Companionway Hatch

I finally need to bite the bullet and replace/rebuild the wood companiom way hatch on my '79 E29 due to plywood delamination. The first quote I got was $ 1,750 to mfg a new hatch. Talk about sticker shock!

I simply do not have the talent to undertake repairing this on my own.

Has anybody had one of these rebullt or manufactured or have experience with an experienced wood worker? The Seattle area would be icing on the cake.

Another possibility would be to find who originaly manufactured the hatches. I emailed Don Kohlman, formely of Ericson, but so far no response.

Thank you for any help you can provide.

Bill,
The woodworking dept. at Ericson built your hatch. I recently
completed one for my boat and have logged well over
40 hours on tooling and construction alone, not including
time spent hand picking the lumber. I would say the quote
you received is quite reasonable. Attached is my version
of Ericson's slider. It is comprised of 2 layers of 1/4 inchbaltic birch
ply with 1/4 inch teak veneer vacuum bagged to a form
whose curve was taken from the old hatch. The runners
are solid teak with replaceable UHMW plastic inserts so
the hatch now slides (glides?) with almost no effort.

Radical Notion...

I suppose I will be pelted with teak scraps for even suggesting that you build the new sliding hatch in composite ...


Hmmm....
Use the old hatch for a model... you need cloth on both sides of a foam core...
Anything ya don't like, you grind down and change with some more epoxy and cloth...

I admit I have not built a whole curved hatch, but I have made hatch boards, and small brackets and battery boxes and divders for settee compartments, and a new filler for the forepeak berth, etc. etc.

You have the original wood hatch to mold over to get the curve right, for a start.
And when you get all done, epoxy a layer of teak veneer to the top just for grins --then a layer of clear epoxy and several coats of UV proof varnish.

Could be an interesting winter project.


Just my .01 worth (with Friday discount)

Loren in Portland, OR