Sliding door on a 22?

K

Kushtaka

New member
Has anyone ever converted their 22 to a sliding door? I can think of lots of advantages and very few disadvantages. I'd love to hear about any conversions.

It seems like the door swing takes up more space on the cockpit than necessary, and keeps you from installing anything on the bulkead to port. It would be neat to have that spot for a seat, cockpit helm, heater fuel tank, etc, or just to be able to haul some weight a little closer to amidships. I make great use of the bulkhead to starboard, it might be cool to have both sides available.
 
Unless you made it a pocket door, you would not gain anything on the side because you'd need some place for the door to slide too. The only advantage might not be having to get stuff out of the way to swing the door.

The addition of tracks and rollers that would have to be maintained (like the sliding windows) might make it more trouble than it is worth. The KISS principle applies here IMO.
 
I don't have an issue maintaining a sliding door. I have three work boats in the same harbor with sliding doors all around. I'd have to leave a space for the door to slide, but that is very small compared to the space that must be left for cabin access/egress.

Still into it.
 
I think is a great idea but have not had the time to try it. You may not be able to slide the door to the left far enough because of the curve of the roof. If you find a all ready built unit that would fit the space I think it would be a great add on.
 
My 25 door and window (and I'm sure the 22s are similar) seemed to be of decent build quality and pretty heavy duty considering the size of the boat. I would think that replicating the same standards on a custom slider would be expensive. It would be cool though.

Good luck!
 
I have always considered an athwartship sliding door somewhat akin to a guillotine....I had a trawler which had such a sliding door, and if the latch failed, or was not secured...danger.

I think that Tom's point about the roof line is valid. A door could be made light, or one could just go to a canvas flap, and do away with the door entirely....
 
I think it would be close, but the door would probably have to be tapered on the port side to accommodate the curved roof. Or the roof adjusted to accommodate. The overhand could also simply be cut out to fit the door.

Yes, as I look more into this, the thing I'm seeing is $$$$$$$ This would cost at least a boat buck, probably more.
 
Not sure about a sliding door on the 22, but I have thought about using take apart hinges and place the door in the cuddy when fishing. I hate looking through double glass on the port side when the door is open. It would be nice to have it out of the way!

Jim.
 
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