Hi Steve! We wanted safety bars before we left to cruise the Western Caribbean in 2004. The guy that built our arch refused to fabricate them saying that we'd be far more likely to be caught inside by fire than be robbed. Meanwhile, we were robbed in Utila, Bay Islands in 2005 -- our fault, we left a small hatch open and were off the boat until sunset. When we went back to the Rio Dulce for hurricane season, we had stainless bars fabricated. They snap in & out from the inside and we practice a "fire drill" in our monthly maintenance while cruising - it's important that they open if we ever needed them to! We have a heavy wooden companionway that we keep locked every night, so they can't get in that way. Sad, but we've known too many friends boarded - no personal knowledge of personal injury, but lots of convenience thievery. Normally our bars & lock don't show so much because they're behind the teak bug screens on the hatches, so it's not quite like living in jail! Cheers! Jan