: The time has come to take a deep breath and cut out the hatches on my
: Shearwater Baidarka. I feel like the guy in the T.V. commercial who's
: cutting a priceless diamond in a moving car. Oh well I'm sure it will be
: like the rest of the building process, after you've done it once it
: doesn't seem like such a big deal.
: I think I've decided to go flush mount with either Vaclav's system, or Rob
: Mack's system with the gasket half on half off the lip. I like the look of
: Vaclav's system, I like the idea of not dragging all my gear across the
: gasket when loading and unloading with Rob's system. My question is what
: type of success have other builders had with respect to achieveing a
: watertight seal with these systems?
: I'll be using either Ross's bungy system or Eric Schade's knob closed hatch
: system to secure the hatches. Comments on these would also be appreciated.

: Thanks,

: Ken

I've resisted making flush hatches for a long time because they can be difficult to make truly water-tight. I had tried using neoprene wet-suit material for gaskets but it does not compress well enough to work in less than perfect hatch deck contact situations.

However, since I started using the gasket tape Newfound Woodworks sells I've been confident of a good seal. This tape compresses very easily allowing a very good seal, especailly when the gasket straddles an edge where half compresses and the other half can rise up past the edge for a total seal. This gasket tape compresses so much that you can make a under deck lip for the hatch cover to rest on with adding padding for the gasket thickness, which simplifes hatch construction.

I think Nick tracked down the source for this tape for Newfound when he was there and perhaps can give more details on it's name and material properties.

All the best,

Rob Macks
Laughing Loon CC&K
www.LaughingLoon.com