Makiing Deck Hatches

I need some help and any suggestions and how to's from experience would be so very appreciated. I have a 14' v bottom aluminum and I am modifying the entire boat with decks, live well, lights, trolling motor and of course a fish finder. I will be carpeting the decks and I have a few areas on the boat that I really want to make sure are water tight or as dry as possible. My question for anyone who can help is how do you make a hatch from plywood and carpet water tight and what do you use for a latch or is that necessary? I have the general i dea but anyone with some good info and pics would really help me out so I don't have to find out the hard way that my design does not work.

Thanks for your help!

The easiest way for watertight hatches is to buy them. However, I have seen some built that are very good.

After you cut the opening you will need to add battens all the way 'round. Then rout a 'U' shaped channel in the center of the batten. In one or two of the corners tap this with a hose fitting, attach a hose and route it to a bulkhead or bilge drain area. Install a seal (weatherstripping) on the inside of the 'U' channel and use a good hatch dog to keep it tight. This is the best way I have seen to make a dry box hatch from scratch. But like I said, a good Tempress hatch will save lots of time.

WOW! that is an awful lot of work but it makes total sense to ensure a water tight seal. I am going with your advice and I think I will order the hatches that I need from Tempress.

Thanks for the information it was very helpful!

While not 100% watertight, it won't leak like a sieve. This is the way I did mine. Very snug fit. And it was cheap. LOL

that hatch looks really good codeman. how much of a gap did you have to make for carpet? and how is the hinge attached?

here is what you can use for the hatches, im ordering them for my boat.

https://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/...225003000_225000000_225003000_225-3-0#reviews

Codeman,
The hatch looks very professional and it seems that it would be very "water ressistant" thanks for the help!

lowe_rider said:

that hatch looks really good codeman. how much of a gap did you have to make for carpet? and how is the hinge attached?

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I didn't really measure it What I did was finish everything but the hatch itself then I took the hinge and 4 scraps of carpet and started fitting it till it was nice and snug but will still open fairly easy.

jtbriles1 said:

Codeman,
The hatch looks very professional and it seems that it would be very "water ressistant" thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

You are more than welcome. I thought about this long and hard before did it and almost bit the bullet and ordered some kind of lid. Glad I saved my money, cause I love the way it turned out. I also almost purchsed some pulls like the one posted above but after thinking about it the nylon loop worked out best, nothing there to weather for the most part and if somebody sits or stands there there for some reason they wouldn't even know the loop is there.

i need to do something like that..