I made the lazarette hatch out of 3/8-inch plywood. I put a couple of
surface mount SS hinges on the aft edge. I put a latch on the fore
edge of the hatch. I bought the latch at the local Eagle hardware (no
West Marine store here), but it was made by Perko and I'm pretty sure
it's identical to the "flush latch" shown in figure "J" on page 198
of the 1999 West Marine "Sail Master Catalog." West Marine's number
is 111601, Perko #922. $20.95.
The latch swings an adequately long catch arm that is set just deep
enough (about 5/8" I think) to perfectly lock onto the bottom of the
concave lip that runs around the inside edge of the lazarette hatch
opening. Makes just about an ideal seal. I had expected to use some
weatherproof strip to improve the seal, but decided this might
interfere with water draining from the lip back into the cockpit.
I need to swing the tiller up to open the hatch. Not much of a
problem, but I toyed with the notion of making a split hatch, with
one set of hinges port and another set starboard. The port hatch
would overlay a recessed lip in the starboard hatch, holding it down
when the port hatch was latched. That would require two of the
aforementioned flush latches for the port hatch, one engaging the
fore lazarette lip, and the other engaging the aft lazarette latch.
Probably overkill.
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Rich Duffy
P-14 #362
Kula, Hawaii