Hatch Board ideas

[MacGyver]

I am pondering making my hatch boards from Mahogany which can be purchased from a nearby Menards Lumber store.

My first boards i purchased warped before I cut them up........

Any other ideas before I go spend the money on mahogany again? My thoughts is to have it be multiple boards so that I can create a couple variants with some slots in them and screen, so I could easily change the configuration as well as store them in the cabin easier.

Mac

[wes]

Mac - I realize solid boards are traditional, but I've had nothing but problems with them warping. So I changed to marine grade exterior plywood in Meranti veneer. Much cheaper than teak veneer, but similar in appearance. Because all the edges of hatch boards are hidden when in place, they are indistinguishable from solid boards. The dimensional stability is outstanding. I gave them *many* coats of Epifanes varnish and it darkens up the cut edges to make them look even less like plywood. I contemplated epoxy resin instead of varnish but it's more difficult to get a smooth finish without bubbles.

I get my marine plywood at World Panel Products www.worldpanel.com and they have several teak-like veneers including meranti and okoume.

Will get some pics the next time I'm at the marina.

Wes

[Jackrabbit]

Solid hatchboards shouldn't warp if you make them from narrower boards edge glued together with mortised-in vertical sides (i.e., cut rabbets on mating edges and glue in a long spline). Use quarter-sawn lumber if possible, or if  slab-sawn, alternate the orientation of the rings on neighboring boards (i.e., looking at the cut ends, concave rings "up" on one board, and "down" on the next, etc..  I've made lots of these and never had any problems.   Traditionally the boards are 3/4" finished thickness, but tapered along the side edges (i.e., chamfered) tp fit in the companionway grooves (they don't need to be a tight fit, that way you can accommodate minor warping).

If you do opt for plywood, use best quality mahog ply and make sure you epoxy the edges at the very least to prevent water on the companionway sill from wicking up and ruining the edge plys (varnish, no matter how many coats, will not effectively seal the plywood edges, which soak up water like a sponge).  The only other caveat with ply is that when next you need to scrape & sand them to bare wood for eventual re-varnishing the thin top laminate is very easy to sand right through, which will give you an ugly, marred surface.

Burton
S.V. "Restless"

[MGS]

1+ to what Jackrabbit said.  A skilled woodworker will rip the warped mahogany boards and reorient the grain as Jackrabbit said, glue it up, plain it and seal it.  You can always commission a woodworker to make the boards up for you if your unsure or don't have the tools.  I'd try to avoid plywood, especially if it's not 100% encapsulated in glass.

Sounds like a fun winter project.  Good luck.

[brackish]

I'm going to support both sides of this solid vs ply debate.  I am a skilled woodworker, make fine furniture, have been doing that for many years.  Solid is fine if, as has been stated, you don't try to use one piece per hatch board but use many alternating the grain.  My rule is four inch wide max.  And of course you have to use a waterproof glue.  TBIII or Smiths oak and teak epoxy come to mind depending on what wood you finally choose.  However, despite this you still may have some warping.  It is in fact exposed to the weather.  It will shrink and grow seasonally.  For me, making boards that way is easy, but I have a fully equipped wood shop.  Maybe not so easy if not so equipped.

The choice of Meranti of Okoume ply is also a good one as long as you keep the finish up.  It is truly more stable than solid. I had ply hatch boards on a previous boat and we were in clean and oil mode on all teak for that boat, and we eventually wore the veneer off the hatch boards.  So serious sanding or scrubbing will eventually get you there.  I made a large hatch for my skiff out of Okoume and it turned out beautiful, but I finished with epoxy covered with 4 coats of ephifanes.  I would certainly recommend epoxy resin for the exposed end grain to seal it.  Pic of the Okoume hatch, border is solid teak.

[DanM]

I know I'm putting my head in the lion's mouth but here goes: Our 2011 Sun Cat came with what I assume is currently stock equipment- a two-part drop board made out of a white synthetic, must be Starboard or something similar. The previous owner (who shot the wad and bought the boat with almost every possible option) also bought wooden boards for the look, (I guess it's teak veneer plywood) with a custom pouch to put them in. For several years my wife and I used the plywood ones, for obvious esthetic reasons. But one day I got out the plastic ones and I have to say they are lighter, easier to handle, and you don't have to worry about scratching or maintaining them and storing them in the pouch. Of course they would be obscene on a wooden boat but what the heck, the SunCat's 99% fiberglass. I'm an artist/designer and fussy about materials and esthetic choices, but the convenience of these outweighs, for me, the look of that extra piece of wood so I don't find it an offensive or inappropriate design decision. Just saying'.............

[Bob23]

Let me pry the lion's mouth open, Dan.
  To save the teak veneered plywood drop boards that adorned my 1985 23/2, I made painted ones from Home Depot birch plywood, primed and painted with 3 coats Brightsides Bristol Beige paint. They've held up well and the paint color is used on other places on my boat. It compliments the exterior teak well and some future owner will get a set of original teak boards.
  Ok lion- so whatdaya think if that??

[DanM]

Thanks Bob, I like the way you think. I can go even more low-tech than that. I have a good friend (a very experienced sailor and a master craftsman, too) with an Islander 32. He paints all his boat parts (including a beautiful rigid plywood dodger he just built) with water-based porch-and-deck paint, and swears by it.
  I am also of the same mind about saving stuff for the next owner- I have a pile in the attic of stuff that came with the boat. It was nice to get all those back issues of Small Craft Advisor, but does anyone need a beautifully custom-made coffee table that sits on the tiller, can't be used when the boat is being sailed, and there's no way to store on board? Or an extra half-dropboard with cup holders? The PO kept, as I do, the boat on a 5 mile lake, do we really need a radar reflector? How about an oversize, beautifully custom-made welded outboard motor stand that you could put a 200 hp motor on. (That's already been donated to our sailing club.) The Sunbrella bonnet for the old outboard seemed a bit excessive, too.
  Fantasizing, shopping, and puttering are part of boat ownership, but this was a bit over-the-top. Anyway, no complaints of course....the PO is a nice guy and very generous, as he was retiring from boating all together... it took two carloads to get all the stuff he gave us. And I'm grateful for his rigging lazyjacks, topping lift, gaff downhaul, and other upgrades. I think he just occupied himself doing every mod that he saw described in SCA. At least he did them well.

[Jackrabbit]

I build a lot of wooden boats (of the ply variety) and have found oil-based Rustoleum to be an excellent, very durable paint which finishes almost as nicely as Brightsides, but at one quarter the cost (plus available at Home Depot in many color choices, or you can blend your own).

[captronr]

Our previous Macgregor 26X had a one piece fiberglass hatch insert.  It was builky and hard to store, and of course, had zero visibility when in place. 

I went to a local acrylic supplier and had them cut a 5/16" piece of smoked acrylic that fit the hatch, then cut it in half horizontally.  A room air conditioner sat on a wooden mount and went through the bottom part when we needed dockside AC. 

I never got around to making a screen for the top half, but it would have worked.

This place stocked acrylic in various thicknesses.  If we overnited on our Eclipse, I'd get a similar set for it.

Ron

[philb Junkie19]

With a couple of the lion's teeth pulled I'll say that when it's about appearance I have come to a 'good enough' work boat mentallity. Spring can be cold and the sailing season is short here in Maine. When the weather turns I'd rather be sailing. A buff colored paint is extending the life or my plywood hatch slides and, gasp, my grey hand and hatch rails are just fine.  Climate and season here may help there. Of course a beautiful sailboat with attractive brightwork can catch my attention and appreciation.

[Jackrabbit]

A workboat finish has a certain salt-of-the-earth cache to it - nothing wrong with that!  Sometimes when our boats are too purty we're afraid to use them for fear of scratching 'em.  That's why I compromise on brightwork by using a goodly dose of Cetol Light on most trim pieces (passes the "ten foot" test, and will tolerate neglect better than varnish), but opt for vanish on a few strategic pieces, like the tiller (I just like how it feels), though I do varnish my drop board 'cause it looks sooo good at the dock (and its usually out of harm's way in the cabin when the boat is in use).  A light sanding in my workshop and one top-up coat (sometimes two, if I screw up the first one) over the winter keeps me in touch with my favorite sport in the 'tween season.

[Jackrabbit]

One note of caution concerning my last comment:  if you are going to seal a ply dropboard with epoxy - as you should to keep water out of the plys - you are committed to using varnish (or paint) since Cetol is designed to go over bare wood and won't last on a non-porous epoxied surface.

[moonlight]

I've done hatch boards in many configurations; my favorite is the nearly bulletproof 3/4" smoked acrylic.  Take your time getting to know how to work with it and it's basically like working with wood; but the chips will melt themselves back into place as you cut if you don't clear them quickly.  The machined edges can be flame polished, and then the nights you are on board you have abundant ambient lighting the next morning.

You can also carefully cut out the center, run a saw track or router bit for screen spline, and make nice durable plastic framed screens.  Starboard may be just as well for this application, as it isn't so prone to scratches as the acrylic.

[DanM]

As long as the issue of screens has some up, let me put in a pitch for these:
https://www.sogeman.com/en/products/companionway-screens   One of these came with our SunCat and it really does work well. A very easy instant solution, and easy to store on board, too