The brass stays (not sure of the right word) that keep the houdini hatches open on our boat, don't do so reliably, and safely.
Some photos below, and bear with my 'naming of parts':
- the brass rod that fits inside the brass tube is nice and shiny and smooth.
- when the collar is tightened, the brass olive does compress into the tube and can hold the strut in position, but only if wide open. It slips if the hatch is any less than about 75' open.
- I've 'improved' one of the hatches by roughening the inner rods with some sandpaper, however it is polishing up nicely each time we use it
- The hatches are very heavy, and if the struts lose grip, anything in the way of the hatch shutting is likely to get crushed/cut so am keen to optimise them.
I'm looking for some advice on how to improve the grip of the collar/olive/tube combination.
- If you have a hatch setup like this, have you found/fixed this ?
- Do I have the orientation of the olive correct ? its not symmetrical - on all 4 of our struts the compression is provided by the tube, not the collar.
- A well known window manufacturer suggested that there should be a small rubber washer somewhere in the collar/olive/tube combination. We tried that with the small selection of washers we had and it was not a success. There v limited room to fit a washer in the space available and it can stop the collar tightening.
Changing the hatches is not an option, nor is fitting some gas struts in a different orientation as per the newer hatches on the market.
While I wait to see if other fixes crop up, we do have a solution that allows us to have up to about 30' open, some nice high density foam wedges, but it would be nice to know that when the hatch is open wider, it works and it's secure.
Thanks in advance.