UPDATING THE WATERPROOF HATCH ON THE SEAWIND

One Way to Do It…

By Andy Rust

Seawind #149

 

The purpose of this article is to address the issue of the waterproof hatch on the Seawind—or should I say the PROBLEM, and to offer one possible solution.  The ideas presented in this article are not entirely my own, and I thank all of those Seawind owners who have posted their ideas on the subject via the Seawind Resource Center.

 

The Problem

One of the only serious complaints that I have ever had with the boat we all sail, is the design of the waterproof hatch that the manufacturer supplies.  Not only is the hatch material not rigid enough, but the sealing material provided with the kit is much too porous, which lets water in.  This is a serious problem when trying to keep the sensitive electronics inside dry and functioning properly.  After just a few minutes of sailing in moderate chop, I would have up to ½ inch of water inside my hull!

 

Solution # 1:  Replace the hatch cover with a more rigid material.

This material can be anything from wood, to acrylic to aluminum… virtually any fairly hard substance that can be cut in the shape of a hatch.  I used Acrylic—picked up a 2X2 approx. sheet at a local home improvement store.  (If you use this, be careful when cutting the hatch out, as acrylic can be easy to crack if bent or contorted.  Also, when drilling, attach masking tape to the section that you plan to put holes in—it helps keep it from cracking.) 

 

Once you have selected you hatch material, you can use the kit hatch as a template, and cut out a matching one in the new material.  I did not use the kit hatch as an exact template (mine is a little larger than the kit hatch) due to where I put my mounting screws  

 

Solution #2:  Replace the sealing gasket material with Neoprene.

As mentioned earlier, the material provided in the kit is much too porous, and tends to get waterlogged, and eventually leaks like a faucet.  The first thing that I did was find a material that was less porous—that didn’t soak up the water, but rather repelled it.  There is more than one option for this situation, but what I chose was Neoprene, which is a rubbery material.  You can obtain pieces of Neoprene from several sources, but I chose materialscraps.com, which is a web-based supplier of lots of different kinds of materials.  The URL will be listed at the end of this article.  I bought 1/8” thick neoprene sheets.

 

Since I used clear acrylic for hatch material, I placed my hatch over the hull opening and traced out the out line of the opening lip—where the neoprene needs to be in order to seal the hatch.  Then, using the traced on hatch as a guide, I cut out a piece of Neoprene in the appropriate size and shape.  It’s important to make the sealing material one piece if possible.  Seams can be a place for water to leak in, which would defeat the purpose.  Once you have the right sized sealing gasket cut out, then test fit it by placing it over the hatch opening.  You want it to fit right on the small lip that is around the opening.  Make sure it fits properly—if it isn’t right, either tailor the seal you’ve created or make a new one.  Once you’re sure you have the proper sized sealer, then carefully attach it to the underside of your new hatch—I used CA glue… I suppose you could also use a small amount of epoxy or any other water-resistant adhesive.  Please note that you could also attach the neoprene to the opening lip instead of the hatch.

 

Solution #3 – Attaching and mounting your new hatch.

This is where one’s own personal preference can play a role for sure.  Some people have drilled holes in the LIP of the hatch area (one on bow end, one for each side, and one in the back (stern) side).  However, the lip isn’t very wide, so if you plan to go this route, make sure to use a smaller screw (like 4mm) .  I couldn’t find screws that size, so I decided to drill my holes in the deck just a little on the outside of the lip, and I used #10-24 machine screws from Wal Mart.   After I drilled my holes in the deck, I inserted the screws from the bottom (heads pointed down) and used epoxy to hold them in place.  REMEMBER TO BUY STAINLESS STEEL HARDWARE to assure rust resistance.  The only thing left to do is drill the appropriate sized and located holes on your hatch so that the hatch (with neoprene gasket installed) sits on the deck with the screws going through it.  Then I used washers and small nuts to hold the hatch in place.  It’s important to tighten the nuts down snug enough to make the neoprene form a seal with the deck, but not TOO tight, as to crack your hatch.  That’s it—pretty easy.  You may want to use silicone sealer and put beads around your screws in the deck to keep the water out completely. 

 

This hatch design is MUCH more effective in keeping out water—I noticed an IMMEDIATE difference… only couple of drops in the hull after an hour of sailing.  The hatch isn’t as easy to remove as the kit hatch, but to me the benefits far outweigh some minor inconvenience.  Some folks use wing nuts instead of standard nuts, which would make removing the hatch a little easier, but because I did not install the screws on the lip, there isn’t sufficient clearance for wing nuts to fit.  This is an annoyance that I’m willing to live with. 

 

Here is a photo of my hatch L@@K .  Feel free to email me if you have any additional questions. 

The URL for materialscraps.com web site: 

 

http://www.materialscraps.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=M

 

Andy Rust

nacra521499@yahoo.com