: I found that the epoxy on my kayak was very vulnerable to gouges for the
: first couple months. I was surprised at how easily rocks would gouge
: grooves into the epoxy. I touched them up with epoxy and was more careful
: for the rest of the year. After one year the epoxy is much more durable. I
: am curiuos if thats a day hatch behind the cockpit. How did you make it?
: Looks great.

Hi Don, thanks for the comfort of validation and normality.

The day hatch is a standard 6 inch Viking ($25) with a pull up and turn handle (90 degrees) and it works great: Easy and quick to use, and dry. You can purchase just the handle and make your own quick opening hatch.

However there is a problem with installation. The hatch is made of a plastic that absolutely will not cooperate with any effort to adhere it to other materials except by means of mechanical fastening. I used 5 bolts on the lip with liberal use of 3M 5200 bedding compound (big mistake- what a mess!) to join the lip to the deck and 5 bolts to join the deck cutout to the lid.

The light trim is aspen from HD, cut in 4 segments and joined into a circle and then shaped, to conceal the deck/cutout edges.