Love a Sundeck But...

I'm a big fan of the Carver line. The later models have great staircase access from the swim platform.

Troubadour said:

The Californian 43 has a nice cockpit as well as easy ingress/egress.

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Troubadour, very good point. That's as close to a set of steps as a ladder could be. The angle of the transom really makes for what should be easy climbing.


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

Wow. Thanks everyone for chiming in. What a great community you have. The number of reads and replies is impressive. You've certainly opened up several possibilities to solving my original question, including doing nothing. You may see me posting other questions a s I work through the buying process.

I have a 2001 Heritage East 36 with the molded steps. It was a big reason why we chose to buy the boat. Looked at many great boats, but our bodies just don't like to climb ladders any more.

I was limiting my thoughts to swim platform access only, not dock access via the platform. Very nice examples above of a few approaches.

Most "tall" boats will have some sort of hull side ladder like the Marquips, or dock stairs or both. The Hatteras came with a detachable ladder and a fancy, and nice to use Marquip sea stairs that could attach to either side. Very convenient vs having to all the way aft. Some mooring field launches prefer to load and unload on the side of the boat, so the ladder was handy then too.

The cockpit/no cockpit decision can be pretty hard. We opted for extra interior and aft deck space for the same length of boat. Did wish a few times we could have turned a crank and have a cockpit extend out the back, but never regretted our personal decision.

How often does one access the swim platform from the sundeck? This is not done that often, we only do it when accessing the dinghy. I guess when I get too old to climb the ladder, I'll quit using the dinghy. Notice I didn't say I would quit boating.

windmill29130 said:

How often does one access the swim platform from the sundeck? This is not done that often, we only do it when accessing the dinghy. I guess when I get too old to climb the ladder, I'll quit using the dinghy. Notice I didn't say I would quit boating.

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Low floating docks are common where we boat, so our boarding is dock>swim platform>cockpit (via transom gate)>ladder to sundeck.