I want to try to get a perfect match in curvatures for my Return hatches. I plan on putting an additional thin carbon fiber layer on the inside of the deck to stiffen the hull and especially the hatch prior to cutting the hatch. I am still not sure that I will include a couple of ribs on the hatch to ensure that the shape is maintained. I think that any reinforcements should be put in prir to cutting the hatch.

I also found at work some seals which I would expect to work significatly better than the weather stripping. The weather stripping requires significant force to seal = bad. If you look at your car, it uses hollow section, which form a good seal with large displacements and low forces = good. I will test the small ~rectangular cross section hollow tubing and let you know.

Andreas
: here's my story: the angle of my coho hatch covers didn't exactly matched the
: ridge angle of the deck. I realised there's no shortcut here, & I redo
: (redid) the covers.

: after that I still didn't got a good seal, so after consulting with people
: here, I got to the cocnclusion that my rounded neoprene seals where too
: stiff, so I changed them to a different neoprene strip, a one that is
: softer & has a flat top, & I also put that neoprene strip on both
: lips: the deck & also the covers. It reduced the leak, but was still
: not perfect, so I narowed the strip on the deck so the presure improved.
: still didn't had a chance to test it since then.

: the force an internal bungies can apply on the seals is limited. an external
: webbing can apply much more pressure, so if you can't achieve a good seal
: "internally", do it "externally".

: twm2c

: Erez