Washboards vs opening Companionway Doors?

[Spot]

Washboards vs opening Companionway Doors?

Hello All,
On the 21' Luger Southwind I have, the boat was configures as a day sailor.
I am trying to get it more suitable for weekending: anchor light, enclosed lazarette for the fuel tank, screen-covered ventilation, etc.

One of the outstanding items is the companionway. The current setup is a sliding horizontal hatch and a cover that fixes to the bulkhead via a padlock hasp from the outside along with a horizontal cleat bearing its weight and 2 vertical strips keeping it alight port to starboard. The upper junction of said hatch and cover creates a couple of open slots that attract yellowjackets to nest in the boat. The system is not user-friendly and we do our fair-weather sailing with the cover stored below. I have yet to sail this boat in tough weather where a more operatable system would be ideal.

The remedy seems to be make provisions for washboards in a slotted track and/or some hinged doors. I have read that some offshore boats that have doors still use washboards when there is a chance to ship heavy water into the cabin from the cockpit.

What say this distinguished assembly?  The current fiberglass cover could be made more user-friendly from the inside of the boat and perhaps is a good short-term (I am facing a mid-August deadline for major mods). Having a door or washboard setup seems better for options concerning visibility and ventilation.

Thanks for the ideas and please excuse if I have asked this before...

[Charles Brennan]

Spot, Single piece hatch or wash boards don't really matter (except for usage preference) in your application; neither will solve the problem of wasp ingress.

On Urchin, I had a single piece hatch cover of teak veneer plywood.  It was sanded and varnished so often that after 30 years or so, I had gone all the way through the teak veneer. I got some book matched ¼-inch teak planks and epoxied them to the front of the hatch cover. 
Looked like this:
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Uhhh . . . . notice any gaps, anywhere?!?

When out in the Atlantic Ocean, the companionway was closed; just tooling around in the Bay, the hatch was laid against the cabin side and slid backward until it wedged in place, under the coamings.  In the pic below, you can just see one corner of the hatch at the right, hiding behind a berth cushion. For this reason, I never felt the need to hack up the hatch, into wash boards.
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To minimize varnish maintenance, I made a cloth Sunbrella cover for the hatch:
This pic more clearly shows the problem:
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Enough space for companionway slide clearance, is wayyyy more than enough space for wasp infestation.
When I moved from south Florida to north central Florida, I got more of an education than I wanted, about sharing boats with the local wild life.
Besides the Yellow wasps, (which loved nesting inside the base of my mast, even more than the inside of the cabin), I also got Mud Daubers which while relatively harmless, always made a mess that would never fully wash clean.
Although somehow I never got a pic of it, my solution was some light (and cheap!) mesh screening and fresh water fishing weights.  No sewing required, since my first attempt to sew screening, resulted in a bunched-up mess.

1 ) Lay the screen along the forward edge of the companionway cover and let it drape down to the cockpit deck.
2 ) Allow for a few inches of slack on either side and trim the edges, as required.
3 ) To prevent screen fraying, fold over one edge to make a hem (½-inch is fine).
4 ) Repeat for a second fold, to hold the frayed edge captive inside the two folds.
5 ) Iron the folds as flat as you can make them, to keep the folds from unrolling.
6 ) Use pinch-on lead weight fishing sinkers in the larger sizes (¼ oz. or bigger, to fit over the hem) and pinch together over the folds.
(This was how I did it; if I had it do again, I might just melt the edge of the nylon screening and then clamp the pinch-on weights onto a single fold.)
7 ) Start with the corners, to hold the seams in place.
8 ) Subdivide along a seam with more pinch-on weights.
9 ) Where the screen folds over the hatch, space your weights to allow for smoothly rolling the screen over the corner.
10) The other reason for sub-dividing weights as you go, is that it gives you an idea of how many pinch-on weights are required.

Throw this over the companionway slide and front hatch while at home and the flying insects have no way to penetrate all the openings, no matter which hatch system you end up using.  Fold it up and stow it when getting ready to take the boat out and you can also use it on calm nights for improved ventilation and also to keep the bugs out of the cabin, when turning in for the night.

Hope this helps,
Charles Brennan

[Doug SC]

My Potter 19 came with a cloth screen for both the companionway and the opened front hatch. They are a manufacture item not homemade. Good for bug free through ventilation while sleeping. This is how my hatchway is made as the cabin slopes forward after about 10". Glued some foam plugs to fill the sliding top openings when closed. they came lose so I have a couple of teak wood fillers for there but never finished the job. I haven't had a problem with wasp or mud daubers. I added the wood burnings.

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[Spot]

Thanks Charles, thanks Doug!
Here are some pics of the current situation:
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[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

I use pennyroyal oil to deter wasps.  Paint some onto places they like to build nests.  They won't come back.  Keep it off your skin and away from children.

I also made a screen that could be tossed over the entire companionway.  Kept the bugs out and let air in.

[Spot]

@Noemi Have you tried peppermint oil previous?

Here is what I am thinking about for companionway doors:

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[Ziradog]

...Although somehow I never got a pic of it, my solution was some light (and cheap!) mesh screening and fresh water fishing weights.  No sewing required, since my first attempt to sew screening, resulted in a bunched-up mess....

Man, some pictures of this would be really awesome if you could dig them up.

[Spot]

There are some readymade ones:

https://sogeman.com/

And from Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Yahenda-Companionway-Universal-Sailboats-Motorboats/dp/B0F2N1X4ZH/

no affiliation or experience with either.

[Noemi - Ensenada 20]

I have not tried peppermint, but have heard it also helps.

[Frank B.]

Hey, boat stays in the water all the time in a very buggy marina.  I always have a spray bottle of peppermint oil dilution, several bars of Irish Spring soap, a zip bag of drier sheets, and roach baits (it's Mississippi).  I rub the Irish spring on the places that the wasps build nests, primarily under the cockpit locker hatches, and leave chunks of it inside the cabin.  I leave the drier sheets around on shelves, replace the roach baits every six months or so and I always spray the cabin interior with the peppermint when I leave. It takes care of everything except the dirt daubers and the spiders that live under the rub rail.  Nothing seems to impact their need to live on my boat.