I have had one set of hatch lids give me fits warping out of shape, and let me tell ya what -- it's no fun! So I just go ahead and make up nice little hook-braces that kill a few birds with a single stone as a matter of routine, can't think of a good reason not to. I got 'em on my 30.5 lb Outer Island, so weight certainly isn't a problem.

As I may have mentioned once or twice here previously, I'm falling in love with basswood more and more each year, and this is an prime example of why. My hook-braces feature a large footprint for max glue area, fairly beefy structure for strong hooking and bracing, wonderfully tight grain for strong hooks, light weight, way easy carving/sanding/finishing properties for general sanity, etc., etc. You can have my basswood when you pry my cold, dead hands offa it.

On another, possibly related, note: It's worth repeating that when you build carefully, the tension required on the bungees is surprisingly light (I believe Ross Leidy Himself said it) . I've gotten quite a few various demonstrations of the veracity of the statement over the years and several boats, but none more jolting than just a few months ago. Elongated narrative truncated, one bungee loop stealthily became so loose it afterward took several tries to get it to stay on the hooks when closing the hatch. Hardly any tension at all, almost slack! But the hatch stayed so watertight I was prepared to swear it worked even better that way. Same was true on the racks at 70 mph, closest I've ever come to losing anything from upstairs. Didn't stop me from retying with a bit more tension, however. Yikes!