I asked Edgar Kleindinst offline about how he implemented his internal bungies on his recent kayak. He graciouly told me and gave the 'ok' to post his response on the bbs. I'm sure I'm not the only person interested in this, so here it is. Thanks Edgar!

Ross

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I epoxied 4 wooden loops on the hull near the 4 corners of the hatch. I put 2 loops near the center of the hatch cover. The 2 loops on the hatch have a small break so I can slip the bungee on and off. Starting at the bottom right corner of the square I ran 1/4" bungee (with a knot tied in one end) through the bottom right Hull loop-> right hatch loop-> top right Hull loop-> top left Hull Loop-> left hatch loop-> bottom left Hull loop-> to a cable. The cable goes through a small hole in the bulkhead to a wooden hook about 1 foot from the bulkhead inside the cockpit. When the cable is pulled tight and hooked the bungee is stretched and the hatch is tight. I can unhook it and take the hatch off the bungee to access the hatch.

To make it more watertight I put a thin layer of vaseline on the glass lip that was molded to hole that hatch cover. Over that I stretched some saran wrap smoothing out ALL the wrinkles. (The vaseline holds the saran wrap in place and allows you to get the wrinkles out easier) On top of the saran wrap I put a bead of clear marine grade caulk and put the hatch cover over it pushing down tight but not too hard. After 24 hours I took the cover off and had a permanent watertight seal. The caulk stuck to the hatch cover and not to the boat and the caulk formed itself to the exact shape of the lip filling the small imperfections that let the water in. This way I didn't need to make that hatch cover lower than the deck so I could fit in some 1/4" gasket materiel, the caulk is only 1/16" or less thick so it looks (and works) great.

Another thing I did was to put a small hole near the bottom of the groove that the hatch sits in. I drilled a small hole in the side of the hull and ran a plastic tube between them. I covered the tube with cloth and resin and after it cured I took out the tube and had a nice channel for water to drain out. You can sorta see it on the round back hatch picture on the website. I didn't do it in the front hatch mainly because the back is so flat I felt it needed a way to drain where the front is so steep the water can't get higher that the lip.

Hope this helps...

Edgar