It was hard to open so I added a handle with tapered edges that will not catch you bathing shorts if you need to slide over the back deck cowboy style.
The 4 inch hatch did not allow me a lot of access and I may change it to a 6 inch hatch at a later date. But I really like the quarter turn removal much better than threaded hatches. And it is more water proof than most 4 and 6 inch threaded hatches I have used.
Upon looking inside the center section of the hull I learn that there was no way to repair the boat from the inside. So I patched each little hole from the outside with four layers of glass starting from dime size up to quarter size. Then I added four thin layers over that whole section of the hull to improve strength and rigidity. Part of the reason for the long crack was because the boat had a very flexible part of the hull rubbing on rocks right over a bulkhead. So it had to crack at the bulkhead. Now I hope it is going to work better, but unlike the previous owner I may be a little more careful paddling it over rocks..... On the other hand I may have to find some rocks and some logs just to test the repair!
After this picture I think I added only one more layer of glass, sprayed the thing with Krylon and called it summer. It paddles well and is strong, but don't look too closely at it. Maybe I'll make it even smoother this winter. Or maybe the rocks and logs will buff it out?
Check out the swing day hatch on the Epic 18x. Just unlatch it and it swings open.
ReplyDeleteYes it looks very good but I don't think I could put one on my Kestral. It looks like the deck of the Epic has a molded in lip to fit the day hatch cover.
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