wooden hatches on ericson

[thomaslpowell]

We have a 1979 Ericson 29 and love it. The hatches are wooden and look beautiful when they are refinished but this is costing more to keep up every year. I''ve had the hatches professionally refinished but the longest any of the finishes has lasted is one year. Does anyone know of a replacement hatch for my boat. Any info on manufacturers or refinishing techniques will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tom Powell

[Jeff_H]

Usually the forward hatches are the easy ones to replace. You willneed to very carefully measure the opening and the "flat". If you look at how a hatch is made, there is the a piece that gets bolted down to the deck. That piece has the actual opening which will need to be pretty close in size to the opening through your deck. This same piece has a flange that sits against the deck. This piece has an outside dimension and a bolt hole center dimension. To pick a hatch you need to make sure that the interior dimension of you deck opening is not too big or too small, that the bolts (or screws- bolts are preferable) end up passing through a solid amount of deck, and that there is a flange that is large enough for the hatch to sit on. This may require some modifications to your boat. The most probably problem will be too small a flat. Boats of that era often had a molded spigot (a raised lip that turned up inside the hatch cover). and these were typically 3/4" wide or so. Hatch bases are closer to 1 1/2" wide so you may need to either cut off the spigot and reglass where it was located, or widen the spigot which also involves some careful glass work.

There are some companies that make sliding companion way hatches, but a fit is unlikely. one thing you could do is to use your old hatch a plug and make a fiberglass mold and then mold yourself a new f.g hatch. That is not that hard to do although it takes some time to make.

I have used Bomar and Lemar hatches in the past. Bomar Hatches do not appear to have a website but Pyacht (http://www.pyacht.com/) apparently carries the entire Bomar line. Lewmar has a site, (http://www.lewmar.com/) Lewmar''s site includes a catalogue. The Sailnet Online Store may also carry both brands.In all cases you will need to send your outside, and inside dimensions to them and ask if they have a product that size since these sites do not include detailed info on product sizes.

I would take some careful measurements of the existing conditions on your boat and then look at these sources. Good luck

Jeff

[jr438234606]

My 1981 Cheoy Lee also has wooden hatches. I love the look. I refinished them to perfection with Cetol Marine Light and had custom-fitted Sunbrella fabric covers made for them. I only remove the covers when I go sailing.

john

[cardiacpaul]

I LOVE BRIGHWORK!
however, its a real pita

Cover it if you'd like, it will protect it.

No matter what the finish, if left uncovered, you're looking at a year, at best before refinishing. I'm lazy, and I'm cheap.

So, strip the finish, sand away all of it, and teak oil the pajeebers out of it.
Its cheap, east to apply, and when it starts to weather, grab some scouring powder with bleach, nylon brush it, wait for it to dry, and repeat the teak oil routine. The grain will be lovely. (repeat 2-3 times a season, just for fun)