Malaya has two small hatches, one over the galley stove for ventilation and one in the passageway through the Master Stateroom.  Dogged down tight neither leak but the teak trim in the hatch openings gets wet every time it rains.  Because just the wood gets wet I have long suspected that water was finding its way under the hatch flange.  So, this weekends project was to remove both hatches and rebed them.

The techniques I employed here to remove the hatches and clean up the old bedding compound can be employed anywhere old hardware needs to be removed or new hardware installed.

Usually, the problem with removing old hardware on deck is two-fold.  One the fasteners are frozen in place, as is usually the case with old cleats, especially when the old cleat is aluminum with stainless fasteners.  The second problem is with the material used to bed the old hardware to prevent it from leaking, especially if an adhesive caulking material was used such as 5200 or Marine Silicone.  Both can make removing hardware from fiberglass or wood very difficult.

The key is patience, especially when removing something like a hatch with a flat and thin flange that is going to be set back in place again as was the case with Malaya’s two hatches.  In this case, forcing the hatch flange to lift off the deck could result in bending the flange which will make it difficult to reuse or to seat properly and thus leak.

There are some chemicals available to release products like 5200 but they can be difficult to get under hardware where they will be effective.

Thus, my only option was to force something thin under the hatch flange to cut the old bedding and not harm the glass or the hatch flange.  Over the years I have found a thin putty knife does the job nicely, provided you can get it started under the piece of gear you wish to remove.  Usually, a hammer is required to drive the putty knife through the bedding.  In my case here when the putty knife went under the flange easily I knew I had found a spot that had been leaking.  Once the hatches were removed the spots where the putty knife entered easily were confirmed as being the source of the leaks.

Once the hatches were removed the old bedding on both the deck and the hatch frame was cleaned up with a sharp chisel and then any remaining bedding residue was removed by sanding with 80 grit sandpaper.  The old mating surfaces were then vacuumed off and wiped down with acetone.

When using acetone be aware of what is around you that you might get acetone on.   Plexiglass and Lexan will be damaged by acetone.  Do not get it on either material in any amount.  One-part paints and varnish will also be damaged by acetone, though acetone spilled on paint and varnish and allowed to evaporate, especially in small amounts usually won’t cause any harm.  Try wiping it off though and you will remove paint and varnish.

After wiping down with acetone gather up all the materials you need to finish the job, make sure you have the correct size and length fasteners before applying bedding compound or you will have a mess to contend with.  On these two hatches, I increased the size of the fasteners from  #6 oval head self-tapping to #8 flat head self-tapping as they were a better fit for the countersunk holes in the hatch flange.  Since I switched to larger fasteners I redrilled all the mounting holes to accept the larger screw size.

The final step before applying bedding compound is to tape the deck around the hatch flange so the bedding compound wouldn’t get into the non-skid pattern.  I didn’t tape the hatch flange because it is metal and thus easy to clean bedding compound off of.

When it comes to bedding material for any particular job it is important to use the right bedding.  (See the article I published on bedding materials.  You can find it under Maintenance, published on 12 November 2018.)  Nearly everyone you ask in the Marine Trades will have a favorite bedding.  I’ve worked in yards where 5200 was the bedding of choice and I have worked where Life Caulk or Sitka-Flex was the preferred material.  This past year I have worked in a yard where with the exception of below the waterline gear Teak Decking Systems deck caulking is used extensively and with good reason.  It seals well, has good ultraviolet inhibitors and cleans up easily.

As a side note, I know a lot of boat owners prefer Butyl Tape for its ease of clean up, however after 40 years in the Marine Trades other than production boat builders I have never met any professionals in repair or refit yards that use it, myself included.  We need to use materials, that despite sometimes being difficult to clean up, that we can guarantee are not going to leak somewhere down the road or it will come back to haunt us.

So for Malaya’s hatch rebedding project, I am using Teak Decking Systems white caulk.  Having taped off the deck around the hatches I am ready to apply the bedding compound.  The trick here is to apply enough bedding compound that you get “squeeze out” all around the item being installed.  In this case, I want good squeeze out around both the inside and outside of the hatch flange.  Good “squeeze out,” tells me the hatch is securely rebedded and won’t leak.

Once the hatch is in place and securely fastened it is time for clean up.  Because I taped the area around the hatch flange I can take a putty knife and scrape off the vast majority of the squeeze-out.  Once this large volume of squeeze out is gone I will use a rag with Denatured Alcohol to wipe up what is left.

Just as there is a right bedding compound for the job there is a right solvent to clean up each bedding.  In this case, where I have used Teak Decking Systems caulk, I have found Denatured Alcohol is the right material for clean up.  Another advantage of using denatured alcohol for clean up is it won’t have any effect on the Plexiglass in the hatch lid, in fact, it is one of the solvents recommended by the Plexiglass and Lexan industry for cleaning these two materials.

With the clean up done and a final vacuuming of the area, Malaya’s two hatches are rebedded and leak free again.  Now the teak trim on the inside can be revarnished, but that is for another day.