watertightness of hatches

Posted by Monterey Matt on Sep 20, 2006

I washed the insides out of my baby to get the construction grit out, using a garden hose with pressure, and I decided to test the watertightness at the same time.

The bulkheads and decks are GREAT. Not a drop out.

Buuuuuutt....

the hatch covers are leaky. Mind you, I put an inch of water at the bottom of the two watertight compartments and flipped it over, but there's a bit of a stream out the edge nevertheless.

Now I looked and looked and looked, and while the hatches aren't a perfect shape (forehatch worse than aft) the coaming rim and the foam tape seemed to be in contact with one another, as evidenced by the depression the one makes in the other, and the straps are pretty freakin' tight.

So...

(1) a little leakiness is acceptable?

or

(2) try again, Matt, they should be drum tight and ya did something wrong.

Ideas?

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