with the bottom half. I chose to mortise the hinges into the door sills. (I swapped the left and right top pieces to better center them.) I could not determine a way to mount them on either the interior or exterior surface of the panel. You could mount the hinge so it sticks out beyond the face of the bulkhead. I chose not to as I did not want to catch on them as I moved about the cockpit and cabin. (If you put them outside of the door, most commercial doors Ive seen have a wood block to cover them so they can not be unscrewed by an intruder.) However you mount them, made sure nothing will prevent the door from opening later!

I cut the solid panels from 1/4 Starboard, and will get a set of Plexiglass and screen panels made in the future. Add locks and handles of you choice, and Enjoy!

(I rabbeted the mating edges so they will overlap. This did not pass the HOSE TEST so I added a 1.5 batten on the outside that overlaps both but is only attached to one. This also gives a good, centered location for a hasp to lock the roof hatch with.)

I plan to add a piece of oak to the roof edge. This will strengthen it, and will fit over the closed doors, preventing the panels from being lifted out as well as preventing the doors from being lifted off their hinges. A square 1 aluminum box section with one side cut out forms a C channel the with of the doors that provides strength to the top to resist being pushed in by weather or intruders.