Best $3.59 I've spent this week.

[brackish]

In the middle of this refit, I'm trying to pick up all those little irritating things and engineer cures for them.  One thing that bothered me was that the sliding companionway hatch had a lot of resistance.  It is just unfinished fiberglass on that flange edges and kind of rough.  Additionally, the center of the crown just barely caught the crown of the opening frame and scratched my fresh paint on the inside of the sliding hatch.  So I added a strip of UHMW adhesive backed tape to the flange edge.  What a difference it made.  That thing slides slick as glass now.  The stuff is .010 thick and that got it high enough to clear the crown.  Tape Case 432-10 UHMW 1/2" wide, five yard roll $3.59 from Amazon.  I suspect I'll find lots of other uses for this stuff in my wood shop.

[Bob23]

Cool! I've used those sticky felt feet that are for chair and table legs. They work great as well!

[alsantini]

well, I spent way more for the same effect.  Bought a roll of Teflon tape from Catalina Direct.  It really does the job but at a little less than 10X your fix.  Good going.

[waterwheels]

Did you take the hatch right off or get the tape under there some how? I get sand blowing in mine to add to the grinding effect. Scratched my head on fixing this for a long time.

Don
Living Water
Eclipse

[brackish]

Did you take the hatch right off or get the tape under there some how? I get sand blowing in mine to add to the grinding effect. Scratched my head on fixing this for a long time.

Don
Living Water
Eclipse

Took it off.  I was stripping and refinishing all the wood anyway and I also wanted to clean and paint the inside of the sliding hatch.  Easy to get off and on on a 23.

[alsantini]

Don.  I did mine without taking the hatch off.  Cut the tape to length with hatch open all the way and laid it down.  Closed the hatch and laid the back piece down.  About a half an inch is uncovered but the hatch spans it so no big deal.  It made an amazing difference but at over $30.00 for a roll!!!!  Brackish did the same for a tenth of the cost.  My bad and maybe a bit stupid.  LOL    Sail On    Al

[moc4]

Could someone post a pic of what it looks like with the tape down, just for clarity?  This is a great mod!

[brackish]

Could someone post a pic of what it looks like with the tape down, just for clarity?  This is a great mod!

Once installed you can't see the tape to take a picture, at least on my 23'  I installed it on the underside of the sliding hatch on the edge flanges, not on the top of the cabin, so it moves with the hatch.

[jdklaser]

As they say in my neighborhood, Smaht, wicked smaht.