rear hatch design

[charles123]

I am seeking a way to improve my rear hatch, the problem is its very difficult to open from inside the boat. The hatch when closed lifts over the rear doors by about 10mm and holds them shut. From the outside its no problem to lift the hatch up and over but from the inside there is only about 4 ft from the engine box to the hatch so you cant comfortably lift it up and over as being made of steel it is very heavy. What do other people do as it must be a common problem?, perhaps one solution is to raise it so it does not have to be lifted and therefore slides back only, the problem is then holding the doors closed and security of the boat as with the hatch over the doors and padlocked it cant be opened

 

thanks

 

Charles

[dor]

Could you fit some sort of two-position runner, so that the hatch is raised a bit when you are on the boat, but will still allow hte hatch to be dropped so it holds the back doors when you fully lock up.

 

Bolts on the top of the doors could be used to give some security when you are on the boat.

[John Orentas]

Hi Charles.

 

I had a similar problem with my hatch, stiff on it's runners and very heavy. I cured the problem by mounting the thing on nylon flanged rollers, a fiddly job but it worked for me, can't really go into detail as they are all different, but it is something to think about.

[David Schweizer]

Last year I met two brothers who had redesigned the sliding hatch on their boat last yesr, that worked on a roller system similar to that described by John, but unfortunately their system would not work on my boat.

 

My slide is very heavy and is compounded by the fact that it is 4ft long. I normally cruise with it half closed (or half open depending upon your perspective) and an easily moving slide would actually constitute a safety risk, as both I and others sometimes lean against it for support. My solution was to install small blocks of Rosewood under the slide base instead of the more conventional brass. Rosewood is an oily wood which polishes naturally under friction and they seem to provide the neccessary balance between ease of momement and stability.

Edited March 8, 2006 by David Schweizer

[charles123]

Last year I met two brothers who had redesigned the sliding hatch on their boat last yesr, that worked on a roller system similar to that described by John, but unfortunately their system would not work on my boat.

 

My slide is very heavy and is compounded by the fact that it is 4ft long. I normally cruise with it half closed (or half open depending upon your perspective) and an easily moving slide would actually constitute a safety risk, as both I and others sometimes lean against it for support. My solution was to install small blocks of Rosewood under the slide base instead of the more conventional brass. Rosewood is an oily wood which polishes naturally under friction and they seem to provide the neccessary balance between ease of momement and stability.

 

 

good sugestions coming through, especially to improve the ease of sliding the hatch, but to make my point clear its a solution that avoids lifting the heavy hatch 10mm up and over the rear doors from inside which is so difficult to do, that I am stuck on, maybe I have to live with this in order to retain security of having the hatch secure the two rear doors when closed

 

Charles

[TeeELL]

Charles,

I have exactly the same problem as you so I will be interested in any answers that appear. My issue is that the steel doors have an almost imperceptable twist to them (that I cannot remove!) that creates a very tight fit between them and the hatch. I can, at least, sit on the step and heave upwards and then forwards to open. I am considering a metal bar across the top of the doors with bolt through the doors (at packlock level) and a wing nut on the inside so I can 'ease the jamb'. My concern is that I'm not in the first flush of youth and this problem is, one day, going to defeat me!! So I have to find a solution.

[charles123]

Charles,

I have exactly the same problem as you so I will be interested in any answers that appear. My issue is that the steel doors have an almost imperceptable twist to them (that I cannot remove!) that creates a very tight fit between them and the hatch. I can, at least, sit on the step and heave upwards and then forwards to open. I am considering a metal bar across the top of the doors with bolt through the doors (at packlock level) and a wing nut on the inside so I can 'ease the jamb'. My concern is that I'm not in the first flush of youth and this problem is, one day, going to defeat me!! So I have to find a solution.

 

 

Tony,

 

Warped doors are common, the 4mm steel plate does distort easily when the doors are being made and welded on and once in place they are almost impossible to straighten, my rear doors have a gap of about 8mm at the bottom that I could not fix, fortunately they are not really noticable. regarding your tight fit you could remove metal with an angle grinder which is what I did and repaint it. But that is not going to solve the problem of sitting on the step and heaving the hatch up which is what I have to do as well.

At present I am thinking of raising the hatch by using wood blocks fastened to the hatch that slide along the runners as has been suggested, that will solve the problem of having to lift it up and over but creates the problem of securing the rear doors as the hatch will then not lock in the doors, further there will be a gap at the top of the doors and between the hatch that will allow someone to look in. It can be done but its a fair bit of work which I will have to give more thought to

 

Charles

[Alastair]

I have a similar problem, with a hatch that just sits on top of angle iron. Currently it can't be secured, and has to be lifted 20mm to clear the washboard.

 

What I'm going to do is a twofold modification. Firstly, add a lip to the angle iron, and modify the hatch so that this lip goes in a groove. This will prevent the hatch from being lifted vertically, so I'll add grooves to the end so that it doesn't need lifting to clear the washboard.

Secondly, add a garage door yale lock. This will mean that the hatch can be locked from inside or out.

[John Orentas]

Slightly off topic but for anyone having a new boat built, try and persuade the builder to allow a 1/8" (3mm) minimum gap between all hatch doors and framing. Less than this and you will be plagued forever by water travelling along the gaps by capillary action.

 

My boat was worse than that, the builders had a misguided idea that the gaps should be a minimum, they made the gaps so small that even the thickness of paint tends to get dragged off the two surfaces making the situation a double problem, rust and water, I have lay-ed into the edges with an angle grinder but you can only go so far.

 

Do your best to get them to do what you ask but probably like me you will fail, the average builder will see it as an assault on his masculinity to do what he thinks of as sloppy workmanship.

Edited March 8, 2006 by John Orentas

[TeeELL]

OK Charles,

how's this? Something I thought of on my drive home and certainly something I will probably develope. Problem need to lift heavy rear hatch but maintain security. Solution: make a pair of 'cams' with longish operating handles that are either a permanent fitting or demountable on integral stub 'axles'. Operation, fitted at the rear of the side of the hatch pulling on the lever(s) rotates the cam lifting the hatch easily. Improvement to action: having lifted the hatch the cam could imping on some form of projection (small poece of angle iron welded in place? etc) which moves the hatch forward by 1/2" or so. No angle grinding, no compromising of security. What do you think of that?

[David Schweizer]

good sugestions coming through, especially to improve the ease of sliding the hatch, but to make my point clear its a solution that avoids lifting the heavy hatch 10mm up and over the rear doors from inside which is so difficult to do, that I am stuck on, maybe I have to live with this in order to retain security of having the hatch secure the two rear doors when closed

 

Charles

 

I would remove the 10mm lip, and as John suggests ensure that there is a minmum 5mm gap between the underside of the slide and the top of the doors, you could even introduce a drip moulding to the underside to further prevent the ingress of water. I have about a 7mm gap on mine4 and have never had any problems with water entering the boat.

 

As far as security is concerned I have a Cabin hook set at 45 degrees from the hatch sides holding the cabin doors closed, which cannot be lifted clear when the slide is in it's closed position. A standard sliding bolt seceres the slide to the hatch sides and on the outside there is a padlock through a heavy duty staple and hasp. It means that initial entry to the boat always has to be through the front cabin doors, but I would defy any would be thief to be able to gain access through the rear doors.

Edited March 8, 2006 by David Schweizer

[DHutch]

Could you make the turned-over bit (that traps the doors) hinged?

 

Obousley it would also need a small turned over bit to cover the hinge and keep water out, but if was hinged?

- you could then also make it so that i had a little more over hang, and have it acting as the hasp, with the staple (on the door) passing thought it.

 

 

Daniel

[bottle]

OK Charles,

how's this? Something I thought of on my drive home and certainly something I will probably develope. Problem need to lift heavy rear hatch but maintain security. Solution: make a pair of 'cams' with longish operating handles that are either a permanent fitting or demountable on integral stub 'axles'. Operation, fitted at the rear of the side of the hatch pulling on the lever(s) rotates the cam lifting the hatch easily. Improvement to action: having lifted the hatch the cam could imping on some form of projection (small poece of angle iron welded in place? etc) which moves the hatch forward by 1/2" or so. No angle grinding, no compromising of security. What do you think of that?

 

This seems like the best answer.