: I'm creeping along on my Spring Run kit build. Almost up to the
: keel on the hull stripping. Anyway, been thinking of hatches,
: etc for the deck.
: While storage space would be nice, I'm starting to think that maybe
: for my first build I avoid hatches all together. I make the yak
: with no hatchstoreage at all.
: Keep it simple!

: Almost all the yaks I've been seeing have hatches. Am I
: over-concerned with installing hatches?

: If I decide to add one later to the finished yak, is it a PITA and
: messy?

: Thx,

Rob,

I've built 2 Spring Run kayaks and these are great all purpose boats. One of my favorite uses for my Spring Run kayaks is camping. In fact, my son and I went kayak camping this past weekend and I paddled one of my Spring Run boats. As the Spring Run design is fairly wide (23 7/8")and fairly deep, they will hold a big load of gear. In my boat alone, I carried the tent, cooking gear, food, sleeping bags/pads, water bags, tarp, extra clothes, misc junk and still had some room left over.

I think it would be a shame not to put hatches on your boat as you would be closing off wonderfull storage space for camping and for day trips.

I put hatches in my first build and was anxious about cutting into my beautiful deck. But, it came out fine and there is no way I would build a strip boat now without hatches unless it was a very specific purpose boat. The RedFish instructions for building hatches are fine but I chose to use the method shown on the One Ocean Kayak site. I would say "go for it" and build the hatches. And yes, they could be added later but attaching the deck to the hull is going to be a lot harder if you don't have the hatch opening there to give you access for applying the seam tape to the inside of the boat.

Regards,

Bob Beaullieu