Ericson 35- Main Hatch Replacement

[Mark Benjamin]

The main hatch of my 1975 Ericson 35 has serious wood rot on the port side.
What are my options? Is a repair possible or is replacement necessary? If so, where might I find a new hatch cover?

THANKS,
MARK

 

[Sean Engle]

New Hatch Cover

I would think you would want have it completely rebuilt - so you have the strength of the new wood. If it was just cosmetic, I say you could probably get away with hardening up the wood - but since it's something more critical, I would say rebuild it....

Of course, this probably means you'll have to have them both rebuilt now...

//sse

 

[Loren Beach]

Tradition or not...

Having seen an Ericson hatch from your boat's era completely re-created by a woodworking friend of mine for his E-27, I was equally pleased by the "classic" appearance of the replacement (smoked lexan top panel and all!) and bothered by the need to keep on varnishing and protecting the new one so it would last longer and stay waterproof better than the old one.

You might want to consider making a new one in composite materials, such as balsa core with frp skins. You could use the old hatch for a model or sort of a mold to get the sizing and curvature right. Then you could put on a coat of LPU paint and admire it for decades, with never a fear of water sneaking in around a wood glue corner joint....
Epoxy is wonderful stuff -- you can fab it up stonger and lighter than anyone could have imagined when your boat was designed.
The top center portion could still have a lexan section for light below.
You might also want to build/buy a hatch garage while you were at it...

Just a thought....

Loren

 

[Brisdon]

I fabricated a new hatch for my E-35 out of solid teak rather than the bent ply version with teak trim that was on the boat originally. I think the original hatch was more the result of cost cutting than product branding. I kept the sloping curved top and the slanted in sides to conform to the boat lines but upgraded the materials and workmanship. There is a company here in Southern California that does an excellent job of this sort of custom teak work, but at a price. They are H&L Marine Wood Working in Ranch Dominguez. If you would like a picture and/or the working drawings for the hatch let me know and I will supply them to you.

 

[jkenan]

Loren-

Are there any plans, drawings, or other resources for this E29 hatch rebuild project you suggest (garage too)? I'm intrigued, but don't know where to start.

Thanks.

 

[Loren Beach]

Hatching out a project

There is a decent set of pictures of making a homebrew seahood in Spurr's Boatbook, pages 171 thru 175. Seven Seas Press, 1983.
Nowadays, I would start with a perfect mockup in MDF and putty filler, and make a female mold from it, and then lay up the hatch.
If it looked decent, make some more of 'em on a break-even basis for other owners, maybe...

Note that any good OEM boatyard (lucky us, we have two in Portland!) could do this project in a day or three in balsa or honeycomb coring, and the cost would be resonable albeit not cheap.

Write me privately and I can give you the email addy of the former E27 owner that built a new wood hatch, and perhaps he could pass along some pointers to start you out... he has a fairly complete wood shop at home, BTW. He's still kind of an Ericson guy in his heart.

 

[Sean Engle]

Don't forget to do a search on 'hatch replacement' or 'hatch' - there are other threads like the one below out there...

//sse

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?t=1568