Re: Hatch Stifferner Inst

Posted by LeeG on Dec 2, 2005

Yes it will but the curve won't be the same as the deck without clamps. If the strip is sprung into place it'll touch the underside at the middle and at the ends but will be lifted slightly inbetween. It would be like installing a coaming with 12 clamps and not 24 or more. Those Chesapeakes I mentioned were installed that way. The strip was attached to an unsanded underside with only clamps at the hatch hole. There were air gaps inbetween the center and sheer. That's why the long clamps are needed to flatten the strip to the curve of the deck.

This only applies to pre-2000 instructions and some I've seen in ChrisK books where the hatch hole has only a strip of 4mm under the deck with only 2" c-clamps holding the strip at the hole. In those instructions the aft hatch has no full reinforcents around the cut hatch hole, only the cut 4mm deck on the sides. It may seem minor but the kayaks flotation is dependant upon the aft deck retaining integrity through rescues in the conditions that people need rescueing.

On three pre-2000 kayaks with only an under deck strip reinforcement (the kayaks were less than 3yrs old) installed as you describe there were gaps in the sheer to sheer hatch strip and the deck/hatch system failed in flat water rescue practice. As this had not occured with the CLC kayaks I made I looked underneath and saw the gaps. Reaching in I could feel a slight gap between the strip and deck so I pulled while giving the deck a whack and it popped out. Most of the failure at the deck/hatch in those old boats was do to poor construction of that ONE part because it wasn't sanded and clamped adequately. When that ONE part failed it all failed, hatch and deck.

This is old stuff and of not much consequence to present kit builders but those old plans/instructions are out there.

In Response to: Re: Hatch Stifferner Inst by Moe on Dec 1, 2005

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