lazarettes that necessary?

[DanaDCole]

I'm thinking of foregoing the lazarettes. I've heard about too many problems with the hatches leaking. Is there any reason this is a bad idea besides loss of storage space?

What about mounting the hatches down on the sides instead of on the top? They'd be a bit harder to get at, but might not leak nearly as much. You could even put a small lip above them to shed the rain.

[Pascal]

Would be hard without that storage. Mine never did leak. I was convince it would when we had that full night of heavy rain but nothing came in.The trick I think is to make sure that the seal is install the right way.

[John C. Harris]

I cannot imagine PocketShip without the lazarette storage, leaky hatches and all. The guy who re-installed my lazarette hatches after the boat was sprayed at the body shop didn't scuff up the mating surfaces, so the bedding compound didn't adhere well to the hyper-glossy surface. Easy to fix.

[DanaDCole]

Well jeez, John, I was inspired to write this post by your reply to Truenorth's post about Bulkhead 8! Maybe the lazarettes are leaking badly on PocketShip #1 and not on #2?

Anyway, when I took a ride on Captain Charlie's boat he said he didn't have any problems. I think he said he sealed the outer flanges with something like plumber's putty. I guess that would work but I don't know why silicon seal would not work as well or better. (Cap'n Charlie can correct me if I'm wrong about the sealer he used.) Pascal says to make sure the seal is installed the right way, but I don't know whether he is talking about the flange-to-deck seal or the door-to-flange seal.

The bottom line is it looks like people are making this work, so I'm going to stop worrying about it. I may actually break down and read the directions this time.

Sorry about all the smiley's, but I think they are helpful when you can't hear a person's tone of voice ("suprasegmental phonemes" as my old English prof used to say).

[DanaDCole]

John, sorry I didn't read your post more carefully the first time. I think you are saying that there could be reasons for the lazarettes to leak if something is not done properly, but if done right there shouldn't be a problem. So the reason for not compromising the integrity of bulkhead 8 is that there is the potential for water getting to it for whatever reason. Am I right?

My apologies.

[DanaDCole]

I'm relatively sure I can get the covers installed such that they won't leak, or at least not all that much. In case of a small leak, wouldn't it be a good idea to add some drain holes, either to the outside of the hull or into the cockpit?