Bulkhead 3 hatches

I decided the next step was to figure out what my hatch plan was going to be for bulkhead 3. I’ve seen some people use the off-the-shelf plastic rectangular doors, but those look ugly to my eye.

I also decided, somewhat arbitrarily, that I wanted hatch openings that were large enough that I could get my head, an arm, and my trunk through them if I had to (I’m thinking here of being able to worm my way really far forward to make it slightly easier to install things in the bow of the boat, such as backing plates for cleats or something)

I decided to go with a system in wide use on kayaks for flush hatch covers - cut out the hatch, add a backing plate around the inside of the opening, and then add a rubber seal and have the hatch cover press against that. I haven’t decided yet whether I’m going to use bungees on the inside or plastic toggle bolts on the outside for these.

Figuring out the size and shape of the opening was done with lots of experimentation with cardboard and whether I fit.

Next up was to cut templates to use as a router cutting jig. I used some scrap plywood for this.

I wanted these to be really neat and fit the bulkhead openings really closely, so rather then use the piece cut out of the bulkhead itself as the hatch cover, I bought a new sheet of marine ply and cut everything out of it, which allowed me to neaten up the edges after cutting.

These provide a nice “shelf” which the hatches will seal against!