Re: VCP with Nylon Bag

Posted by LeeG on Nov 18, 2004

That's possible. What I found out with the bag was that when the kayak was loaded the bag was nearly useless since it was squished or the items in it trapped by the stuff in the compartment. That's why a plywood bulkhead would make sense. Although for the small amount of stuff in the bag I could have it in the cockpit in various places and a lot more accessible. My $.02 is that a day hatch allows for stiffening the hull and aft deck for low aft decks on plastic kayaks and aft decks on glass boats as well as stiffen one piece decks on CLC kayaks where underdeck glass is considered unacceptable. There really isn't a good argument for a "day hatch" for readily accessible items since being twisted around with one hand off the paddle is not as easy as popping the skirt, grabbing an item and replacing the skirt always having the paddle ready as needed. If conditions don't allow for popping the skirt off then twisting around to work a VCP cover will be less so. It's really not ok to risk flooding even a day hatch to get something. In the grand scheme of things if you can't open the skirt you probably shouldn't be opening a day hatch. This was brought home to me paddling a plastic Chatham16 outside the surfzone in non-breaking waves. The day hatch was absolutely inaccessible as water washed across the back deck regularly. If I was to pop it off the compartment would have been flooded by the time I got the hatch back on. In a kayak with more freeboard the likelyhood of flooding that compartment would be less. Mostly I think those "day" compartments are a lazy way to put in loose items and have them bang around in a small space and not a big space. If you have under foredeck bungies, bungie tiedowns on the floor between your legs you can tie down small dry boxes or bags and have them very acessible in less time than it takes to turn about, grab, turn, secure item, turn,close the 'day' hatch, all while having one or two hands off the paddle. But it is a good opportunity to become flexible! Bill Thomas, a familiar face in ChrisK books and former ClC production manager, made a very nice LT18 with a VCP day hatch and extra plywood bulkhead with the aft hatch set a good distance down. Prior to deck glassing and the substantial hatch hole reinforcements the aft deck only had a transverse strip of 4mm ply which wasn't adequate for rescues, installing another bulkhead and day hatch killed two birds with one stone so to speak.

In Response to: Re: VCP with Nylon Bag by Mac on Nov 18, 2004

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