Faulty (Factory) Companionway Steps on my '85 E28!!!!!!

[Scott H.]

Fellow Ericson folks, thought I would put out sort of a public service announcement regarding faulty steps. I have an '85 Ericson 28 (new to me in Aug of 2022). We spent about three months doing a light refit, some upgrades and lots of cleaning, etc. Although we looked at those steps and went up and down them probably hundreds of times during the project, I never really thought to look at them closely. Part of the reason was that it still had the original heat shield and sound deadening material glued to the back side of the engine cover.

One day last time out, my darling Pam went down into the cabin and the middle step broke off sending her crashing to the ground. Luckily she was not seriously hurt. But here's the kicker and why I'm putting up this post....... When I went to check it out and figure out the best way of fixing it, I discovered that the step was never installed correctly in the first place and it's a miracle that it hadn't broken long before that (after all it is a 1985 boat). Normally there are a minimum of 3 large screws horizontally securing the step itself, and then 2 screws vertically in each of the the two vertical supports. In this case, only the vertical screws in the supports were ever installed, somebody just missed it and once the heat shield was glued on you'd never notice they were missing. The amount of outward leverage on those lower screws would be huge without the upper ones helping to create more of a "shear" strength to the steps. And it won't be the 35 lb. kid that breaks them and just bounces back up like nothing happened, it will be the 65 yr old 130-225 lb. senior that ends up as the final straw.

I'm confident that this is probably an anomaly, but either way, I can tell you that it would be worth checking all of your steps for how they are secured to avoid what could have been a life changing avoidable accident.

Best to everyone!

 

[Loren Beach]

Thanks so much for a heads-up. Our ("EY step child") O-34 has a molded frp combo of steps and cover for the front of the engine bay. Strong, but not pretty like teak.
While rather rare, I have sometimes over the years found the odd place in the boat where someone left out a construction detail. Perhaps done on a Friday afternoon? Idonno.
I am sure glad that the Admiral was not badly hurt.
Take care and be safe,
Loren

 

[Christian Williams]

A photograph of your steps would be helpful. They're different on most models.

 

[Jaybee]

I had my 30+ stairs collapse under me, the stringer split in half near where it "mounts" to the companionway.

 

[Scott H.]

At the time I wrote my post I didn't have access to a pic of my companionway so I'm glad that Christian requested that I add one. As he states, they are not all the same. Also not sure what Jeff's stairs might look like but I hope this string will encourage others to check how their stairs are mounted and to secure them proactively. Here's what mine look like.

 

[Jaybee]

Here's how my stairs broke

 

[Loren Beach]

While not sure of the "best" answer I would put the broken parts back together. Having split across the grain the first time my thought would be to reinforce this.
Clamping back together with only some epoxy is tempting but I would augment that (a lot) with about 4 ss quarter inch threaded rods well into the wood, with the exposed nut on the face edge covered with teak plugs. If you have access to long ss lags, that would be good too.
Seat the rod in epoxy when screwed in the final time. Once the fastenings were sized and dry-fitted, do final assembly with epoxy throughout the old split, but for added strength. Lots of clamps. I would clamp the material into a guide and use a drill press and long bit to make the hole. Long bits are available at the hardware store, and are often called "bellmen's bits".
Or, there is an easier way, and I will be ashamed when a smarter person reveals it!

 

[Christian Williams]

We have the same ladder design. The "latch" component gets a lot of twisting and whacking when the ladder goes on and off. I'd probably just clamp and fill the gaps with thickened epoxy (405 filleting blend, which looks like wood), and then thrubolt instead of the usual screws.

I've had to fill and re-drill the standing part of the latch also. You can still buy new latches of this design if yours are corroded ugly: "Sea-Dog Ladder Lock, Chrome brass".

,,,

 

[Kenneth K]

Here's how my stairs broke

Strange to me that the wood would split at the top. The latches at the top shouldn't be supporting any weight--they just hold the ladder top against the companionway wall. The cabin sole should have little "shoe" supports at the bottom to fix the bottom of the ladder in place. This is where all the weight should be supported.