Hatches

Mac32 · Post by **Mac32** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 8:07 am

I am looking at my original hatches and how much work it is going to be to sand, re-coat, and buff out the crazing and am starting to think my time is better spent on the other major projects on the boat in order to make the boating season this year. So here is my question and please dont be rude to me because I want to get rid of the original leaky wood hatches. yes they are classic, but a maintenance nightmare (and finger breaker)

I want to replace the hatches with aluminum or SS Bomar or Lewmar or?????
I know I will have to modify the cut out but I am re-coring the deck right now any way so this is no issue.

Does anyone have a good lead on hatches? Used or new. So far the best deal I found was Defender
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?pat ... 0&id=48279
(you wil have to cut and paste the whole link , it doesnt completly show up in the forum)

for about $330 but they are the cheaper built ones.

For me still a deal since I will have atleast 60-80 hours into re-doing the wood ones plus the plastic polish and varnish (or Cetol)
Then I still have to look at the screen and shade options....... where the new ones have really nice trim kits with fit screens and shades.

So for $1000 this VS 80 hours + materials (comes to about $10.50/hour for me to equal the cost) the better deal is to buy new hatches. I am worth more than that per hour elsewhere.

Any leads or ideas???

wowzer52 · Post by **wowzer52** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 11:34 am

E-Bay ?

chumwithabottleofrum · Sat Mar 29, 2008 1:34 pm

Mac-I have an F26 and the hatch is probably different-but a few years ago I invested in a book-"This Old Boat" by Don Casey. The book provided direction on how to modify existing older opaque hatches. I removed and modified my hatch per his technique and it worked very well-basically you cut out the center of the hatch, and overlay the hatch with smoked polycarbonate sheet plastic. If interested I can send you some photos of the finished product.

Mike McGaughey

mintregila · Post by **mintregila** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 3:07 pm

Mac
I had an 84 F36 and found direct replacements from Bomar. Contact them directly as all sizes are not carried by Defender or on their website.

I actually got them cheaper by having them shipped through Defender than ordering direct. The Bomar rep told me how to do it.

Good luck.

obeejr · Post by **obeejr** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:40 pm

mintregila-

I thought the F36 hatches were the same as the F32 hatches. I haven't seen anything in the Bomar catalog that looks remotely like the wood framed hatches on the F series. As you state, they don't have everything listed in the online catalog.

Could you let us know the model # to simplify our search?

Mac32 · Post by **Mac32** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:53 pm

The hatches on my f32 are a odd size. The cut out is 21" wide x 17" front to back. I could not find anything around to fit this cut out size so what I am going to do is modify the opening to fit a common 20-1/4 square hatch since I am putting in a new core to my front deck anyway (yeah just got done with stringers so deck is next) , whats a little snip snip and a few more pieces of reinforcment for the hatches.

Now with that said it just happened(pure destiny) I went to a boat restoration shop this weekend looking for a new refrigerator and they just happened to have a few surplus scratch n dent hatches from a boat manufacturer. So I found (2) 20x20 maxwell hatches and one 22x22 (open up V-birth hatch size).

mintregila · Post by **mintregila** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 1:34 pm

I'll take a look at home for paperwork as I must have deleted the order from my pdf list. I know they were square and without a spigot.