Outfitting the tandem kayak, Part 10: Making the hatch lids

To make the hatch lids, I start with the pieces of deck that I cut out to make the hatch openings.  The finished hatch rims are larger that these cutouts, so I need to build the cutouts outward to fit over the rims.

Using some scrap plywood that I have lying around the shop, I make templates in the shape of the hatch openings (the stern hatch template is shown here; the pictures in this post all pertain to the stern hatch).  I will stick the deck cutout onto the template with a hot glue gun.  I have applied postal tape around the edges to create a "non-stick" surface where I will be laying resin-saturated Kevlar and fiberglass to build the lid outward from the cutout.  The template is cut into halves because the deck cutout has a slight ridge on it and I want the template to fit up into that ridge.

I have now built the lid outward with strips of Kevlar to cover the entire template.  I will use a sharp knife to trim the rough edges flush with the template.

Here is the lid after I have trimmed the edges and popped it off the plywood template.  The darker material is the original hatch cutout.  There is still some hot glue gun reside on it that I will chisel off.

Now, I need to make a "lip" on the lid that will fit down over the hatch rim, like a trash can lid fits down over a trash can.

Here's the method I dreamed up to create this "lip."  I have taken scrap pieces of two-by-four lumber and cut them to fit the lid's curves, covered them with postal take to make them non-stick, and hot-glued them around the edges of the rim.  I was very glad to have my bandsaw for cutting these curves.  As a woodworker I have other tools with which I could have done the job, but I confess I don't know how I would tell a non-woodworker to do this.

After laying on a couple of layers of fiberglass, I pop the lid off this "mold."  Now that the shape has been established, I can continue to add fiberglass layers without the mold until I have achieved the desired thickness.

After reinforcing the lip, I cover the top with a layer of fiberglass, using peel-ply to leave a nice smooth surface.  Here is the finished lid after the lip has been trimmed for a nice-looking fit over the hatch rim.

It's good to treat the exterior parts of a composite boat with some sort of wax or other protectant.  For this lid, I'm trying out a new product distributed from right here in Memphis by my friend Gino Bauwens.  His company offers the "Kayak Protector" pictured here, as well as a "Kayak Cleaner" and several related items, for sale here.





Whew!  I'm finished!  Oh, wait... no I'm not.  I still need to make and install the straps that hold the lips in place on the hatch rims.

Time for a little more sewing.  I have bought some nylon webbing at Outdoors, Inc., which sells it by the foot.  Using the same needles and thread I used for the neoprene hatch covers, I sew on the female part of a "fastex" buckle.

I also sew a loop at the other end of each strap to attach to this little nylon bracket that attaches to the boat with screws.  I expect you can buy these brackets, as well as fastex buckles, all kinds of places; I bought them from a website called topkayaker.net.

And here it is... the stern hatch lid, on top of the stern hatch neoprene cover, on top of the stern hatch!  All of which I constructed in this project!

Here's the completed bow hatch.  The lid doesn't look quite as nice as the one on the stern hatch because of the contrast between the new Kevlar and the Kevlar in the original deck cutout (I made this lid first, and then, learning from this result, covered the stern lid with a single piece of Kevlar).  But it's finished, and it's functional.  Yahoo!