Side doors
KK-42 -----Side doors in rear cockpit. -- would be a very nice convenience to add. But don't you think it has already been considered by KK ?
Be careful what you do, as unless your a marine engineer you can have unintended consequences way beyond where you put the door.
KK-42 is an ocean crossing, open ocean boat & as such has been built & designed accordingly & is a proven platform as is.
What modifications that will work on a fair weather boat with more freeboard, or even your boat in fair weather, may not hold up in storm conditions in your KK-42.
Remember, Your dead a long time, and it only take one bad sneaker wave to find the weak point. You may also lower the resale value of the boat.
Kadey-Krogen looked at that & in later designs put in a 1/2 height side doors.
They felt that 1/2 height gave them the structural integrity they felt & calculated that was needed & was OK - But they did not just add the door - other reinforcements were also done.
But to go all the way down to the deck compromised to much of the vessels structural integrity.
-- so decision was made NOT to do that.
So IMHO a 1/2 height door would be ok.
A full height door down to the deck would not be a good idea.
That would weaken the whole side bulwark from mid-ships back to the door for that rear side of the boat. Would not help the rear either. Could potentially rip open the whole side of the boat & affect the deck to hull joint.
Full down to deck side door means Nothing would be structurally tied together, that being tied together is critical for ultimate strength & rigidity.
How it is done & how reinforced & other structural reinforcement would be needed way beyond where the door is. Putting two would be even worse.
be careful doing this mod. -- BTW - your daughter will grow up & step stools or boarding steps, etc. are a lot cheaper that a expensive & tricky mods like this could end up being.
So good luck.
Alfa Mike