: You are absolutely correct, and that is my issue. My deck is
: designed to be flat where I have it mounted but I have about
: 1/16" of camber (1/32 on either side of the centerline),
: which is enough to keep it from sealing correctly. It was flat
: before I joined hull and deck, but I picked up the camber when
: fitting the two but since I was already fiberglassed I didn't
: want to tear into it to flatten it again. I have tried
: everything I can at this point because I have a batten to
: reinforce the flat deck just aft of the hatch that I would have
: to cut through or otherwise modify and I have been reluctant to
: do that. But- I'm sick of working around the leaking and
: worrying about it. I paddled some rough water this weekend and
: could feel the tail start dragging after a couple of hours
: because I had collected a bunch of water in there. Doesn't
: handle so good any more, especially in quartering astern with no
: skeg. I can't move the stern around quickly enough. Luckily
: there was a planned stop at a beach where I could bail and I
: wasn't on the cliff side of the island with no place to take
: out.

: I am going to make a sheet of laminated CF and glass on a dead-flat
: surface so that it's as thin as possible and set it up in the
: hull. I have a bulkhead hatch like the Betsy Bays, so it won't
: be difficult to add it to the underside of the hull as a
: retrofit. I use, or had intended to use, the Beckson with a
: ditty bag ring as a day hatch, but if I can determine that
: Beckson can be laid out flat again to get a good seal once I
: remount it I'm worried that the mounting ring for the screw-in
: will protrude too far into the hull with such a low deck, so I
: have to decide if I want to go with the same concept and loose
: space when I don't really intend to carry much in there anyway,
: or go with something slimmer in case I opt to put a tent in
: there or something. As it is, I already loose space in the ditty
: bag because the hull is shallow. I have a Southco Marine
: compression latch holding my front hatch closed, and it is quite
: convenient to have the handle to pull the hatch out with, which
: is, I think, a better design than the pry-out Beckson. (I'm on
: my fourth version of a gasket for that one and I'm absolutely
: water-tight, and we'll see how it goes with durability...

: That is the full story.

: m

You can, carefully, make a tape dam (or better modeling clay) to hold epoxy to make a flat seating surface to make the Beckson hatches work. Have done it in the past, it's a bit fiddly getting the dam (mold) made correctly, but it works once completed.

Bill H.