My dog Merlin also takes delight in having his head out the front door.
However, it's easy to forget that a gust of wind or an unusual roll of the boat can cause that front door to slam shut. It's heart stopping when it does but thankfully no one has been a victim of the slam - we'd been using a bungie cord outside hooked from the door to the rail to keep it open. But I wanted a way to easily lock the door in the open position from inside the boat. Here's what I cam up with.
There's a stop/post outside the boat to keep the open door away from the window when it's open. I made a guide for the inside of the post so I could drill a hole straight through the post exiting inside the boat. Then I made a cap for the post with a hole in the middle. The plan was to run a long bolt from the inside of the boat, through the stop/post and into the door. I could then tighten the bolt from inside the boat into the door and lock it open.
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| Threaded bolt (allthread) even with the end of the door stop/post. |
The door doesn't lay flat against the stop, so I threaded a round plate onto the bolt and used thickened epoxy between the plate and the door to get the angle right. Then I layed the door on the plate in the open position until the epoxy kicked. Then screwed the plate through the epoxy into the door. I then tapered the hole on the plate so the bolt could easily find the threads in the plate.
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| Round threaded aluminum plate on the outside of the front door. |
Instead of a bolt I used stainless allthread. After running it through the front of the boat into the plate, I figured the length that was needed 'outside' the boat, and ran a nylock nut down the threads so when I inserted the allthread from the outside through the stop/post it would stop right at the top of the post, as show in the picture above. Now when the door was open against the stop, the allthread would be as close as possible to the threaded plate and by pushing it about 1/4" I could engage the threads.
Inside, I made a large round wood handle for the part of the allthread that I'd need to push, then turn to lock the door. Between the handle and the boat, I used a spring to keep the handle pulled away from the boat so the rod would not stick out of the post/stop on the outside.
Now, with the door in the open position, I push the handle about 1/4" and turn it until it's tight - snugging the door open.
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| The spring between the handle and boat keeps not only keeps the rod from striking out of the stop/post outside, but also keeps the handle from rattling when not holding the door. |
