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Re: Where to find hatch covers?
By:Jerry Vikla
Date: 6/6/1999, 1:04 am
In Response To: Re: Where to find hatch covers? (Andrew Nemeth)

> Check out the posting on the BB by Jerry Vikla titled Flush factory look
> hatch seal in 30 minutes. They are not all rubber, but they sure do look
> like they would be pretty water tight. They would lend themselves to the
> flat panels of the deck. If you want some of the pictures mentioned e-mail
> me and I can forward them to you.

Thanks for the plug! Since I posted those pictures,(which were of a front deck hatch on a guillemot, I have since added a rear hatch to the kayak since the seat makes rear access difficult. In the pictures I used 3 layers of 1/4" Luan plywood because the front deck of the stripper is curved with a ridge of about 130 degrees. The plywood conformed to the curves well but uses alot of 5 min epoxy to construct. The rear hatch I built today is more like your kayak, in which it has the ridge but the panels are flat. For this recess, I choose to use a piece of 3/4"x1-1/2" ash to create the recess. I cut a 1/2" deepx3/4" wide rabbit in the ash and then mitered the pieces and glued them under the deck edge to create the recess. This is fine if you want a hatch with straight edges. If you want a round or oval hatch, use the laminated version. As an update, I decided to hinge the hatches with solid brass hinges and a brass hold-down. It's a little heavier, but I think the brass will add some class and really push the hatch into the agressive automtive window seal- something I found bungies to be a little weak at. AS for pictures, i am still trying to figure out how to create a free webpage to post them on.

Messages In This Thread

Where to find hatch covers?
David Bryson -- 6/4/1999, 6:22 pm
Re: Where to find hatch covers?
Andrew Nemeth -- 6/4/1999, 9:00 pm
Re: Where to find hatch covers?
Jerry Vikla -- 6/6/1999, 1:04 am