: I have been thinking about day hatches. My previous boat had no hatches due
: to it's small size. I saw on here where someone had built a small
: compartment under the front deck with a hatch on top. I liked that idea.

: I was out in a borrowed boat (forgive me, it was plastic) over the holidays
: and realized that with the larger cockpit opening that this might be
: difficult to reach. Several of the boats had day hatches behind the
: cockpit but these looked awkward to reach, but better than a forward
: hatch.

: A couple of things I would like to store are a camera and binoculars. Storing
: them in the back sort of scares me. I would be afraid of dropping them.

: Then there is the hatch issue. I REALLY like the looks of flush hatches. So a
: day hatch doesn't look to promising. Maybe someone has a good idea?

I don't have the link on this computer but West Marine (others too) sells a screw in small hatch with an available cloth bag that fits into the hatch. I used it for a day hatch of sorts on my NDK Greenlander and it works well. Could fairly easily do that in front of the cockpit too assuming the deck is flat so the hatch rim would seal. Beckson I think is the brand name and it's pretty cheap, around $30 for the whole thing.

Bill H.