Hatches

The first step in making the hatches was, of course, cutting the right sized pieces of plywood. This was a slightly more challenging step than I expected, as getting the gaps right required several rounds of sanding and sawing.

For the hatch mechanism, I used a solution presented by a Pathfinder boat builder to make the hatches watertight enough. The metal parts for the locks were Marine grade A4 steel nuts, bolts and washers, which I ordered from British online shop Accu, which had the best range and prices. Accu, by the way, has one of the best interfaces I have seen so far.