: I think the idea of gear popping this hatch arrangement is less likely than
: the
: same boat, with straps, sinking because of a leaking hatch gasket.

: Straps are useless to seal a gasket on any deck that has a1" or less,
: rise at the deck centerline.
: There is just no downward pressure. Sure, the cover won't come off but you
: could take on a lot
: of water.

Good point. I was paddling my Chesapeake 17, which has the standard hatch arrangements - held down by three straps, between Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands a couple of years ago. It was pretty big weather with plenty of waves crashing over the boat. As the hours went by I noticed that smaller and smaller waves seemed to be able to sweep over the bow. I suspected that some water had leaked into my front hatch, putting the bow lower in the water.

The waves gradually subsided somewhat and I made it to Santa Cruz. When I went to pull my boat ashore it weighed a ton. I opened the front hatch and the water was over halfway to the top! I think I was lucky I made it. I did have several dry bags inside to act as floatation, so the boat wouldn't have sunk, but it could have gotten really hairy if more water had gotten in and the waves had gotten bigger instead of smaller.

Next time I set out in that boat in similar conditions, not only will I tighten the straps really tight, I think I'll also insert some sort of wedges around the perimeter of the hatch under the straps to increase the downward force.

On the Guillemot I'm building I'm really interested in different hatch-securing arrangements. The magnets sound like a good thing, perhaps with a backup strap or two, in case of an upside-down situation as described in this thread.

Any thoughts?