Watertight Hatch

[Sailman58]

I am about to start construction on a new boat (15 foot whitehall type) with fore and aft flotation chambers. The original boat had the white plastic hatches in the bulkhead, but I would like to put some type of wooden hatch in the deck itself. A kayak-style hatch would work, but I don't like the webbing hold-downs. Anybody have a solution?

Ron

[garland reese]

You can install wooden toggles to hold down the hatches. Iain Oughtred has some examples of this in his builidng manual. You might also check out the guillemot kayak building bulletin board. Several of the guys there have built hatches with various methods of securing them. If they are small, it is possible to use internal bungee type hold downs.......a fellow named Ross Leidy did this on his kayaks and they worked very nicely, according to his comments. They look superb. Larger hatches would be more difficult to seal off well. But I think the toggles would do nicely and they look much better than the nylon straps.
Garland

[Bob Cleek]

Wood floats. Why floatation chambers in a Whitehall?

[capt jake]

I ussed Ross's method on my kayak. They look great! They aren't the easiest thing to open though. I built up the gasket channel out of carbon fiber, and attatched the underdeck bungee latches. http://home.attbi.com/~jwentz4/kayak.htm
Here you will find a link to one ocean (shows the carbon fiber lay-up, in the resouces section is the link to Ross's site). Good luck. BTW, carbon fiber is soooo easy to work with. A real time saver. smile.gif

[Sailman58]

Thanks to those who responded, and to in response to Bob, the wood is plywood with a lot of epoxy filleting. I expect that the boat would still float if swamped, but not very high in the water. The higher it floats, the more chance I have of effecting a self rescue.

Ron

[nevrdun]

If you're able, take a look at the 15' Wayfarer, the woodies, and note the combo 'floatation/storage cavities stem and stern. The gasketed stern hatch covers and opening permit stowing a 2 hp kicker and the fasteners don't tear your butt off when sitting on them. -- And the extra bouyancy during knockdown sure cuts down on the bailing.