>> lets hear from folks who have VCP hatches that have out lived 3 yrs... or is it normal to replace them after 3yrs? if so, someone needs to bring out another product. bye bye bliven >> Looks like I've had pretty good luck with VCP hatch covers. I recently replaced a couple of five-year-old VCP 7-inch hatch covers, but only as a precaution. They had developed a dome shape from being left on the kayak in the hot sun, and they had started to develop a fine alligator maze of superficial cracks on the outside. The insides, however, are still smooth, new-looking, and crack-free. Since I often leave the kayaks on the car between trips, the covers had plenty of exposure to the Minnesota sun. The only protection I gave them, aside from putting the covers inside the hatches on guaranteed rainless days, was to occasionally apply 303 inside and out. In a related matter, the Kajaksport forward hatch on my wife's Romany recently started leaking up to a cup of water per rolling session or rainstorm. It used to be so airtight that the hatch cover would dome in the hot sun. An employee of Trek & Trail told me such leaks are often caused by the gasket material under the rim deteriorating. This appears to be a black liquid gasket material similar to that used on automobile windshields, and apparently it is used as an adhesive to mount the rim to the kayak. Sure enough, the leak continued even after I replaced the hatch cover. Last weekend I ran a bead of AquaSeal around the edge of the gasket both inside and out, and tomorrow we'll find out whether it still leaks or not. BTW, Kajaksport hatch covers are a different material from the VCP covers, and retain their flexibility much longer -- how much longer, I don't know yet. The 7-inch VCP hatch cover, however, is easier to remove and replace with one hand, which is why I think Nigel Dennis was smart to use it for the day hatch cover on the Romanys. Also, the 10-inch Romany cover (now made in the UK by NDK) is about $10 cheaper than the 7-inch VCP cover. Chuck Holst *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced/forwarded outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Tue Aug 01 2000 - 06:14:02 PDT
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