Advice Needed for Hatch Shades

[Pelagic]

Sorry not a very good picture, but above my pilothouse I have a large opening hatch that gives a good view of the mainsail when inside.

It is fitted with a double roller system of shade and mosquito screen on opposite ends

The Shade roller deploys with a cream material on the inside and a shiny aluminum (space blanket type) reflective coating on the outside, to keep the heat out.

Good design, so that the mosquito screen leading edge can even interconnect to the shade edge, so you can deploy and adjust both if you want shade plus air.

[yacht_planb]

We initially deployed the Phifertex material I mentioned in an earlier post on the outside of the pilot house but inside the boat for all of the port holes. We are moving all of our window coverings to the inside now as they stay cleaner and I like the ability to move them if I want without going outside. The one pilot house covering we have on the inside works just as well as it did on the outside.

[Ocean Girl]

Welcome to living aboard :-).
I have a shade in my vberth hatch. I simply sewed a square in the shape of the hatch out of nice upholstery fabric 2 layers. I then screwed the leading edge of the fabric shade to the leading edge of the inside hatch rim ( fiberglass part). This placed mine about once inch below the hatch frame. I used three screws with Finishing washers. The other end of the fabric shade ( aft part) has a piece of dowel Threaded through the shade that keeps the shade taunt. I mounted two low profile pad eyes to each side of the aft edge of the hatch (again right below my metal hatch frame) to attach the dowel to. I whipped bungee to the dowel and attached small bungee hooks to The other end of the bungee( tiny) , which then hooked to the pad eyes.
When deployed it covers the inside of the hatch and blocks all the sunlight. I can also roll it up to the leading edge and tie it in place and out of the way.
For summer and winter I slide a square of 3M Reflectex between shade and hatch, this keeps the heat out in the summer and the condensation from forming on the inside of the hatch in the winter ( no more icy drips on my head at 3 am!).
There is probably a better way to attach the aft edge, heck Velcro could work just as well, I just suggest making a nice gap between shade and hatch for insulating purposes , especially for winter condensation.
Hope that all made sense, we also have a full awning to keep the noon day sun off the boat.
Cheers,
Erika

[David_Old_Jersey]

Although not yet deployed (made ) for the hatch - I am part way through doing same for the ports / windows.

Am using insulation offcuts (cheap silver bubble wrap style) - really reflects the heat well but on it's own also seems to act as a radiator itself ......have therefore glued (on the interior side) some offcut foam vinyl - really works a treat, window shade cool to the touch I will mention that my ports have condensation channels, so no fixings required - just a slot in......for the hatch I was thinking about going oversized and using the power of wedging the bugger in (that plan subject to change / gravity ).

Will see if I can snap a piccie.......

[ggray]

There certainly is an advantage to the shade being inside, but I put mine on the outside to protect the plastic material as well.

My first temporary experiment was taping a reflective material (foil) on the underside of the hatch. I was surprised how hot the plastic got. More so with the reflective foil, but I guess you get heat from both directions.

[flysci]

The PO of my boat had made interior shades for the hatches held on by velcro - loop strips sewn to the edges of the cloth, hook strips glued to the wood frames of the hatch openings. To go with these are also squares of netting, with loops sewn to the hemmed edges, to act as mosquito screens. Cleverly, the blackout shades can also be attached over the screens via pieces of the hook strips sewn to the inside of the screens. It's a terrific system. The only drawback is that the hook strips need to be re-glued fairly frequently - doesn't seem to bond well nylon to wood.

Margo