Hi, I have a 1978 Cat27 that has the fibreglass forward deck hatch (just forward of the mast). My question is regarding sealing it, I am guessing the seal attaches to the inside of the hatch lid and presses on the flat innermost section of the hatch opening....however currently the lid basically contacts this near the hinge (aft of the hatch) and I am worried if I put a seal in there its going to put to much pressure on the hinges, the one I got from catalina direct is white and about 3/4 inch tall..... Long story short if anyone has this kind of hatch and can send a pic of the seals inside of it, I would be very greatful.
Catalina 27 Forward fiberglass hatch seals.
- Thread starter Dazmainian
- Start date
Do you have a picture of the hatch open?
On most newer hatches, you are correct….rubber gasket is attached to the hatch cover, and closes on the aluminum ridge in the frame.
You can see th black gasket in the hatch cover here.
and the aluminum frame in this one…
As you can see, these are a bit different than your fiberglass hatch….
I would like to see what your frame looks like and the under side of the hatch.
Greg
As a test, I suggest you snip off a short piece of your gasket material and lay it in the area which concerns you. There should be no issue with the gaskets interfering with the hinges because the material will compress enough to minimize any distortion. The channel molded into the hatch opening is pretty deep, the gasket has to sit on the top edge so the water can escape through the scuppers on the corners. Good luck.
I have no idea if this is original, but my boat- same model/year- just has a very thin piece (maybe 1/8 in.) of what appears to be foam weather stripping on the underside of the hatch.
Thanks for all the input so far, and sorry for the delay in the middle of resealing all the windows at the same time. I think the thinner seal might be the best option but wonder why CD suggests this one for the original cat 27s. But OK so here are pictures of the hatch in more detail. You will see from the inside pictures that the front and back of the hatch lid rest on the hatch opening where as the sides have around a 1/4 inch gap (you can see a bit of light). In addition the hatch hinges (you can see I have unscrewed them in the two pics with the ruler) I have laid them on top and you can see that when the hinge is flush with the hatch lid and the lid is closed that the hinge side that screws to the cabin roof has a 1/4 inch gap. This suggests to me that already the hinge is under strain and indeed there are stress cracks in the gel coat. I am making some wedge shaped shims (3d printing in ABS) to go under the hinge for now so that the hinge will have no strain when the lid is settled in the groove. However If I now add the 3/4 inch seal between the lid and the opening this is going to try and lift this even further. I am wondering if originally the seal was further out around the very edge (inside the lip not the lip itself) but his would mean it would have been pressing against an angled edge... I could build up even more the hinges...but then my worry is if the seal compresses and someone steps on the hatch lid it will put a lot of stress in the opposite direction on the hinge....
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Simply install the seal to the hatch cover so it sits on the raised lip of the channel.... it'll work.
Something perhaps worth considering is putting a spacer under the hinge and the deck, maybe a small teak spacer made for the task and holes in the original location so as not to add new holes. Just an optional thought. Good luck with finding a solution.