Ron,

The magnets were from Lee Valley. The are the 1/2" rare earth type. Your may need to find a source down there as they don't like to ship them by air. They are made in China, anyway so you are closer to the real source :-) I think I had 14 on the fore hatch and 15 on the aft.

I'm not sure how well these will work. The fore hatch lid or lip is warped a bit, and getting a good seal may be troublesome. I originally tried a Valclav type lip, but screwed it up (major air bubbles) so I tossed it. This lip is more along the lines of Ted Henry's (Holly's actually) Silver. I attempted to offset the lip slightly, but the lid will probably still sit a bit proud. The magnets are glassed on both sides, but overzealous sanding on my part may have exposed them, especially on the lids. I tried to fix this, but I would not be surprised if we get some rust out while in Port Towsend for R2K3. No time to mess with it now, but I may scrap the system and start over when we get back.

I do like the magnet system. They snap down very tight and require a good pull to remove (I'll probably use a piece of webbing for that). I just need to perfect the installation a bit more. I was pretty nervous drilling holes in the undersides of the lids and ended up not going deep enough. But, what the heck! It's not my boat :-) ..... Uh.... Beth's not listening, right???!

Bill