Hi everyone
We are considering changing the compartment doors on our narrowboat but have been informed by a boat fitter that each door must have a gap at the top and bottom so that 'through ventilation' can be maintained when all doors are shut.
This is OK but we were hoping that we could have the doors fitted so that there is no gap which would prevent shafts of light coming through when friends/family get up in the middle of the night and put lights on all over the place.
Is this the legal position regarding door fittings?
Any help or advice would be great - thanks

I had one fitted to my daughters room and that doesn't have gaps top and bottom other an enough to stop it scraping on floor and ceiling.

V.good question.

I looked at the BSS for guidance but its not specific. It only talks about the "cabin" and high and low ventilation thereof.

Boats tend to have mushroom vents in the roof and vents in the bow and stern doors.
I would have thought that if you have a galley which is not the end compartment in the cabin and you have a solid door at either end of the galley compartment, then you have a potential problem.

You will have a gas cooker consuming oxygen and putting out spent gases, but only have high level ventilation ??

We have internal doors, but they have louvred bottom panels.

I've never noticed on other boats ??

Anybody ?

what about phoneing your local boat safety officer to check? Several of my friends on boats have doors that are solid, top to bottom, and they have BSS! I have a couple of full length doors too, but jus tbecause others have doesn't mean very much!

OK, I shall correct my statement - all the doors that i know of have a small gap at the bottom. As are mine. How big the gap has to be is something I don't know....

I still think that checking with the local BSS would help clarify.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions - great help and food for thought.
Tim

I've recently been given a new BS certificate so my door, without gaps, was obviously OK