Tom --

Yep, the subject *is* securing hatches --- and I hope you didn't take offense at my previous response to your previous post....my intention was offer a humorously polite suggestion, since posts are much easier to read when they aren't written in all caps... perhaps it is an "American thing" but over the course of the past 8 years of being online in various ways, there have been numerous occasions where the analogy of ALL CAPS = yelling or shouting has been made.. and by more than just me....though, most likely, always by Americans. Perhaps Americans just tend to yell more than others?

At any rate, somebody at the West Coast Roundezvous in Pt. Townsend in August had hatch straps they'd gotten from Eddyline (located in Anacortes, WA)... it had a black cam buckle.... but instead of being two straps hooked together in the middle, it was a single strap that hooked to a J hook on the other side...with the cam buckle providing tension. I don't remember whether the cam buckle was plastic or metal, but I do remember that it was a more asthetically pleasing solution than the Pygmy version... and that the cam buckle was a little smaller than Pygmy's. The builder/owner was quite satisfied with it. I'd had only a brief look at it, since other commitments had prevented me from spending much time at the roundezvous, but I liked what I saw!

Julie