splashwell hatch

[Sean]

Skools, do you think you could seel the hatch completely and enter the bilge from the other side? Probably have to relocate the battery for better access but what do you think?

[Skools Out]

no i went out and looked in my hatch there's only like 2 inches from the top room avail to the floor. better keep that hatch for battery use and bilge access. is you hatch raised too? mine is 3 inches higher than the well floor.

[phatdaddy]

I have both in mine.(84 cuddy) It came with one inside, but I had to add the one in the splashwell for the oil tank when I repowered. A battery will fit sideways in the one in front, but oil tank was too large. I installed a Tempress hatch woth the rubber gasket. It doesn't seem to leak to much, but I have a 25 " transom.


This is looking down on the splashwell



This is a shot of both hatches

[Skools Out]

yeah i raised mine to 25" too but i want to do like yours and put a real hatch cover on mine.

[msbhammer]

Never seen a hatch access before in the splash well. Guess thats an after market thing ?
Why would you want one there to begin with ?

[phatdaddy]

Hammer, I added mine so I could put the oil tank below deck. The orignal motor was pre-mix and the new one(94) was oil injected. The tank was too large to fit in the orignal hatch cover. It sure makes working down there easier.

[MIKETTURBO]

why not just put a rubber seal under the hatch.it sure looke conveient.

[tnltracy]

Bumping this old thread to the top with a question for folks with 78-79 V's. I have same setup with the large hatch in the splash well. I'm trying to figure out best way to latch it down so it's sealed and isn't just sitting there waiting to fly off.

Can anyone who has dealt with this setup comment on how they latch this cover down? It's a good solid cover, I just can't seem to find hardware that looks like it will work.

Thanks!!

[tnltracy]

I was able to figure out a solution that worked to my satisfaction over the weekend. My biggest issue was that there were 4 separate hold downs, as seen in pics earlier in this thread, and there was some level of dependance between them on all for acutally working properly. Also, the lower ones were near all the motor hoses/wiring, creating a risk of chafing and related issues there.

I ultimatly put one clamp on each end of the hatch, so there's only 2 now, and it works great. Pix to follow for future reference.

[spareparts]

I relocated the batteries and other things to where the fish boxes are in my boat(79). I plan to seal the transom hatch with silicone and screw it in place(semi permanent). the only thing I have back there now is one of three bilge pumps and an auto switch. I figured I would never take a chance on opening that hatch while in the water, I liked teh idea of moving my batteries to a better location