Forward hatch… finally!

[Pascal]

Forward hatch… finally!

I have always hated the original forward hatch with the scoop…. It took me 20 years to finally do something about it . I saved most of the hatch, cut a 24x24 hole getting rid of the scoop and installed smoked lexan. I cut the lower fiberglass skin an inch smaller so the lexan could be supported.

New seals and latched and painted with Alexseal. Also KiwiGrip white non skid.

I had done the anchor locker hatch a couple of of years ago, hatch and frame built out of Coosa.

 

[Timeless72]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

Looks great. Did exactly the same on ours a while back. The new vs old lighting is so much better.

 

[SEVEN]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

Looks fabulous.

 

[drburke]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

Great work--thanks for sharing.

 

[SKYCHENEY]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

Did the same with mine years ago. Big difference in the amount of light you get in.

 

[Eddieclemons]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

Nice work, it's the little things that are the hardest.

 

[rwaldrop13]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

I had a plan to do almost exactly that on Pau Hana! Looks amazing and wonderful work.

 

[Pascal]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

And beat of all? No more leaks on the centerline bed…

 

[rwaldrop13]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

And beat of all? No more leaks on the centerline bed…

That is EXACTLY why I was planning to do that with ours.

 

[bigbill]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

pascal, how is the rest of your re-model going? we have not seen any updates in a while

 

[Pascal]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

It s going . I ve been working on painting the outside (Alexseal). I had a lot of crazing and chipping in the gel coat forward around the au pad and bench as well as the deck. Lots of fairing…

Also installed a new AP, plotters etc…

My goal is to have the paint finished by may and move the boat to Tn in June before hurricane season

 

[bigbill]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

careful, the original paint from hatteras in the early days was a 1 part petit paint, it may peal with 2 part if you dont strip it off. that is what i am doing to mine. post some pics. i would but i'm not tech savvy enough to post them

 

[Pascal]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

Mine was painted in the mid 90s either awlgrip or imron. I painted the inside flybridge / helm about a year ago and it s been fine. The problem I had in some areas was the gel coat cracking and chipping down to the raw fiberglass. Had to chip all the loose stuff the fill with epoxy ( west 410 )

 

[rsmith]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

careful, the original paint from hatteras in the early days was a 1 part petit paint, it may peal with 2 part if you dont strip it off. that is what i am doing to mine. post some pics. i would but i'm not tech savvy enough to post them

Up until the early 70’s Hatteras used 2 part Pettit Polypoxy. It chalked within a year. I think 74 was the first Imron on Hatts. Our 50 was the first Awlgrip job Merrit did in 1974. We bought the boat in 76 and the Awlgrip was already starting to fail. We went back to Merrit with the PO who paid big $$ for the paint job. US Paint blamed the applicator. But Merrit told us to urinate up a rope. My Dad knew John Rybovitch who did the initial outfitting of the boat and they corrected the bad areas at a pretty reasonable price. But by 1980 it was getting worse pealing like potato chips. We had the boat sanded down and shot with primer sealer and Imron. That’s held up until the last 10 years. It needs to be done again but I’m not spending 100k on paint. I’ve got some Cuban guys that will roll and tip it at the house. We’ll see how that goes.

 

[rsmith]

Re: Forward hatch… finally!

What did you use for the hatch tape gasket? Size?