Modern art Hatch Openings

 I strengthened the edges of all of the hatch openings by routing out an inch and a half of deck foam then re-filling the void with a thixotropic mixture of aerosil, glass micro spheres and epoxy.

I then used strips of tough synthetic roof material as a mold to create nice smooth edges that will require little finish work.  I used flexible wood strips, springing them together to hold the edges in place.

 this method works really well.  The sharpy marks will be the drill holes and location of the hatch frames.

Shame on Lewmar

flimsy hinge clutch attachment on new Lewmar escape hatches:

I can only hope that this failure was due to a worker using the wrong size rivet, otherwise, Lewmar should know better than to use such a failed design in the attachment method of the hinge clutch to the frame.

It is easy to see that the flimsy aluminum rivets were not long enough to even go through the flange on the hatch frame. 

This two part "spring/clutch" is attached between the two hinges and is supposed to keep the hatch from swinging wildly when opened. In my case, the second time I opened the hatch, the attachment broke off.  

This is very poor design. At close to a thousand dollars a piece, it is not unreasonable to believe that details like this would be so under designed. 

Yet another opportunity to improve upon the work of a manufacturer.......Tomorrow I will bring the escape hatch to the local farm and ranch hardware store and buy two beefy stainless steel fasteners to replace these two flimsy rivets......only down side will be galvanic corrosion due to dissimilar metals but I may not have a choice.