Hi Mike - yes, horses for courses as they say. I do agree with everything you say, but when I need good deck access at both bow and stern, my solution works. If I ever plan to go ocean sailing I might re-think, but that is not going to happen in near future. Safety issues should reflect the conditions and locations you sail in, so for us having less to trip over on the stern deck is important ;-)

Lawrence, can you post some photos of your build? I'd like to see what you have done so far!

@ Lawrence: I took a peek at the photos now. In understand that a.) the hulls are widened by a couple inches above the waterline,  the decks are sloped outside, probably to shake off water if you hit a wave (make sure you have a nice, tough toerail, you will find yourself walking those decks frequently to adjust sails and so on!), and that your rudders are hung on the stern like on classic Wharrams. Therefore, if you want to lead a hydraulic steering cable INTO the hull, there will necessarily be a hole or slot where some kind of lever leads to the rudder, and you can reliably expect loads of salt water to enter through this hole or slot, and if you do not build a big drain hole, that water will be there to stay. Means the cable will corrode, sleeve or not, and if you sleeve, sleve well, or you will gather wate rinside the sleeve without a chance to dry out.  

I shall post newer pics soon, since the mast is up, deck pod/galley built and operational and all decks fitted. As for the sloping decks, there should be no need to walk on the decks as everything happens between the hulls. The forward and stern section of the boat the decks are level . I will be putting up guardrails here. An important design criteria was to have a huge living space for the family/crew of five and the need to sail the horrendous Southern African and Madagascar coast and weather. The deck had to be flush as my wife has a gammy knee and did not like the obstacle course-like decks of the traditional wharrams. We also used styrofoam instead of plywood-which was "interesting" to say the least.