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I'm replacing an old boat door, so I already have a cutout. I realize my new door will be bigger than the cutout — but how much bigger?

Your new boat door's outside dimensions will equal your cutout size plus the door frame's width. So as an example, if your cutout measures 15"W x 20"L and you decide on a 2"-wide frame, the completed door  will measure 17"W x 22"L overall -- and those are the dimensions you need to enter in the boat door calculator. If you go with a 1.5" frame, you'll end up with outside dimensions that are a bit less: 16.5"W x 21.5"L.

Following these guidelines will give you a door that overlaps your cutout by 1" on all four sides for a 2" frame, and by 3/4" on all four sides for a 1.5" frame. More door size advice.

Will my new boat door's access opening be the same size as my cutout?

No, it'll be smaller. If you choose a 2"wide frame for your new door, your access opening will be 2" narrower and 2" shorter than your cutout. For example, if your cutout measures 15"W x 20"L, your door's access opening will measure 13"W x 18"L. If instead you go with a 1.5" wide frame, the access opening will be 13.5"W x 18.5"L.

Making the access opening smaller than the cutout gives your installed door a neater appearance — and pretty much eliminates any contact with the typical cutout's rough-sawn fiberglass or plywood edges.

I need for my new boat door to have an access opening of a particular size. So how do I figure out how big the cutout needs to be — and what the door's outside dimensions must be — to make that happen?

Okay, another example: If you need an access opening that measures 10"W x 10"L, add your frame size to those dimensions to get your cutout size. If your new door gets a 2"-wide frame, your cutout size will need to be 12" x 12". To get the total outside dimensions of your new door, add twice the frame width to the access opening you need — so a 10" x 10" access opening for a door that has a 2"-wide frame will end up with outside dimensions of 14" x 14".

How far will my new King Starboard boat door stick out from the surface I mount it on?

It'll protrude 3/4" inch from the surrounding console or bulkhead area, which is the thickness of the door's frame. The door panel itself is inset into the frame, so the frame and door panel are flush with each other. For added strength and stability door panel rests against an inner lip of the frame that's 1/4" thick and 3/8" wide.

Will my new boat door be waterproof?

No. However — because the door panel is inset into its frame against an inner lip that's milled out to a fairly close tolerance — your door offers some resistance to the kind of incidental splashing that might result when you're washing down your boat after a day's fishing or whatnot.

If I order vent slots, will they be angled down so water can't splash straight through them?

No. We cut the vent slots straight through the door. The most important reason for this is safety. An angled vent slot in a Starboard door would present a sharp, knife-like edge that could easily draw blood — and we don't have a way to put a uniform, smooth radius onto that edge. While it's true that water can get through these openings, our slotted doors are typically either installed in something like a hanging locker down inside the boat — and (we hope) there's not much risk of taking in water there. Or they're used as access doors for anchor lockers, which themselves are usually wet anyhow (and also have built-in drains).

Where do you position the vent slots on boat doors?

We'll place them toward the upper part of whatever door you order. If you're going to install your door so that the long dimension is vertical, we need that information — and we need to know whether your door will open from right-to-left or left-to-right. If your long dimension will be installed horizontally, we need that information as well.

I might want to change my boat door's color sometime in the future. What kind of paint works best on Starboard?

Sorry, none at all. No sort of paint we know of will adhere to King Starboard. But so long as you choose a Starboard color you like to begin with, you can count on it holding up without fading pretty much for the life of your boat.

Can I just glue my new boat door into place with epoxy or something, instead of attaching it with screws and such?

Nope. In much the same way that paint won't stick to King Starboard, over the long haul neither does anything else that we've tried — including 3M-5200, silicone, nor various flavors of "boat caulk." The King Starboard company does sell a product called "StarBond" — but it's expensive, requires an expensive "applicator" and in the end, the product's instructions caution that the "join" should be supplemented with mechanical fasteners. So really, we recommend you save your self some money and aggravation and disappointment, and, uh, stick with screws or other fasteners of your choice.

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