Wood Duck Hatch Assembly: When?

When I built my WD12, I followed the construction order in the manual and added the hatch sill  components well before fiberglassing the deck. The result was trhat drips onto the sill made seating the hatch unnecessarily difficult. Now, I'm building a Duckling, and I'm thinking of glassing the deck first, then installing the hatch sill components. I can't see a reason not to do it this way. Am I missing something I'll regret later?

Thanks.

Jim Norman


4 replies:

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RE: Wood Duck Hatch Assembly: When?

Jim,

I'm building a CH18 and doing just that. fiberglassed deck first, cut out the hatches, glued in the sill spacers (2 x 4mm in my case) then sill.  No problem with that at all other than dealing with the glue squeeze-out. But you have deal with that either way you do it. The fiber glassed hatch that you cut out will retain some of the deck curvature so some advantage there IMO. 

Dave 

RE: Wood Duck Hatch Assembly: When?

OK, Dave, thanks.

RE: Wood Duck Hatch Assembly: When?

Jim,

Dripping onto the sill like that is an indication of using too much epoxy while glassing. Besides drips, that could result in excessive epoxy consumption, floating the glass and lots of avoidable sanding.

As Dave points out, glassing before cutting the hatch works fine, so go for it if you want to (however, the wood is easier to cut without the glass layer and you don't have to worry about pulling up the glass edges with the saw), but keep in mind that as a method of avoiding drips it's just treating the symptom, not the cause.

Whatever you do, try and go easier on the epoxy while glassing.

Have fun,

Laszlo

 

RE: Wood Duck Hatch Assembly: When?

On all my boats I have cut the hatches after glassing, but before the fill coats. The fill coats then become part of the process of sealing the hatch rims.

Dan

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