> until I tried to launch in some surf and had some padeyes which were
> epoxied to underside of deck get ripped off when a wave broke into cockpit
> and caught on the object that the padeyes were holding in place. Dave, although waves can take anything apart, I'm not sure what forces and what object you had attached under the deck. Were these plastic padeyes epoxied in with glass, or through bolted,or screwed into a shear clamp?

I don't think a hatch cover can be ripped off if it is secured with two to three straps,if it could it probably would also be so loose that there would be a lot of leaking as well. Just to put it in perspective, Aquaterra has some hatch covers(over the neoprene covers) on their Eclipses that look like they would come off half the time in tumbling surf.

I'm surprised by the number of folks that leave stuff simply under bungies expecting it to still be there in and out of the surf.

If you are very concerned about the screws then unscrew the screws from the shear clamp, squirt some thin epoxy,when it dries screw them back in.

If you are new to surf there are more important things to be concerned about,getting a helmet,not getting between beach and boat,etc.