Re: I am going to try thi

Posted by LeeG on Dec 14, 2004

Yes. On a Ch16..thereafter all deck rigging went through a glassed deck with washers and locknuts underneath.

I had some experience with aft hatches being able to slide around during rescues in the pre-2001 Chesapeake kit configuration where there were only two strips of 4mm ply to reinforce the aft hatch instead of the full doubling of 4mm ply underneath and the ring on top.

It used to be that if the hatch ribs were glued on a bit inboard or the hatch rib ends trimmed too much because they didn't fit, the hatch could slide around over the hatch hole to the degree the ribs allowed. So during a self-rescue a paddler could reach over the back deck and dislodge the hatch or possiblly shift it around an inch. Of course this would only occur with improperly built or mismatched hatches from different kayaks (in a demo fleet without tethers on hatches??) but the poor mechanical advantage the straps provided on the flat LT aft decks combined with less than an optimal seal by a variety of hatch builders made other solutions worthwhile. Putting the webbing anchors about an inch away helped. The reason the hatches have 3" glass tape between the hatch rib and to the edge of the underside of the hatch was because once you got enough tension in the straps to provide a good seal on the aft deck it started bending that cantilvered edge of the hatch and causing the top of the hatch to crack right above the end of the hatch rib. Rescues did the opposite,,pressing down on the hatch would pry the hatch up off the rib ends. whew,,,so moving the webbing anchors closer should help. I found in kayaking classes that i had to show one out of five people how to close those fastek buckles well in order for a tight fit. Like putting a tight sprayskirt on there's ways of making it easier that aren't immediately apparent.

In Response to: I am going to try this by Homer on Dec 14, 2004

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