> I am in the process of puting flush hatches on my Guillemot Exp single and
> had a couple of questions. I cut out the hatch covers from the deck am
> glassing the lip that the cover sits on.

> Questions:

> 1. I glassed the lip with the hatch covers taped flush to the deck. In
> retrospect I'm thinking I should have glassed it with the hatch pushed in
> 1/8 inch beyond flush to allow for the thickness of a compressed gasket. I
> am concerned that when I install a weather strip gasket the hatch will no
> longer be flush if the shock cord don't compress the gasket enough. Should
> I be worried?

> 2. I coated the hatch cover with "Butchers Wax" having heard
> that it works as a mold release. I had to do a lot of prying with a putty
> knife to get the hatch off after 6 hours. It didn't seem that the wax
> helped much. Anyone got a better way to do this? plastic wrap maybe?

> 3. In Nick's book you see him grinding a notch into the edge of the flush
> hatch. This is described as a duel drain and finger notch to pull off the
> lid. My question: is a drain hole necessary. The tolerences between my
> hatch and deck are 1/16th in. I wouldn't think enough water would be
> getting in there to need a drain. I assume this is more to give you a
> place to get your finger under the lid when opening the hatch. What
> tolerances should I be shooting for between the hatch and deck?

Jack, I personally like the looks of a slight reveal of the hatch as opposed to a completely flush hatch. You can experiment with different thickness weather strip to get the look you like.

Larry C.