Thanks Dan....

fwiw.....you were an inspiration for shooting for a light boat. had i not put adjustable foot pedals, or the plastic toggles i could have saved another two lbs....and another lb could come off if you did not mind not having a retractable skeg.....just wanted to say i was very impressed with the picture of you holding your Petrel with one hand :)

as to your question....i simply put the hatch where one of nick's design plans showed it to be (or where i thought it showed it to be?). it did make it easier to get the mini-cell rear bulkhead in place:)

frankly, my impression was i could have put it back another six inches to a foot if i tweaked the size a bit to keep it between but off the feature line. at some point i simply had to put saw to wood....and that's where i ended up putting it.

i did think about my experience with different types of rigging and where i carry stuff and what i was likely going to do with this boat. you can't see it but it does have a storage net/bungee system underneath the front cockpit deck between my legs...where i tend to put stuff these days that i want handy....so i find since doing that, space behind me and in front of me typically is not used...so i was comfortable not having more deck/bungee space back there.

so i guess the short answer is ...it ended up where it ended up.

thanks again for all your support and advice during this build.

h