Anyone ever built their own race hatches? Talking about the ones that came on older Cigarettes, scarabs, etc, gull wing style. Considering building some for my older Fountain. A friend of mine built his own out of plywood, then had a shop glass and gelcoat them. The glass and gelcoat wasnt cheap. His are pretty heavy, strong enough to walk on though. Was wondering about using a different type of wood, like balsa, or something like that, to keep them somewhat light. Of course I do wanna be able to walk on them. Ideas?

Lets talk about it.

Call Me

I am about to attempt this, not sure how it will come out.

I just built a hatch for my class 6 raceboat. I used Penske board-it is light and strong. The Penske board isn't cheap, $155.00 for a 4x8 sheet. To get the curveature I needed, I cut 1/8" slotts every 6". When I got the curve needed, I fiberglassed one side. After it cured, I glassed the other side. I also mounted a scoop on the hatch. If you look at pics from OPA's race, look for yellow 606 Lock'd Up Bandit. Hope this helps.

The best route to go would be to find someone who has the hatch you want and pull a mold off them..i can show you how to,,you got my number

Dave Goodman at Tiger Fiberglass, Maryville, MI (810) 364-8875built hatches for my 30' Scarab. He may still have the molds that could be modified.

we have the old Apache race hatch molds here, can build what you need if it is in the boundary of the molds

I designed and built my own, including making a mold for custom hood scoops. I just cut the patterns out of plywood, screwed them at the edges to 2x2's that I could bend to follow the curves, put a spar down the middle, and glassed it. I had some carbon lying around, so I used it, which made it quite stiff. I made some sort of complex shapes, all developable though, so the hatch was a lot of work, mostly spent fairing and painting. Mine sits on top of the existing deck, so I routed a gasket channel in some 2x3's, and made that the bottom of the hatch. It all got glassed and faired over. It looks decent considering I don't do it for a living. I used Interlux Perfection 2-part topside paint rolled and tipped, and then sprayed on some color details.

YEAH, and quote 400 + mat again and when costumer pics it up the price is going to be 1200 ~!!!

Did you do this for the Mistress? Can you post some pics?

I went through a bunch of scenarios but kept coming back to 1/4" or 3/8" marine ply glued together, glassed in the corners and then lightly glassed over the surfaces. I was going to size mine so that there was enough of the hatch at deck level to walk around either side, but in general, not make it walkable across all surfaces.

Randy