: (VCP covers) But they float. I'm not
: sure if Kajak Sport covers do or not, but suspect not.

Hmm, I didn't know VCP covers floated. That might have been a really
BAD thing on a trip earlier this year. I took the Cormorant out to
the Farnes (the same place as the photo below was taken, as it happens,
but a different trip) and put down the cover from the aft bulkhead hatch
on the aft deck, loose. As the tide was coming in, someone nipped down
from our lunch spot and pulled the boats up a few yards. When I went back
to put in and paddle home, no hatch cover. Oops. It was windy. If it had
floated, it would have gone away, but as it sank, I found it with not too
much wading. If it had been a hatch in the deck, rather than in the
bulkhead, losing it would have been disastrous. Except, in this case,
being a VCP hatch, there would have been a spare in the party. For a
flush hatch in a strip boat, a spare would not have been an option
(although my flush hatches _are_ tied on to the boat...). There is
quite a lot to be said for using standard components !

Anyhow, I was looking for a pic of the forward hatch (the one with a VCP
hatch) and found I had no good ones except taken from the cockpit, which
don't show the recess very well. This one is cropped down from a big photo
of the boat on Longstone, and shows the front hatch open, so you can see
the recess. My point is that if I was building again, I'd make the recess
a bigger diameter. Since the deck is fairly flat, the recess isn't deep,
and I can get my fingers under the cover OK, so I don't need more finger
room, but if the recess was a bit bigger, it would sit lower in the deck
and probably throw up less spray in a head sea.

Andy