Gave this a lot of thought myself. I think I'm going to glass an eye-bolt to the center of the hatch, another straight down from it on the hull. Use a large washer to distribute the force. Run parachute cord (it's 250 lb. test..) from hatch eye to keel eye then back up to first one (or a second one just aft of the first one) then through the bulkhead to a cleat in the cockpit. With a knot somewhere in the line, you need never lose or misplace the hatch, and you can pull it as tight as you want. Yesterday's posts had a good discussion on fitting the hatch itself. Let us know what you decide to do.

Think seriously about using a very small block nd tackle rig instead of just looping the rope through those eyebolts. With the pulleys you'll have some mechanical advantage in tightening. Without them, you'll just multiply the friction of the rope on the metal of the eye.

I must admit a partiality to attaching deck parts to the deck, not the hull:

Those eyebolts are going to affect where you can put your gear, as those ropes must be unencumbered when it comes time to open the hatches. If the gear shifts and traps the rope you may have to fight to get that hatch open.

When you tie the deck to the hull in that manner you might want to do it near a bulkhead, where hull flex will be at a minimum. Otherwise, as the relatively flexible hull changes shape in response to water and wind forces you might put way too much stress on the (usually) weaker deck. In a worst case, you might crack that hatch cover unless you had the foresight to loosen your attachment rope. Personally, I think the idea of *loosening* hatch covers in rougher conditions is counter intuitive, but might need to be done.

Just a thought.

Paul Jacobson