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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