Watertight Cockpit Locker Lids

[Plantman]

Does anyone have design details for making the cocpit locker lids watertight. I was thinking along the lines of channels to divert the water into the cockpit sole rather than just rubber seals etc.
Although I have seen raised lids with a lip I want to keep the lids flush. Graeme

[CaseyJones]

This is my interpretation of the design that came with my skiff:

http://www.milestonesubprime.com/ghettogallery/pics/8.jpg

[Dan McCosh]

I have a flush hatch in the cockpit that is similar to the drawing. It sort of works, but depends on the water flowing out of the gutter faster than it comes in. In real life, this is exceeded often, either because of a roll in the boat, or a plugged drain. The gutters then overflow, and in my case this means draining onto the aft , leeward bunk. I have words to say to the hatch after coming in out of a heavy beat, and then hitting the sack...

[kc8pql]

Here's how I did mine.

http://tinypic.com/14l569

http://tinypic.com/14l5bc

Trough runs around three sides and slopes down toward cockpit sole. Foam gasket added just for good measure.

[JimConlin]

In the Joel White book (Maynard Bray & Bill Mayher), there are a number of construction drawings which show shop-fabricated fiberglass gutters and other channels.
I sometimes make such parts by milling the shape I want in pink styrofoam, covering it it with packing tape and laying up glass, perhaps vacuum bagging it. If you need to destroy the foam to get your part, so be it. This is a useful trick.

[Jay Greer]

When Larry Pardy was building his first boat "Serafyn"
I suggested a solution to sealing hatches that has worked very well for both of his boats. A channel that will accept foam weather stripping is part of the underside of the hatch. The hatch opening is framed in such a manner as to allow both run off as well as a tight seal in the manner of a strip of bronze plate that stands verticly in the frame and makes a positive seal against the weather strip when the hatch is closed. The bronze frame liner is slightly curved at the corners and is silver soldered so as to form a continuious metal lip. Larry tells me that this idea has been successful throughout several circumnavigations.

[CaseyJones]

The idea behind the gutter diagram I posted was to keep wash-down water, rain, other minor sources of water out of storage boxes. Don't think it was ever designed to channel away waves that come over a gunnel.

[Steve Lansdowne]

I saw a stripper kayak with a flush deck hatch cover that impressed me. The hatch cover was the actual deck piece that had been carefully cut out from the deck, and there was a strip of wood underneath whose center line lined up with the edge of the hatch and had a rubber or foam gasket on it. This kept the hatch from falling into the hole and the gasket sealed the water out. The neat part was the latch mechanism. A bungee cord was installed in the locker and attached to some hooks on the underside of the hatch. The bungee pulled the hatch cover down tight. In this application the cord is permanently fixed at the two lower points and can be hooked to the wooden hooks at each end of the handle which the person is holding. If you had two such wooden handles with hooks the hatch could be completely removed.

http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid152/pe14b84e1f554e00783c3b91e2ad247aa/f5b20365.jpg

[ 12-30-2004, 09:06 PM: Message edited by: Steve Lansdowne ]