Disgusted with seat hatches

[tomstock]

Ok, I've had my last series of frustrations with my seat hatches. I built the hatches per the plans but I'm having some problems with them. Anytime I get water in the compartment it stays there forever... until I am able to get a wet/dry vac and suck it out. I have a drain in the cockpit for when the boat is sitting on trailer (which is all it does since I haven't launched yet)... so when it rains the water drains from everwhere except the seat compartments, which fill, and then leak a bit until the cabin is also full of water.

As best I can tell my options are:

1) Sealing the compartment completely and installing a plastic o-ring hatch of some sort from west marine.

2) making new wood hatch covers (old ones are a little warped) and glueing on sort of soft closed cell foam around the hatch to keep it mostly sealed when closed.

3) Completely removing the comparment face and prying up the stringer on the floor so the seats are open and water can escape freely. This may not be a bad idea, because my other mistake is that i angled the seat tops back (up towards the center) for comfort... but I completely forgot that they would catch and hold water right in the seat... I should have angled them slightly downwards just enough for the water to escape while trailered but not so much as to be uncomfortable.

I'm very close to launching... things I need to do:

-Install rudder in rudder box

-install main sail

-replace all sheets... used cheap nylon rope which refuses to feed correctly through the blocks

-repaint the boat (yes it's been sitting outside unfinished for that long)

-locate a trailer

-install a trolling motor

I'm hoping to launch within the next couple of months. I'm almost 2 years in at this point! One year of building, and one year of it sitting after I met my new girlfriend :oops:

Thanks

-tom

http://www.flkitesurf.com/weekender

[Barry Pyeatt]

Tom,

I understand your frustration. New girlfriends tend to complicate things a bit. :wink: :roll: Fortunately mine is really into woodworking, boat building, sailing and most of the other things that we both consider essential to having a full and interesting life. 8)

I'm pulling my seats from mine and installing slat bench seats. I had fabricated some nifty lift lid hatches on mine (stolen from Phil Gowen's design) and even with drains in the front there is bound to be water inside the compartments. I just don't want to have to deal with that in the long term. I'd just as soon have it open below and let it air out and drain out the cockpit drain when it is on a trailer. Also allows a lot more flexibility in what the space below can be used for reasonably.

Hang in there, I'm into year 4 on building mine. Hopefully, the goal is to get it into the water this summer and use the bejeebers out of it.

[Stump]

Oh Barry, do I hear a deadline? can we all come to the launching? 8) 8) 8)

[Bill Paxton]

Both Dave Richards and Jeff Tam did a nice job of installing open seats in their Weekenders. It creates a lot more room, and solves trapped-water problem.

I've added some pictures of their solution to my Gallery on this site, but I can't seem to make them appear in this message.

Bill