: I have been thinking about day hatches. My previous boat had no hatches due
: to it's small size. I saw on here where someone had built a small
: compartment under the front deck with a hatch on top. I liked that idea.

: I was out in a borrowed boat (forgive me, it was plastic) over the holidays
: and realized that with the larger cockpit opening that this might be
: difficult to reach. Several of the boats had day hatches behind the
: cockpit but these looked awkward to reach, but better than a forward
: hatch.

: A couple of things I would like to store are a camera and binoculars. Storing
: them in the back sort of scares me. I would be afraid of dropping them.

: Then there is the hatch issue. I REALLY like the looks of flush hatches. So a
: day hatch doesn't look to promising. Maybe someone has a good idea?

I put a day hatch behind the cockpit in my Great Auk. I used a pvc pipe sleeve and a length of bungie to hold it in place. The sleeve goes through the bulkhead and into the cockpit. The bungie is attached to the bottom of the flush hatch and passes through the pipe. There is a knot in the bungie and a toggle epoxied at the chine.

There are a couple of modifications that I will make in the spring - the toggle is too close to the bulkhead, putting it under my thigh and hard to reach while paddling. I'll move it forward and use a longer bungie.

The hatch currently needs to be held in place while the bungee is stretched to keep the hatch from slipping sideways, the gasket is too thick to let the hatch edge catch on the deck opening and the bungee pulls to the side a little. I'll need to add a piece of wood to the back of the hatch to keep it centered.