: Aaron,

: I've only made two, but so far I'm pretty happy with the results. I made the
: hatch rims the One Ocean Kayaks way and I highly recommend them. They are
: pretty damned water/air tight and provide a very flush hatch if you use
: the right gasket material. In fact, a vacuum is created inside the
: compartments when the warm kayak (from sitting in the sun) cools down
: (from going into the water or shade). The vacuum pulls the hatch covers
: down with quite a bit of force.

: The thing I'm still trying to figure out is the hold down system. I started
: with the internal bungee system which worked fine, but could be a bit
: awkward to put on and take off. Now I've converted to the Moby system. The
: Moby system makes it very easy to put the hatches on and take them off. A
: bonus that comes with the Moby system is that you can't have the hatch in
: place without it being secured. The thing I'm seeing with the Moby system
: is that you have to have a couple of braces/reinforcements that span the
: width of the hatch cover to prevent deformation from the force of the
: bungees. I'm seriously considering magnets for my third boat. The only
: drawback with magnets is that you need a larger hatch rim in order to fit
: the magnets and the gasket, therefore, you end up with a smaller opening.
: I guess everything's a tradeoff.

: Pedro Almeida

Pedro:

Do you have links to the various hatch hold down methods that you mention? I'm working on a Pygmy Osprey right now and want to use something other than the block method that Pygmy suggests. I just re-varnished an Artic Tern and sanding around the blocks was a pain.

Charles Robinson