Mark;

 

The A&H hatch on my 38 has a different style of hold down than the hatch on my 
25 mk1. The 38 has knobs on the outside of the lens and handles inside to dog 
sown the hatch. The 25 has an arrangement with a threaded knob on a threaded 
shaft that tightens against a “fork” that is cast into the inside of the frame. 
Sort of like the arrangement you find on an opening port on the side of the 
cabin.

 

My 25 is much like yours, no leaks but crazed and showing the effects of age. I 
don’t plan to touch it until it starts to leak.

 

My experience with the hatch on the 38 was that the hold down screws in the 
frame (12 I think) were ¼” flat head sheet metal screws about 1 ½” to 2” long. 
They were screwed into a solid fiberglass frame in the deck layup – no core. I 
would presume the 25 to be similar but have no proof of that. The screws came 
out with a large Phillips head screwdriver (#2?) and only moderate effort. 
There was butyl on the threads of the screws.

 

I removed the lens from the hatch frame I was refurbishing after removing the 
dogging hardware, and took it to a local glass shop. They used it as a pattern 
to make the new lens, drill the holes for the hold down screws, and machine out 
the recesses for the seals under the hatch dogs. Cost about $120 for the new 
lens.

 

Cautionary notes: 1) The new lens was ½” thick instead of 3/8” – which seemed 
like a good idea. When they machined the recesses for the seals, the shop kept 
the same thickness under the seal as on the old lens, so the recess ended up 
1/8” deeper on the new lens and I ended up putting a couple of neoprene washers 
under the seals to bring them up flush with the top surface of the lens.  2) 
they seem to have drilled the screw holes before machining the recesses, and 
then turned the lens 180 degrees before machining the recesses. Guess what? The 
hole sapcing is slightly off between the front and the back of the hatch. I had 
to enlarge the holes slightly with my handy-dandy Dremmel tool. Make sure the 
glass shop matches the old lens exactly.

 

I bedded the new lens with Sikaflex 295UV and Sika primer. Just follow the 
directions on the packaging. Cost from Jamestown Distributors was around $160 
or so, IIRC.

 

The most time consuming part of the process was removing the old silicone that 
had been put into the hatch to try to seal the lens. Silicone will not stick to 
polycarbonate, and Sikaflex will not stick to silicone. I used a razor knife to 
scrape off most of the silicone, and then a silicone remover called 
Motsenbocker”s Lift Off Caulk and Silcone remover. Can’t recall where I bought 
it, but they have a website at www.liftoffinc.com . The process of cleaning the 
hatch took at least 6 hours – silicone seems to be pretty tenacious stuff.

 

The refurbished hatch has been in place for about 10 months now, and no leaks 
yet (knock wood).

 

Hope this helps with your project.

 

 

Rick Brass

Imzadi -1976 C&C 38 mk1

la Belle Aurore -1975 C&C 25 mk1

Washington, NC

 

 

 

From: CnC-List [mailto:cnc-list-boun...@cnc-list.com] On Behalf Of Mark G
Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2012 1:11 PM
To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com
Subject: Re: Stus-List deck hatch leak

 


Rick,

I may take on the same project on my '73 25 Mk1 next spring.  According to A&H 
what I have is the "old style" XR200, which is a 20" square hatch.  My existing 
hatch doesn't leak, not under the frame, not under the acrylic  But the acrylic 
is badly crazed and the latches (threaded knobs) are missing.  Replacement 
hardware is no longer available for this hatch, and I've had no luck at marine 
consignment shops after 5 years of looking.  I've jury-rigged some latches.  So 
I guess you could say this project is primarily to improve the appearance of 
the hatch.

I recently salvaged '74 25 Mk1 hull #301 and took the hatch among other things. 
 My experience was the same: screws came out easily, frame required some prying 
with a putty knife, sealant appeared to be butyl.  According to A&H this is the 
newer style XR200.  As you said below the different generations of A&H hatches 
don't use the same hardware, hinges or frame.  A&H even said there is a 1/8" or 
1/4" difference in the overall size.

The hatch from the salvage boat is complete with all the hardware, but the 
acrylic is badly crazed.  On this hatch, the acrylic is screwed to the frame in 
8 places.  I assume this is a previous acrylic replacement.  There is also 
evidence it leaked under the acrylic as a previous owner applied lots of 
additional sealant.

I've got quotes from Select Plastics and Hammerhead Nautical to refurb the 
salvage hatch, or should I say, to replace the acrylic.  Has anyone attempted 
to reanodize or paint the frame?

What was your experience reinstalling the frame?  On the salvage boat the frame 
screws came out easily.  I suspect they were screwed directly into a soggy 
balsa core.  If it's the same on my boat, I'm thinking I may have to do a core 
repair before I can reinstall the hatch.  (I replaced the chainplates last year 
and that turned into a significant core repair.)  Did you have to do a core 
repair?  Did you fill the existing holes and drill new ones?  Is thru-bolting 
an option?  I'm concerned I may not get enough compression on the seal without 
thru-bolts.

If it wasn't for the missing hardware, I'd keep the existing hatch and replace 
the acrylic - either on the boat or by just removing the top of the hatch at 
the hinge

Mark

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Brass <rickbr...@earthlink.net>
To: cnc-list@cnc-list.com
Sent: Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:11:26 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: Stus-List deck hatch leak




Imzadi had the original 27” square A&H hatch on the foredeck. I Had bought a 
used hatch some time ago, and planned to refurb that hatch and install it on 
the existing frame (which did not leak).

 

So my first question is why pull the frame if it isn’t leaking and you are 
planning to refurbish/reseal the lens in the hatch?

 

For me, it turned out that there are older and newer style A&H hatches and that 
the hinge arrangement is different enough that my refurbished hatch would not 
fit the existing frame. I took out all of the screws holding the hatch down and 
tried to lift the frame – no joy. The hatch frame was bedded with gray butyl (I 
scraped a small sample from under the edge to determine what the sealant was), 
but boy was it tenacious. Finally forced a putty knife between the frame and 
deck in several places to break the seal, and used a wide pry  bar as a lever 
the frame off the deck.

 

My point is that the sealant could be butyl.

 

And, of course, the second point is that when you reinstall the frame DO NOT 
use 5200.

 

 

Rick Brass

Washington, NC

 

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