: I´ve cut out hatches in the deck the way Nick describes it in his book.The

Hmm.... I wonder if Nick gives warranty on the stuff written in his book ?

if he does, then don't bother to fix what you did. just sew him....
it's easier ha ha ha....

: of the kayak. The list has a width 20 mm and is covered with 7 mm
: neoprene. The hatches is held down with 8 small turnable clips.I thougt

now to business: you mentioned 7mm neoprene. I assume that is 7 mm
thick. I am not sure how wide is the strip of neoprene.

In the past I faced the same problem. my sution was as follows:

I figured I need more force to press on the neoprene, but I only had limited force - the tension from the bungies that pulls the covers down,
& I had lots of surface to press against - the accumulated surface of the
neoprene strip along the lip.

I am using a material that is softer than neoprene.
I tried few materials before settling on minicell foam,
& I am using 5-7mm width strip.

I am also using that minicell on both lips - on the hatch & on the deck,
so there are few more mm of flexibility to allow for a small misalignments
to be sealed.

: the neoprene would make it watertight. But the water is getting in
: someway. I suppose this is a common problem. Please help!

another idea I have is: make sure your neoprene doesn't absorb water !!

are you sure it's really neoprene, & not somekind of open cell foam ?
I'm saying that because one of my first trial was a foam material
designed for this purpose but when problems started I checked & found
it actually absorbs water & let them thru, although the instructions
said it wouldn't.
so don't trust the label - check !!

check my webpage, perhaps you'll get more ideas:

http://homepages.go.com/~fl_pelican/home.htm

hope this helps,

Erez