Before hatches

No permanent hatches were in place and the original framing of some were too small to be of much use. The original layout had one huge aft cabin with one central hatch in the deck. There were no hatches at all in the main cabin ,i.e. at the bottom of the companionway.

Until I got some permanent hatches in place it was difficult to get enough air and light into her and this contributed to her getting very hot on Summer days. The temperature inside regularly exceeded 40 degrees C by mid afternoon.

I took this photo before I got to work on cutting and framing up ready for hatch installation. Click on the photo to enlarge it and you'll see one large hole in the aft deck, and a couple of small frames forward of the main cabin.

You can also see the steel hatch I made for the forward cabin. This just has a coat of primer, and has no interior insulation or rubber seal, and needs several addition coat of paint.