I am trying to consider kurz idea - I think where he is going is to put a solid metal bar inside the ladder tube on one side.
I'm looking at this from the standpoint of sheer weights - I think the issue with niceaft was a downward load from the companionway. But when I look at that I see a ladder that really would collapse to the rear if enough weight were put on it because of the rearward lean of the ladder:
So I am wondering how much weight the ladder can really support without breaking the fiberglass where it's bolted at the bottom??? At that angle it would be like a lever - enough weight would pull the bolts through the fiberglass at the bottom - but that can only happen if the cockpit MOVES to the rear also - and that's not gonna happen, so - the sheer angle downward is probably not significant but it IS important. There seems to be no support under the cockpit. This needs to be taken care of before the ladder can be removed.
The other sheer factor i was looking at was sideways but the ladder would roll and collapse in a sideways sheer:
Because the wooden ladder steps would crack and break at the bolts if the ladder rolled to the side - so there is no sheer strength in that direction.
But the one place where I see a LOT of sheer strength is in the UPWARD direction - it would take a HUGE amount of force to pull the ladder upward from its current location:
And this makes sense to me because the main sheet is essentially towing almost half of the weight of the boat through the water - that is the thing that makes me a little nervous. I'm picturing a traveler that is expressing sheer loads in a sideways direction on the system. Remove one ladder rail and now the sideways sheer strength is gone - things can move from port to starboard,
It just makes me pause.