Sewing Up to Hatch Openings??

[DreadBiscuit]

Does anyone have any pictures, videos or detailed information on how to sew up to and away from hatch openings?  

 

I am building my second boat - a Vardo - and will be doing the double-corded stitch on it with two hatches.  One in the front and one in the back, both centered.  

 

I looked around for a while, and I have found some vague information on placement, and building the structure for them...But nothing on finishing the holes up and mounting the rings.  

[Kudzu]

You will have to do a little improvising but here is something from my web site on hatches I put in on Sling Shot.

 

http://www.kudzucraft.com/web/adding-hatches

 

I staple the skin on the ring under the lip on the hatch to hold it in place. You will just sew up the edge of the ring and tie it off.  Start on the other side of the ring. There is no good way to explain it because you just have to work with the fabric, trim it and make it lay flat

[Hirilonde]

I have never done the double corded stitch, but is stitching the entire boat and cutting in the hatch rings later viable?  Probably have to tie up the cut ends of the seam some way in the process.  And like everything else with skinning, do some fidgety stuff to get it to lay fair.

[Abyssdncr]

I'd approach this task much the same as approaching the bow or stern tips - cut your cords off just shy of the hatch lip and stitch the fabric up tight at the termination and staple under as Jeff described.  I went the other route on my hatch with the double corded stitch though and offset the hatch to the side and stitched the seam around the hatch lip.  If it makes you feel any better - you're probably overthinking this - once you go to make it happen, the solution will present itself by necessity. 

[DreadBiscuit]

@Abyssdncr, of course I'm overthinking it - that's what I do!  LOL.  I just do not want to make some critical error that's going to compromise the entire skin, so I'm trying to make sure my bases are covered.  

 

Thanks all for the suggestions.  I am excited to start a new build thread soon for this boat - I approached it a bit differently this time.  Look for that coming up.