During Hatches

I had a lucky break in that hatches by Maxwell, 450mm square (exactly what I was looking for) came up on sale at Burnsco Marime. These hatches normally retail for $NZ499 each and are very rarely discounted much. These came up on sale at $349 each, so I bought 6 identical hatches and "saved a fortune".

First I made up steel frames, with rounded corners, a few millimeters larger than the Maxwell hatch frame. These were to be welded into the deck to give a perfectly flat surface to mount the hatches on, and also raises the hatch about 15mm off the deck. Hopefully this will contribute to them being water-tight.

In the photo you can see that I have made the cut-outs in the deck, and welded the frames in place. The aft cabin frame has also now been set up for two hatches instead of one large one.

While I had cutting and welding gear on deck I also started repairs to the front of the cockpit coaming. I don't think that this ever had an adequate coat of paint, in the hard to get to places, and rotted from underneath.