SV Kooky Dance: More boat projects while the weather improves.

Ladder Mount

By Scott Buckley (Captain)

I had an aluminum ladder made for boarding the boat from the side. My thinking was it would make it easier to get on and off the dinghy and with the Monitor wind vane steering on the stern it would be hard to board the boat from there.

New alum ladder

Putting the final touches on the monitor install

The ladder will double as a gang way if we have to med moor and need a way to easily get on and off the boat. The ladder had to be stored on deck somewhere and could take up a great deal of space. I think I over designed it but it is too late to do much about that. I thought I would stow it across the coach roof under the main sail boom. I also thought I could lash the inflatable dinghy on the ladder and tie it down securely to the ladder while underway. What ever secured the ladder would need to be strong. Again I used the composite wood because it is easy to work with and will not rot or split. I also decided to mount it to the combing on the coach roof that covered the sliding cover for the companionway hatch. I made some cardboard templates to get the shape of the mounts correct and cut the shapes out using my table saw right before I sold it at the last garage sale before we sold the house. The width was trimmed with a small hand saw once we moved aboard.

I had to pull up the combing to have access to secure the bolts. It is held down with 9 of the biggest screw I have seen on this boat. The mounts are held on with 5 #10-24UNC screws.

Once I pulled the combing up I could see it was pretty dirty under it so I completely removed it to clean things up.

I discover another location of secret vessel identification that is engraved into the coach roof.

The Bag Tube

First mate wanted a place to store those little plastic shopping bags that usually get stored under the galley sink and generally get push to the back until you need them. It was an easy project and got mounted on the back rest at the nav station.