I am not sure what you mean by sliding door - do you mean the hatch door that opens up ? If this is the one then remove the screws - carful it is spring loaded. Then remove all the parts and clean and relubricate and re-install. The salty water causes stain and high friction. I have had to make mine clean aswell.

I trust you refer to the companionway hatch, it has some teflon slides that wear down and cause the screach you speak of. Silicone spray helps but, to much will allows the hatch to slide back and forth in rough seas, unfortunatly the silicone spray is a temporary fix. I now shove mine quickly to limit the noise. You could consider it an alarm to warn you when your crew is leaving in a late night mutiny. A propper fix would entail removing the cover on the deck that the hatch slides into, removing the hatch and installing new slides and reassembling.
Enjoy your mutiny alarm.

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. I almost thought a PO set up an alarm. The thing gets about halfway back and then screech! Taking the whole thing apart seems overkill but it sure is irritating.

Simple.

I sourced two strips of polypropylene from a local plastics supplier. The dimensions were 1" wide by 72" long each. IIRC, the thickness was 1/16".

I slid the strips into the two grooves where the hatch bears on the coachroof - 30 seconds and no disassembly required. Sqeals gone 100%.

Two notes:
1. If you are extrememly anal, the length could be a little longer to exactly fit the groove, trim to fit but this will have no impact on performance.
2. Don't make the plastic strip any thicker, you are raising the hatch fractionally and may move the padlock hasp out of alignment.

In a perfect world, HDPE might be a better choice and a UV resistant variety of either plastic would be good but I don't think it really matters.

Cheers,
Graham

Graham

Excellent solution! Thanks for sharing. My dockmates (and my own ears) will be quite happy.

Dan

Graham,

Great info but, how do you detect a mutiny?

I determined that my hatch screech was not from the slides on the side, but rather from the center lip on the fore end of the hatch, which was dragging over the cabintop. Now, it was only dragging because the slides were worn on the sides, so the same solution may cure both problems.

However, for mine I took the hatch off and trimmed that lip by a 1/4" and the problem went away.

[QUOTE=Steve Frost;13560]Graham,

Great info but, how do you detect a mutiny?[/QUOTE]

Most likely when the water comes up over your head.

Just thought I'd share my solution. I used teflon tape. I removed the cover. This is easy to do, but you will have to (obviously) remove the bungs over the screws on the teak trim pieces. My teak was way over due for new varnish anyway, so...I also had trouble sourcing the plastic slides which would have been an easier solution. BTW, cut pieces of vinyl siding are not thick enough (at least in my case) to solve the problem. A neighbor had some leftover and I thought I'd give it a try before the more major surgery.

Anyway, what I discovered is that the slots where the hatch slides were worn down (grooved) so much that the transverse (forward) part of the hatch was sliding on the deck. The grooves were very deep. Rather than trim the hatch as was mentioned above, I put teflon tape at strategic places on the deck as well as the slots/grooves. If you have this problem it is very easy to see where the hatch is touching the deck. See attached pic. The amount of tape I used was probably over kill, but I have no intention of going back in. Hopefully, I will not need to.

Hi Robert

Assume from Andante's 450 hull number this is a MK I and has (I think) a different companionway slider design than the newer boats.
The top middle of my 87's slider was rubbing on the teak cover strip on the compartment into which it fit and would make a very loud screech, but only when closed from belowdecks.
Took a spray can of McLube Sailkote and gave the top of the slider a good douching where it was contacting the teak, then rubbed the excess off with a terry cloth rag. That was four months ago and it hasn't made any noise since.
The Sailkote hasn't leave any residue that I've noticed so far.
Would rather treat the symptom than tackle the disease by popping bungs, removing pieces and sanding the lower edge of the teak strip contacting the top of the slider.
My fallback was going to be working a sheet of sandpaper along the teak strip in hopes of removing enough wood to eliminate the contact. Have not tried that yet and will happily give the slider another shot of Sailkote if the screech returns, versus taking things apart.
If your noise is from worn surfaces where the slider edges run in the groves, the Sailkote might alleviate that as well?
Am not on the boat, so no pictures. Sorry.
Hope this is helpful.
Jack

Determined my issue was more to do with warping. I set a gallon jug of water in the center for a week and it has,nt screeched since.