COCKPIT HATCH COVERS

[aladams08852]

FOR HULL #395:
WHAT WOOD WAS USED ON THE ORIDGINAL COVERS?
HOW THICK WAS IT?
DID IT HAVE A GASGET?
IF SO, WHAT WAS THE GASGET MADE OF?

 

[stevebirch2002]

The original hatch covers were made of 10mm marine ply with teak edgings.
The hinges were brass piano hinges. I have made my own from mahogony that I
cut up from an old wardrobe that I found thrown out. We can also get inlaid
cockpit hatch covers but they are expensive. The best bet is to buy a sheet
of 12mm marine ply and cut to size then edge with teak to stop water
ingress, plenty of varnish and sealant to stop the dreaded water getting
in. The gasket was made of a neoprene type rubber.

Kind Regards Steve Birch
At 13:45 13/04/02 -0000, you wrote:

 

[hheiduck]

I just removed my original hatches, 28 years old, and they sure looked it.
I'm having new ones made out of 1/2" x 4" solid teak boards at a shop in N.
Carolina, they have my old ones to use as templates. The cost will be about
$300 complete with seals.

Hans Heiduck, V1874

 

[mocap1]

That certainly is a good way to go if you can afford it. I made new ones out of Honduras Mahogany boards. This wood costs about $4.50/board foot here in the desert. Teak is $15/ board foot. The boards weren't wide enough, so I edge joined them using epoxy. I used weather stripping for seals. The Mahogany was what is called 4/4, about 7/8" thick. I ran them through my planer to bring them down to 9/16". Many hardwood suppliers and lumber yards will do this for you. I don't remember the total cost, maybe $70.

The Mahogany will discolor if it is allowed to weather, so you have to keep the hatches well varnished. Teak is much better in this regard; it looks as good bare and sun bleached as it does finished.

Steve knows almost everything about Vegas, and I would think a long time about not following his advice, but I wouldn't use plywood.

Mort

 

[pelagicasd]

Lyric's hatch covers were teak planks edge butted and fastened with bronze
screws through teak battens. Piano hinges connected them to the fiberglass.
They were somewhat checked, had shrunk and developed a few cracks. Not very
watertight. I made new ones out of 9 ply birch. The more plys in the plywood
the more resistant it is to warping. They lasted a couple of years and
warped anyway. Next ones were made from some of the plywood I had salvaged
from the wrecked Vega I purchased. It wasn't quite thick enough so I epoxied
some door skin to the tops. I had some kevlar cloth left over from another
project (lined the interior of the forepeak hatch and the sliding hatch for
the companionway with it)so I put a layer of that between the plywood and
the doorskin. Plywood doesn't like screws going sideways into it so they got
a scarf joint with oak on the back edge. Epoxy the joint together and hold
it with screws untill the epoxy is set. Rewmove the screws and fill the
holes with more epoxy. This wasn't very attractive so they were covered with
a few layers of glass cloth. Round the edges first and use a penetrating
epoxy on them. The latch hardware was positioned on the bottoms and lightly
screwed in place. It was then removed and the screw holes were drilled
through. Looking down I took a chisel and removed squares of glass over the
holes. The latches were "sewn" in place using some of the new high tech
Spectra fishing line. Fill the holes with more epoxy and then fill the The
chisled are with yet more epoxy. I painted them white and believe thet are
about as bombproof as they can reasonably get. In real life I'm an emergency
room RN. I tend to look at things from a worst case scenario. Try to imagine
the boat being rolled over. What would you want different about it?
P.S.
I don't think Steve has bought many boats for himself or others without them
being surveyed. I think that he may not realize it but he's doing the
surveys himself. Obviously seven of his friends thought he was qualified to
do so!
P.P.S.
We all re-do our boats. My question to the group is what would you do
differently that you re-did and why. For example I re-did the deck with
treadmaster. It looked good but didn't hold up in the hot sun, deformed
where plastic fuel cans sat on it, added a lot of weight and cost to much. I
plan on redoing it again by removing it and using paint and sand.
Walt, Lyric # 120