> I'm fishing for better answers...

For my second boat, I wanted flush-mounted hatches with internal restraint. This is what I ended up with, and so far so good.

It's basically a pulley system, tied off inside the cockpit with and ordinary rope cleat on the 1/8" dacron line. The more pulleys you install, the greater the mechanical advantage, but also you use more line (and have more in the cockpit to secure out of the way).

The obvious drawback is that this divides the compartment in half right there at the hatch, then you have a line passing to the bulkhead. As almost all my paddling trips are day trips, this isn't much of a hassle. Indeed, I have tried to pack in all my camping bags and such, and while it isn't as easy to load as an undivided compartment, it can be done.

"Better"? Maybe. Doesn't leak, looks OK. Relatively simple. May not be appropriate where packing larger bags. Uses a lot of line that ends up in the cockpit.