Cabo Rico_Tiburon36: New aft hatch..... Finally

The Tiburon 36 was originally designed with an aft hatched that slid open toward the center of the boat. The idea was good in that made for a low profile hatch that stayed out of the way and was easy to use. Now for the problems. They leaked badly. The runners are in the way. It will not funnel a breeze below. And most important, it is weak if you were to walk on it. It could collapse and you would fall into the aft cabin. I think this design would work if the hatch was redesigned to be stronger and could be made leak proof. The last item would be fairly hard to do, especially in the case of being pooped by a following sea. This may not seem likely, but in a blue water boat, it has to be expected. So something else is needed. The problem is that the hatch opening is wider than it is long. Making a hatch look right will be tough. I looked at this for a couple years. I really wanted to do this differently, but I did like the original's low profile. I could have bought a hatch -- that would be costly and not fit the boat -- without changing all of the hatches out.

The original hatch.

From Tiburon/Cabo Rico 36

This is from a different boat. See how they removed the runners. I removed mine and then removed the molded runners in the deck.

From Tiburon/Cabo Rico 36

Notice the difference between the hatches. Mine has molded rails in the deck while the lower one has none. It relied on teak strips for the runners. They have been removed in this photo. That shows that they realized that this hatch needed improvement.
Now for the new hatch. To do it right, I needed to add a lip on the inside of the opening to help provide for alignment of the hatch and stop the water. This will give me two mating surfaces for gaskets.

Because the opening is wider, the hatch will sit cross-ways instead. I wondered if I would like this or if it would look correct or alright. After doing some research, I noticed this has been done before, so if it's alright for them, it's alright for me. I could have built this so the ridge follows fore to aft, but it would be weaker. This hatch is made from one 8"x 1 -1/8" x 12' board. The wood is Sapele, a relative of mahogany.

Speaking of mahogany, I have about a hundred board feet of genuine Honduras mahogany for sale. All 5/4 and random widths. Mostly 6-10" wide, but I have two very wide boards at 22" and 27" wide. $1,000 for it all. Been in storage for over 30 years. Very hard, nice furniture grade wood. Hate to sell it, but don't need it.

Ok, for the new hatch. Fitting the Plexiglas.