: Dale--

: I have to agree with you. I've thought long and hard about how to use Dzus
: fasteners to hold a hatch on. Their holding ability is great. (They hold
: on race car body panels) But I can't see an easy way to keep the water
: out. Maybe you could run them into blind holes around the actual opening
: and pull the hatch down onto an inner gasket that would form the
: watertight seal. Also you need a special tool to open them.

Working late, taking a break, here's an idea. Make hatch flange .600 inches below deck ht. Look at type 303stainless aj4 -55 pin. Standard series. Throw away the receptacle.Drill 6 holes around hatch for pins. Saran wrap under the hatch. Place pins, push thru saran and hot glue in place from above all in the same orientation around the perimeter so that you can thread a continuous stainless steel wire all thru each pin. It looks like a continuous circle from below, but about 1/8in Vaseline or lightly grease ea pin.

Mush on 1/4in of silicone or urethane seal on the flange and press hatch assy onto it.

The wire becomes embedded in the silicone and is a strong as the sealant is adhered(urethane prob best), the pins are surrounded by sealant and it seals when pins fully turned as that's how it was set up. hopefully they'll release

gotta go, maybe could make it invisible too.

-mick