Deck Hatches

[44'cruisingcat]

The time is approaching when I will need to buy about 10 of these. But what brand? I'm looking for people's opinions about their hatches, both good and bad - since some of these hatches will be directly over bunks I don't want to fit ones that leak!

[Weyalan]

I am currently on the lookout for decent hatches myself, so I have been looking around for a while. The general consensus seems to be tha you get what you pay for. Also, if you want to be confident of not leaking, get offshore hatches. So far I haven'r heard a bad word about Lewmar offshore hatches - that is probably what I will go for when I can save up enough $$$$s

[cat man do]

I worked on a boat a while back that we used Lewmar extensively on.

I built every hatch surround perfectly straight and in plane, fixed the hatches and they had gaps.

Took every hatch out of the box and every alloy frame had woops in them, so had to bog the frame to the hatch.

All had quality check tags on them.

With the Lewmar winches, I had to totally strip, clean and swap parts around between winches until they worked at an aceptable level.

I make a mould for my hatches and do them with a foam core, buying the locking mechanisms from Allyacht spars (Moonlight)

On the new one we'll have 14 hatches at 500mm openings so about $8000 to buy.

Dave

[northerncat]

i agree with cat make them youll save yourself a fortune, of course your building an oram so you are made of money 8-)
sean

[Whimsical]

Originally Posted by cat man do

I make a mould for my hatches and do them with a foam core, buying the locking mechanisms from Allyacht spars (Moonlight)

Dave

Dave
14 of them, I presume they are with acrylic panes not solid. Do you have any sketches of the construction and how the acrylic is installed.
Mike

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by 44'cruisingcat

The time is approaching when I will need to buy about 10 of these. But what brand? I'm looking for people's opinions about their hatches, both good and bad - since some of these hatches will be directly over bunks I don't want to fit ones that leak!

There are a number of vendors around besides Lewmar. A friend just put in replacement hatches from Vetus. Good price and they looked strong and well made. Also, the Scandvik hatches also sound good in the catalog.

Paul L

[delmarrey]

They have been around for a long time and still carry parts for the old ones. They also come in different grades, of many sizes and do use Lexan for their windows.

http://www.pompanette.com/pompweb.ns...a?OpenDocument

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by Whimsical

Dave
14 of them, I presume they are with acrylic panes not solid. Do you have any sketches of the construction and how the acrylic is installed.
Mike

The pic shows how I did the last lot, just made up a simple melamine female mould for the hatch using 600gsm db 8mm foam and around the edges just bult it up to 2400gsm with 2 additional 600gsm strips.

Thes ended up sitting about 45 mm off the deck.

For the frames I made a 2 peice seperating mould of a simple L shape web and flange, so when cracked from mould you could just glass this into the deck with flange facing out to prevent water coming in which we never had. These were again multiple layers at about 3600gsm.

These stiffened the deck cosiderably when glued and glassed bac in.

In the pic it shows I siliconed and through bolted, but on the next version I will just use 1mm VHB doublesided tape. I may also look at recessing the Shinko this time , and wont be painting the edge

I don't use acrtylic or lexan but used Shinkolite Mitsubishi Rayon ShinkoLite A

which I think is better than lexan, and the version I used was not from Mitsubishi, but some other Yum Cha company.

I cut the panels with a jigsaw and shaped up the bevel with a powerplaner, then 100mm angle grinder and then polished bevel with 180 grit on random orbital sander.

Hope that fills you in a bit.

Dave

[44'cruisingcat]

Thanks for the great info guys. Dave, I am just a bit worried about my ability to build hatches that don't leak - if some of the big companies can't seem to do this then could I?

The Lewmar hatches always looked a bit flimsy to me, especially the hinges. But they sell heaps of them so you would have thought they were OK........

Del, I've seen the Bomar hatches and thought they looked good. Thanks for the benefit of your experience!

Paul, I will look into Vetus and Scandvik. Thanks.

Others I have seen in the flesh that look good and solid (esp the hinges) are Nemo. Whitworths: Nemo Aluminium Hatch 500mm x 500mm

Does anyone have any experience, positive or negative, with these? (Iv'e heard bad stuff about Gebo, but despite the similarity of the names I think they are different hatches.)

[cat man do]

Those hatches look pretty good 44CC, and the hnges are allways an issue, about the best I ended up with are these Whitworths: Stainless Steel Offset Hinge 40 x 95

but at the end of the day, one hatch cost's about $80 and takes about 3 hours to make inc paint.

The difference in cost lets me get that de-sal unit, or the real flash fridge freezer with the power to run it.

They are also much lighter.

Yours are an easy option though.

Pic may fill you in as to why they wont leak, water has to follow the red path to get in, so if the gap between deck and hatch is kept to a couple of mm, water wont get in.

Occasionaly I did get a leak, but it was failure of the O ring in the locking mechanism.

The front hatches on my last cat regurlarly had SOLID green across them, and no problems.

Dave

[viking69]

Hey Dave looks like you need to do a production run on those hatches of yours. I need a few for my build as well.

[Whimsical]

Dave
Add the rebate and dolly up the hindges a bit and it will be schmako. Maybe increase the size of the Shinco a bit.
This is definitely on my stolen ideas list, thanks.

Mike

[Brad Pearce]

44'cruisingcat, 3 gebo hatches on my vessel lasted 21 years without leaking. recently replaced small one as the stay failed. the new one has a friction hinge and it came with a tube wrench to adjust/tighten if needed. Been in use a year now. Fitted it without any problems of distortion or anything. Not easily available here in Perth, ordered in from distributor on the east coast. Brad P.

[Weyalan]

Since I first posted in this thread (and as a result of some of the feedback herein), I have moved away from the Lewmat hatches in favour of the Maxwell/Weaver offshore hatches:

Boat hatches, portlights and accessories for marine vessels superyachts Maxwell Marine

I like the look of them: 4 locking dogs, not 2. Also the hinge system looks really robust. Anyone have any exerience with them?

Incidentally, the hatches I am replacing are Plastimo, and have done pretty well for the last twenty-something years.

[44'cruisingcat]

Weyalan, Weaver/Maxwell would actually have been my first choice. But the boat I just spent 2 weeks on had one (out of 6) which leaked BADLY. Luckily it was over a shower recess. It appeared that the hinges had developed some movement, even though it is hinge friction which holds the hatches open. You could actually see daylight between the seal and the hatch, even with the dogs snugged down tight. Standing on the hatch improved things greatly, but there were still drips. Bob Oram has them on his own boat, but he doesn't recommend them either.

Dave, your hatches look good, and if I can't find any I feel confident in buying I might just have to make my own. But I only need 8 (maybe 10), and to complicate matters I want 4 different size square ones, and one pair of rectangular. Which might complicate the home - production a fair bit.