>> Chuck is snipped: A fellow in our kayak club made a stich-and-glue kayak in which the hatch covers are held down by internal bungees. I tested a prototype kayak with this rig and during a cowboy rescue, my skirt caught the hatch and it is now in Davey Jones' Locker. I recommended they use a different system, despite the good looks. Brian Blankinship >> In a message dated 1/2/2003 2:16:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, cholst_at_bitstream.net writes: I wouldn't expect this to happen if the hatch cover were flush with the deck or a fairly strong pair of bungees were used. As I recall, the one I looked at required a fairly strong pull to open the hatch far enough to unhook the bungee. RalphH: I cut the fore and aft hatches on my S&G "Yare" adaptation out of the deck material (after installation), glued internal rims under (!) the edges, equipped the cutouts with athwartships handles (partially to reestablish the camber of the deck) and hold them down with tight bungees strung from the underside of the hatch covers to wooden hooks on the keel line. No manner of abuse has ripped them off over the last 8 years (heck, I can hardly open them when I want to! :-) and mere foam weather stripping serves as an almost perfect seal even when I'm paddling hull under for extended periods. It's not this system that's bad, but the execution needs to be worked out with a bit of care and planning. Best regards, Ralph Ralph C. Hoehn Ralph_at_Atlatl-Kayaks.com / Ralph_at_PouchBoats.com www.Atlatl-Kayaks.com / www.PouchBoats.com phone: +1-203-324-0901 *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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