Aft cabin hatches to lazarette - Mk I

[derekb]

For a while, I've been wanting to make some access to the lazarette from the aft cabin on my '86 Mk I.

So about a year ago I purchased three access hatches 510mm x 460mm (20" x 18") and yesterday I finally cleared out the lazarette and started cutting!

Here's a couple of photos of the results... first with the hatches closed:



And with the hatches open, you can see they give great access through to the lazarette:



I'm happy with that result. Next I'll re-route some wiring and the blower duct, then I need to start re-organising my storage back there...

[Noah]

Your older MKI boat has lots of room back there to access—you must have a bow water tank?? Did the aft bulkhead come painted? All of the ones I have seen are teak plywood.

[waughoo]

Noah... looks to me like it is a completely glassed in bulkhead.

[derekb]

Noah, that's right, no aft water tank. This boat has a forward water tank under the v-berth and the usual starboard water tank under the seats next to the table. So yes, lots of storage space back there.

Alex is right, the aft bulkhead was entirely glassed-in and painted, no plywood panel there. You can just see there is a plywood panel on the port wall for access to the fuel tank, but not on the aft bulkhead.

[Ron Hill]

Guys :  FYI, The initial 1986 production C34s did not have an aft water tank!!

A thought

[Noah]

Derek—nice solution!

[derekb]

Thanks Noah.

I'm still undecided if I will leave the hatches as shown, or invert them so they open upwards. That will be easier for access, so I may end up doing that. It will also require some way of propping them up when open, but that will be simple to achieve.

[KWKloeber]

The engine/tranny access on the 30 is 3 doors that were a royal PITA with the hinges on top and more of a PITA turned around. I removed the hinge and made a slight mod to each so that they are removable. 
If the hinge was decommissioned I could envision a way to hold the bottom in place when the top latches are closed.

[Stu Jackson]

Neither top nor bottom:  on the side, like a door!

Not my idea, but one of the very first things we did to the "hatch" in the galley to access the water manifold valves wasw to switch the hinges from the bottom to the side.

Has worked great for 25 years.

Gee, like a "door" - who knew?!?  :D:D

No need to prop up, no need to worry about sitting on it.

[Noah]

 

[ewengstrom]

Stu,
Apparently Catalina figured that out too....the door below and to the outside of the galley sink on Ohana opened like a door when we got her. I'm quite sure it had never been removed so perhaps one day at the factory someone thought..."Hey...let's try it this way, look it works BETTER!!!" 
OR.....someone put yours in on a Monday morning and really wasn't paying a lot of attention to what they were doing. 
The world may never know........

[Noah]

My 1990 had the small galley door hinged downward. I changed it to side-opening. So Eric, perhaps a PO beat you to it and it was changed after factory.

[Stu Jackson]

Stu,
Apparently Catalina figured that out too....the door below and to the outside of the galley sink on Ohana opened like a door when we got her. I'm quite sure it had never been removed so perhaps one day at the factory someone thought..."Hey...let's try it this way, look it works BETTER!!!" 
OR.....someone put yours in on a Monday morning and really wasn't paying a lot of attention to what they were doing. 
The world may never know........

Uhm, nope.  The world actually does know.     It was OEM to have it drop down.  It was such a PITA to so many, it got written up in one of the very early Mainsheet tech notes.  That's how I learned about it.  My PO gave me all the back print issues of the magazine from 1987 when we bought our boat in 1998.  I read them all, eventually built the tech notes index and then we scanned them all and created the tech notes online.

[Ron Hill]

Guys : I've been in that bottom drop down hatch a zillion times and never even thought about changing it to a side opening.  The door (down) was out of the way for all the things that I've done under that side of the galley!   

A thought

[Stu Jackson]

Ron, once you've stepped on it accidentally and broken the hinges...

Sure, you didn't, but many did, hence the Mainsheet tech note that I mentioned.  I moved the hinges before I stepped on it. 

Your boat, your choice.