Hi, I've been working on my boat for way too long and I'm getting a bit impatient to get it in the water. Im almost to the point where I want to fit the deck and hull together, and I haven't really thought a lot about hatches. Originally I was thinking of doing bulkheads with hatches built in, but now I've read posts that say this makes it difficult to store stuff in the them... and I'm fairly sure I want to do overnight trips. So, I'm considering doing deck hatches. However, I really want to get the boat in the water and would like to do the hatches fairly quickly. It seems like using the piece that is cut from the deck for a hatch would be a fast way to do that. But most plans I've seen, say to make a hatch from new material. Why not use the piece that is removed from the deck if it is already perfectly matched to the deck? That seems totally logical to me... so why isnt it done? Or maybe it is and I just haven't heard about it. Anyhow, I'm wondering who has done it, if it works well, if theres a simple way to make hatches that I haven't heard of, and if bulkheads with hatches would not be good for several day trips.

-Matt