Re: CH16 Help

Posted by LeeG on Feb 6, 2005

re. hatch placement,,what Paul said makes sense. For some reason there's a tendency for aft hatches on CLC kayaks get placed too close to the cockpit. I think folks do it because of "eye ball" decision making or let the underdeck hole reinforcements define the position instead of cuttng the side pieces down in width. When you cut an aft hatch hole it needs reinforcing,,a person looks at the reinforcing and thinks it'll provide more utility if the space between the bulkhead and hatch is small as practical,,like the forward hatch hole which is right up near the bulkhead to allow for as large a front hatch as practically possible. Or in the aft hatch that in order for the underdeck side hatch hole reinforcements to fit without cutting the hatch can't be too far back. The problem with that is for a basic paddle float rescue you might as well have the rigging behind the cockpit used for pf rescue actually fit a regular paddle,,if it's narrower than 7" between the rigging anchors you'll have a hard time fitting a paddle blade through there. Here's a rough rational for cutting the hole about 12" behind the bulkhead. 8" between webbing anchors will fit a 7 1/4" wide blade with 3/4" the space taken up by the webbing, the deck rigging anchor right behind the coaming should be 2" behind the bulkhead to ensure any rigging configuration doesn't run under the aft edge of the coaming(this is very important for the front rigging), the next rigging anchor should be two inches forward of the hatch hole to ensure it clears the hatch overhang and you don't have to move any bungies out of the way to close the hatch. For carrying a spare paddle it's worth having a couple parallel bungies behind the coaming as an X configuration isn't enough.

In Response to: Re: CH16 Help by Paul on Feb 6, 2005

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