Has anyone dealt with the void between the outer deck and inner liner at the two deck hatches? It seems really large and I'm tempted to fill it, but I'm not sure if it's even an issue.
The hatches are screwed down to wood blocks between the two layers. The blocks are still solid, no rot. I suppose the salon hatch is ok, but i wonder if the fwd hatch should be thru bolted. Have there been any reports of those hatches being torn out? I know I had a hell of a time removing both hatches. Whatever silicone they used back in 1982 really held well.
Craig,
I am glad you had a tough time removing those hatches because I can assure you that for myself and others it was no walk in the park. I would also agree that silicone applied correctly does a wonderful job to the point that once the silicone cured no fasteners were even required. I do not recall having voids in the space between the inner liner and the deck, or if I did they were negligible. Where I had voids were in the cabin side ports.
I wouldn't worry about the deck hatches blowing out, I would be more concerned with those cheap plastic forward opening ports, or your companionway boards or... your cockpit lockers not sealing or even the undersized cockpit drains.
Dale
That is one job I haven't been blessed with, thankfully, but I did get rid of the plastic opening ports. My new one through bolted, so I put a dam around the openings, made from the curled edge of plastic j trim, and filled the void with epoxy. The windows now have a solid structure to be bolted to. When there is a void through bolting tends to draw the sides together, and I didn't like the way it twisted things.
Craig,
I asked the same question when rebedding my hatches - but the wood was fine. I did go with larger screws....
http://www.sailingseadragon.com/hatches.htm
Garner