Boat Building Forum

Find advice on all aspects of building your own kayak, canoe or any lightweight boats

Re: Hatch Covers
By:Mark Bodnar
Date: 7/20/1998, 10:43 pm
In Response To: Re: Hatch Covers (Paul Lund)

> I was going to go with flush hatches but two things stopped me.
>

> Number 1, I was concerned about the hatches being water tight,
> the methods I've seen involved cutting and glueing a lot of ply to
> make something that the hatches could sit in. I figured that raised
> hatches would give the shock cord more leverage, producing more downwards
> pressure on the seal. The webbing straps I've seen people use would
> recitfy this, however, I think untying three straps every time I wanted
> to open a hatch would soon become a pain in the ass. Much faster to
> simply unhook the bungie. (yes, I am impatient).

I avoided the flush hatch as well - figured that adding a lower spot to the deck would give water somewhere to pool - making in impossible to open my water tight hatch without water spilling in.

As for my plan to use shock cord as hold downs - the jury is still out on that one. Since I spread silicone around the inside of the hatch covers to adjust for warping they've been much more water proof (shall we say water resistant).

There seems to be enough compression on the hatches along the sides but the middle (fore and aft portions) of the hatch is not water tight. I'm considering adding webbing straps for additional compression. The shock cords are also difficult to release without snapping a finger - trust me, if you lose your grip on a wet cord it can leave a really nice wealt (sp?). And don't count on one handed operation - you'll move the whole boat unless you pin it down.

The other factor which has significantly improved the water resistance is to apply the weather stripping to the boat rather than to the inside of the hatch.

> After cutting out the hatches I steamed some thin strips of wood
> and bent and glued these around the hatch opening, leaving a bit over
> 1/2" protruding through the top (you have to run a narrow strip
> the same thickness as the ply around the opening before you put the
> strip on (the hatch cover must be bigger), bent some more strips and
> glued these around the hatch cover leaving exactly 1/2" protruding
> below. I finished this by running a 3/4" strip of veneer around
> the top of the hatch cover (so you can't see where the edge strip
> is glued to the hatch cover). I'll varnish the veneer, the strips,
> and the cockpit coaming steamed wood), and paint the rest of the boat
> white (white will help the rescue choppers see me ;-).

> Paul.

What type of wood did you use? How thick was easy to steam bend? I might add a similar lip to my hatches.

Mark

>

Messages In This Thread

Stitch and glue kayak almost done
David Semrad -- 7/20/1998, 3:47 am
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
Paul Lund -- 7/20/1998, 4:35 am
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
Nick Schade -- 7/20/1998, 4:01 pm
Re: Paint
Mark Kanzler -- 7/20/1998, 4:15 pm
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
David Semrad -- 7/20/1998, 5:03 am
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
Nick Schade -- 7/20/1998, 3:58 pm
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
Paul Lund -- 7/20/1998, 5:29 am
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
David Semrad -- 7/20/1998, 7:30 am
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
Martin Foil -- 7/20/1998, 1:40 pm
Re: Stitch and glue kayak almost done
David Semrad -- 7/23/1998, 1:26 pm
Re: Hatch Covers
Paul Lund -- 7/20/1998, 9:10 am
Re: Safety colours
Timothy - Toronto, Ontario -- 7/23/1998, 8:42 am
Re: Safety colours
Roger Tulk -- 8/1/1998, 12:51 pm
Re: Safety colours
Timothy - Toronto, Ontario -- 8/4/1998, 9:58 am
Re: Safety colours
Roger Tulk -- 8/4/1998, 8:24 pm
Re: Fireball Sailboats
Mark Kanzler -- 8/5/1998, 10:34 am
Re: Fireball Sailboats
Roger tulk -- 8/5/1998, 5:02 pm
Re: Fireball Sailboats
Timothy - Toronto, Ontario -- 8/6/1998, 8:20 am
Coast hugging kayakers
Roger Tulk -- 8/6/1998, 3:15 pm
Re: Powerboat Rescues
Mark Kanzler -- 8/6/1998, 11:22 am
Re: Powerboat Rescues
John Lange -- 8/6/1998, 11:42 am
Re: Fireball Sailboats
Mark Kanzler -- 8/5/1998, 5:46 pm
Re: Punk in Drublic (powerboaters)
Mark Kanzler -- 8/4/1998, 11:39 am
Re: Punks not dead
Timothy - Toronto, Ontario -- 8/11/1998, 9:03 am
Re: Punks not dead
Roger Tulk -- 8/13/1998, 11:44 am
Re: Punks not dead
Mark Kanzler -- 8/11/1998, 3:19 pm
Re: Punk in Drublic (Sailing regatas)
NPenney -- 8/10/1998, 11:29 am
Re: Punk in Drublic (Sailing regatas)
Mark Kanzler -- 8/10/1998, 5:07 pm
Re: Punk in Drublic (Sailing regatas)
NPenney -- 8/11/1998, 8:05 am
Re: Rules of the road - link
Timothy - Toronto, Ontario -- 8/13/1998, 1:10 pm
Re: Punk in Drublic (Sailing regattas)
Mark Kanzler -- 8/11/1998, 3:11 pm
Re: Punk in Drublic (Sailing regatas)
Mark Kanzler -- 8/11/1998, 3:03 pm
Re: Cocky sail boaters
NPenney -- 8/12/1998, 1:18 pm
Re: Cocky sail boaters
Mark Kanzler -- 8/12/1998, 1:41 pm
Re: Cocky sail boaters
NPenney -- 8/12/1998, 2:23 pm
Re: Cocky commercial boaters
Mark Kanzler -- 8/13/1998, 2:45 pm
Re: engaged in fishing or restricted in menuevering!
NPenney -- 8/14/1998, 6:45 am
Re: Cocky sail boaters
Roger Tulk -- 8/14/1998, 12:20 am
...and furthermore...
Roger Tulk -- 8/14/1998, 9:26 pm
Re: Right of ways
NPenney -- 8/13/1998, 1:27 pm
Re: Right of ways
Mark Kanzler -- 8/13/1998, 1:59 pm
Re: Rights of way
Roger Tulk -- 8/13/1998, 11:03 pm
Re: Cocky sail boaters
Mark Kanzler -- 8/13/1998, 1:18 pm
Re: Cocky sail boaters
Drew Lebauer -- 8/12/1998, 1:48 pm
Re: Safety colours
Mark Kanzler -- 7/23/1998, 11:05 am
Re: Cyalume sticks
Mike McCrea -- 7/23/1998, 3:07 pm
Re: Cyalume sticks
Timothy - Toronto, Ontario -- 7/24/1998, 8:48 am
Re: Cyalume sticks
NPenney -- 7/24/1998, 7:25 am
Re: Cyalume sticks
Mike McCrea -- 7/24/1998, 11:15 am
Re: Cyalume sticks
David Walker -- 7/24/1998, 11:13 am
Re: Cyalume stick Rejuvenation.
Mark Kanzler -- 7/24/1998, 5:05 pm
Re: Cyalume sticks
Mark Kanzler -- 7/23/1998, 4:15 pm
Re: Hatch Covers
Mark Bodnar -- 7/20/1998, 10:43 pm
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
Tor-Henrik Furmyr -- 7/22/1998, 4:23 pm
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
Mark Kanzler -- 7/22/1998, 5:46 pm
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
NPenney -- 7/23/1998, 8:42 am
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
Mark Kanzler -- 7/23/1998, 10:39 am
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
NPenney -- 7/24/1998, 6:53 am
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
Mark Kanzler -- 7/24/1998, 5:10 pm
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
NPenney -- 7/27/1998, 11:29 am
Re: Hatch Covers - water pooling....
Mark Kanzler -- 7/24/1998, 5:34 pm
Re: Hatch Covers
Paul Lund -- 7/22/1998, 5:31 am
Re: peaked deck Hatch Covers
Steve Bradbury -- 7/22/1998, 6:44 am
Re: Hold down for hatch
Tor-Henrik Furmyr -- 7/22/1998, 4:36 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Mark Kanzler -- 7/21/1998, 12:22 am
Re: Choosing colors for safety
David Walker -- 7/20/1998, 5:26 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Mark Kanzler -- 7/20/1998, 5:43 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
jim champoux -- 7/21/1998, 11:27 am
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Mark Kanzler -- 7/21/1998, 1:37 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
paul lund -- 7/20/1998, 7:03 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Bram van der Sluys -- 7/20/1998, 11:29 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Mark Kanzler -- 7/21/1998, 10:49 am
Re: Choosing colors for safety
npenney@erols.com -- 7/22/1998, 7:43 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Mark Kanzler -- 7/23/1998, 10:23 am
Re: Choosing colors for safety
NPenney -- 7/24/1998, 7:21 am
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Mark Kanzler -- 7/24/1998, 5:40 pm
Re: Choosing colors for safety
Adrian J. Gordon -- 7/24/1998, 2:05 pm