Norm,

When building two Arctic Terns I cut the hatches before taping the inside seams at the ends. It worked great. Go ahead and tape what you can reach from the cockpit. It seems to me though, that the deck was alread glassed to the hull at the point I was cutting hatches, and the seam was glued with epoxy injected with a syringe, so you won't need the packing tape. I also glued the front bulkhead into the hull before installing the deck on the second boat. It was so much easier to do it in that order. The rear bulkhead does not matter much because it is easy to reach on either side.

On my wife's Silver I installed a tensioner to one side of the under deck bungee system (aka Leidy Lid) that led back to the cockpit. This made the mechanism easier, but not good enough for my wife. We ditched the system and retrofit a magnet system, but still use the tensioner for extra security and a lid leash. You can see the original system at the link below by following a page link to the Silver. I notice that my site is running slow. I have spoken to my ISP, so maybe it will be up to speed by the time you get to it.

There is no problem with putting a small hole in your bulkhead that is mostly filled by a control line. It does not leak enough water to be a problem. In fact, you can have problems if you do not have a breather hole in your bulkheads.

Hope this helps,

Ted

: I am working on a pair of Pygmy Ospreys and have two question
: I am thinking
: about cutting the hatches in the deck right after gluing the deck to the
: hull and before doing the fillet on the inside sheer seam. I would leave
: the ¾” wide strapping tape on to add some additional strong. This should
: help make doing the fillet and taping of the inside sheer seam a lot
: easier. If I did this I may be able to install the bulkheads before the
: deck is applied. Has anyone done this and what issues should I lookout
: for?

: I have been looking at the hatch cover hold-down system. I don’t like the
: standard Pygmy strapping system. I remember seeing a system somewhere on
: the Internet, of a kayak that used a bungee that came back though the
: bulkhead into the cockpit. One end of the bungee was attached near the
: hatch and then want up though a couple of loops on the hatch and then ran
: though the bulkhead, into the cockpit to a tie down of some sort. I think
: I would use a piece of stainless steel wire though the bulkhead. The only
: drawback I can see is a couple of small holes in the bulkhead. Any
: suggestion.