Hi Craig:

> i will appreciate any advice regarding the whole hatch building process .

Here are some results returned from my free association brain search on the hatch building process.

Get a sharp saw, with a narrow blade to make the curves of the hatch. I wound up using the broken blade of a coping saw. It worked ok, but was tedious.

I found the longitudinal lines of the hatch disappeared nicely when made parallel to and along a strip edge. The other edges can't benefit in this way.

Design your hatches so that the finished size, including an allowance for the hatch lip is useful. I wound up making my hatches larger than what Nick described in his book. The convenience of having a larger hole to stow gear is nice. The alternative is more smaller bags through the holes. This is a desirable goal from a practical standpoint, but some things cannot easily be divided into smaller packages, ie: sleeping bag, tent poles, camp stoves, pack frames. Design for the largest thing you anticipate packing, then try to imagine a way to get by with a smaller unit, smaller hole.

When the hatches are finally cut, be sure to seal the exposed wood liberally with epoxy to protect it from the water. I skimped on this step, in a hurry, now I have some discoloration at the edges of the hatches.

I tried to attach some foam to the underside of the hatch itself to give it some floatation in the event of an water based escape. I really need those hatches, and only those hatches to cover those big holes in the deck. I don't want them to get away. So, floatation, or attachment via a cord secured under the deck.

Give some thought to your method of securing the hatches. I really liked the way I did it, but some others have had equal or greater success screwing the hatch straps to the deck.

On the issue of hatch seals, when I get the alignment right, I will install a two or three interlocking, concentric seals attached to the hatch and the lip. The idea here is the create a labyrinth for the water to pass through on it's way to the inside of the boat. I got this idea from Pete Rudie.

If you haven't cut them out yet, seriously reconsider cutting them out at all. I have seen boats with no hatches, removable bulkeads, that used the space for stowage. No hatches of course means no leaking, cutting, complexity, visual disruption. For me, no hatches is a very real option on the next boat.

Ok, end of search... the rest is rambling right now. I would be happy to answer specific questions, or just another brainstorm. Keep up the good work.

Ed Valley