Emergency doors or escape doors?

"Hey everyone, I've been curious about boat safety features lately. We often hear about escape hatches and doors on buses, trains, and planes, but I'm wondering if boats also have similar features for emergency situations. Can anyone shed light on whether boats are equipped with escape hatches or doors, and if so, how they function? Thanks!

 

in this foto you can see a 'scape hatch', mandatory in the Transat 6.50 called MiniTransat

 

Scape Hatch

MiniTransat

 

The recent tragedy aboard a burning dive boat in California has brought this often overlooked subject to the forefront.
20 dead in California dive-boat fire, report says | CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/02/us/california-boat-fire-rescue/index.html
If I were building an escape hatch, it would have to be constructed so that it could be opened with a quick blow from the inside, no complex latches, thumbscrews, etc that would slow down exiting.

 

It is very common to have a hatch on the foredeck. 99.9999% of the time it is used for ventilation. It is for emergency egress too.
P.S. my inner smartass wants to say it is very useful as a source of leaks as well.

 

Thanks so much for the prompt response, for a cuddy cabin boat, where should the hatch be, in the hull, or on the roof?

 

Think of trying to escape a fire that prevents exiting via the cockpit. Do you have a galley, a common place for fires to start. You will want the hatch to be away from a potential fire.
Can everyone aboard readily reach and crawl out of a hatch in the cabin top?

A foredeck hatch is the answer.

 

My industry isn't required to have them, odd considering the regulations we do have. Lost a friend years back who died of exposure making his way to a door as he couldn't make it out the windows. Two of his shipmates were trapped inside.

It's tough to simultaneously make a boat watertight for harsh north pacific and be an easy escape. On my last boat I swapped out the bottom pane on the Dutch door with tempered panes instead of laminate. Did the same with the aft facing cabin window sliders.

Poor crewman caught it with a boss snap that would have just hairlined the thicker laminate, was a dramatic poof of small chunks. Was a good demonstration of having a logical safe fail point. New boas getting the same done this winter to add another point of escape, and it also got a new freeman hatch that has a handle on the inside to allow escape from the cabin to the engine room and out.

 

In Europe the RCD requires emergency exits.As has been posted,there is a need for an escape route that won't expose the crew to fire and the likely sources of fire are the galley and engine.So exits will normally be provided that permit escape without crossing those regions.If the boat has an aft cabin,with the engine located on the route to the main hatch,there ought to be an escape hatch there too.An overhead hatch may well require either steps or strong enough furniture to stand on.

 

Thank you all for your insights and advice on boat safety hatches. Your input has been valuable, and I feel more informed about how to ensure a safe and secure boating experience. If anyone has additional tips or experiences to share, I'm all ears. Thanks again!

 

It's worth pointing out that escape hatches placement is different for different scenarios. For fire escape you need hatches placed in the deck or superstructure but those are useless when capsizing and staying inverted. That's why monohull sailboats have hatches in the transom and catamarans have them in the hulls under the bridgedeck.

The hatches themselves should ideally be capable of beeing opened from the outside so that rescuers can get in. They also shouldn't have a locking mechanism rendering the outside handles inoperative. There are two problems with this, you can't lock the boat anymore and the outside handles are potential snagging or tripping points. The bigger and therefore easier to use in an emergency the handles are, the more obnoxious in everyday life.