Companionway entrance, sliding hatch and hatch garage

The companionway entrance and its sliding hatch remained an unfinished part of the boat for many years. I had only a rough idea of what the final solution should look like. It had to be watertight and, at some point in the future, it also needed to integrate seamlessly with a hard dodger.

Those two components are closely related, both structurally and visually. Although Ian Farrier supplied a concept drawing for the companionway and hard dodger, it never really matched my own ideas.

One thing was certain from the beginning: the sliding hatch would run on composite angle profiles. These were therefore laminated into the cabin roof during construction and already defined the dimensions of the companionway opening.

Shortly before launching, I realised that I needed a temporary sliding hatch. The companionway had to be weatherproof, even if the permanent design was still years away. I built this first hatch from plywood with aluminium angle profiles and made a 6 mm Trespa panel to close off the entrance, complete with a lock.

So far, so good.

However, after only a couple of years the plywood began to delaminate due to moisture. Since I was still far from designing the definitive solution, a second temporary hatch became necessary. Knowing it would have to survive for several more years, I invested a little more effort this time and built it as a composite structure. Instead of relatively expensive Corecell foam, I used simple 20 mm Styrodur insulation foam as the core.

I called it my Quick & Dirty sliding hatch. Despite its temporary nature, it has withstood years of exposure remarkably well and is still in excellent condition today. The Trespa washboard also survived without problems. Unfortunately, the original lock did not. After a few years it failed and was replaced by a combination lock, which eventually suffered the same fate. I've now installed a completely different system to secure the boat, without any visible locks.

Now that Fram is sailing regularly, the time has finally come to complete the companionway properly. As is often the case during this project, one improvement naturally led to another. The permanent sliding hatch became part of the development of the hard dodger as well.

The new sliding hatch is made from smoke-grey acrylic, matching the new acrylic washboards. Instead of sliding in the open, it now disappears neatly into a dedicated hatch garage, which forms an integral part of the hard dodger.

More about the construction of the hard dodger follows in the next chapter.