Hunter 34 companion hatch

hunter34austin · Feb 14, 2022

I don't think you can get the hatch out of its track without removing the cover. You might get lucky with just undoing the screws in the cover part next to the track and carefully pry this part up and see if you can slide the hatch out. Just an idea.

I'm replacing the lexan on all other hatches right now for the same reason. They are all scratched and cracked.

Don Crowther · Feb 14, 2022

I'm pretty sure you are going to have to remove the sea hood. Lots of screws and sealant hopefully nobody has used 5200. Good luck. Have you done a search?

sail sfbay · Feb 14, 2022

Once replaced that will make a big difference on the boat's look. Do a search on this forum on "companionway replacement" and you will find threads on this subject like this one 1995 37.5 Hunter Legend companionway replacement | Sailboat Owners Forums that will tell you about how others have done it.

Capt Robbie · Feb 14, 2022

unfortunately the companion way hatch was place into the slide before the hood was installed
A fellow h34 owner talked about using a drumel tool and cutting away the fiberglass and aluminum slid at the top of the entrance of the companion way so that the hatch could be removed and then installing stop blocks after installing the new hatch. His second option was to cut the hatch into two halves to remove old one, then fabricate a new hatch out of acrylic in two halves and using acrylic glue, he would cement the two halves back together. He was shower and a glass fabricator by trade. Don’t know if he ever the hatch project or not. He did say that gluing acrylic was not hard to do.

hope this helps

markwbird · Feb 14, 2022

I did it. Just remove the screws that attach the portion of the cover on each side of the sliding hatch. All you have to do is lift it up enough to slide the hatch out towards the stern. You do have to remove the old sealant and reseal. Do this well. I had the new sliding hatch made by Tap Plastics. I added a 1/4“ deep by 1/2“ wide groove in the top of the sliding hatch that runs the full width. This is near the front under the fixed cover. It catches water that gets under there and carries it to the sides where it will drain. Anyway. Not that hard.

Capt Robbie · Feb 15, 2022

db421
as marksbird posted about putting groves into the hatch is really a great tip to do, and I would highly recommend this as well. Unfortunately the h34 and 31s and I believe all the hunter's of this vintage are prone to rain water running underneath the hatch and draining into the cabin. The groves definitely will channel the rain water where it needs to go.

kloudie1 · Feb 16, 2022

My companionway slider had a teak "stop" underneath the front of the slider. It had two screws holding it to the plexi and would not have allowed me to remove the slider without removing the traveler to get enough bend in the seahood to get the stop over the edge of the inside cabin lip. I pulled the sea hood off when I did my slider and found that the drain slots at the forward end of the aluminum slider tracks had not been opened at the factory; I opened them and did as markbird did and used a router to add a drain groove to the top surface of the slider just forward of the upper cover lip . This plus opening the drains on either end of the slider tracks has stopped the companionway leak that had plagued me for many years. Re-sealing the screws that hold down the seahood is a real bugger. One H-34 owner epoxied all the screw holes over and only re-drilled a few that were necessary to hold the cover down.. I don't remember who did it but I remember thinking that he did a great job. Check the H-34 "Owner Mods" ..