: One of my students in the Yost SOF class had a wonderful idea. He wants
: watertight hatches on his SOF that he'll build after this class and we've
Hi Bill,

On my last SOF I broke a rib so rather than remove the skin I cut a hole the size of a beckson hatch with a hot knife. Once I repaired the rib I made a plywood ring to fit the underside of beckson hatch and placed it inside the boat and a float bag. I cut a hole in a float bag the same size as the hole in the skin. I then used marine goop to seal the bag to the skin and the under side of the hatch and clamped it all together with the plywood ring. It works great. The hatch gets filled like any normal hatch and once the lid is screwed on, I fill the bag with air through the filler tube. It works both as a hatch and a float bag. I had pics somewhere but can't find them.

Kent