Access Hatches

[Paul H (admin)]

I want to fit 2 access hatches to Illusion, one in the forward bulkhead inside the boat and one on the deck for easier access into the same compartment. I intent to store batteries and heavy items in that forward compartment to trim the boat.

The inner hatch could be cheaply made from wood - has anybody made a square wooden hatch with a "reasonable seal"?

The outer deck hatch needs to be watertight and its probably easier to buy one with an integral seal. The decking is curved - so has anyone successfully fitted a square or round hatch to a curved deck?

Any hints or tips will be appreciated.

-Paul

[Timmo]

I've fitted hatches to the curved fore and aft decks of a couple of kayaks.









They've stayed watertight in some fairly extreme water! Simple strap down design sealed with rubber draught excluder onto a 4mm ply upstand round the hole:












Been looking at some very nice ideas using those strong disc magnets as the mechanism for sealing them:
ttp://www.clcboats.com/shoptips/fitting_out/hatches_no_toggles.html

Have fun.

Tim.

[Port-Na-Storm]

Hi Tim

So does the rubber seal fit round the outside of the raised part when the cover is on?

Cheers Graham.

[Timmo]

Just been down to check! That's the way it works on mine. The original Chesapeake design didn't have the raised edge, that's just some personal belt-n-braces stuff. I have been surprised how well the simple clip buckle webbing hold downs work.

Tim.

From: "Port-Na-Storm [via UK HBBR Forum]" <[hidden email]>

So does the rubber seal fit round the outside of the raised part when the cover is on?

Cheers Graham.

[alopenboat]

Are you in the DCA? If so, have you got the cd of past bulletins? If
so look at bulletin 60 page 9 for a simple watertight hatch. If I had
seen this soon enough I would have fitted something similar to this
to my water tanks and saved myself a lot of trouble.


On 21 Apr 2011 at 5:51, adminHBBR [via UK HBBR Forum] wrote:

>
>
> I want to fit 2 access hatches to Illusion, one in the forward
> bulkhead inside the boat and one on the deck for easier access into
> the same compartment. I intent to store batteries and heavy items in
> that forward compartment to trim the boat.
>
> The inner hatch could be cheaply made from wood - has anybody made a
> square wooden hatch with a "reasonable seal"?
>
> The outer deck hatch needs to be watertight and its probably easier to
> buy one with an integral seal. The decking is curved - so has anyone
> successfully fitted a square or round hatch to a curved deck?
>
> Any hints or tips will be appreciated.
>
> -Paul
>
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--
Hoping for calm nights

Alastair Law,      
Yeovil, England.
<http://www.little.jim.freeuk.com>          

[Jeremy]

I very much like the idea of using magnets to secure hatches.  I have a few dozen 3/4" diameter, 1/8" thick neodymium disc magnets, in opposing polarity pairs, bought for another project.  These have a 3/16"mm countersunk hole in the centre, so would be easy to fix if used as hatch fasteners.  They are unbelievably powerful - if two opposite polarity magnets are joined together you need to twist a knife blade between them to pull them apart.

I would think that a hatch held down with a few of these around the edge would be every bit as secure as a mechanical fastener, if anything, you might find that it's held down a bit too well, and is difficult to remove.  One advantage (?) is that a magnetic hatch fastener can never become loose; it's either held securely or the hatch is off completely................

Jeremy