Our Ocean Malibu Two kayak gets another hatch, this time aft. - 2018

This is the second hatch installation. We installed one in 2016 in the middle of the three possible hatch sites in the Ocean Kayak Malibu Two.

 

The first step is to drill a hole with the jig saw blade. 

Also I put a piece of plastic inside to collect the shavings.

This hatch is for leak detection. And I can use the piece I cut out to repair the leak. I did not save the last piece not knowing you could repair the kayak with a piece of itself. It is plastic. 

 To get the size I used our calibers to measure the edge of the last hatch I cut. Then I scribed a line around the plastic hatch to be cut.

Tools of the trade!

The patch material - the leftover plastic from the hatch hole.

Now rasping around the edges.

All cut and rasped. Now to sand.

Sanding around the edges.

This hatch is because we have a small leak in the Ocean Kayak Malibu Two.

We have not been been able to find the leak. It does not leak much. With two people in it, it leaks more. The leak does add possibly a half gallon or gallon of water to the kayak at most. However when you pull the kayak up onto the kayak racks on the boat all the water shifts to the stern of the kayak as it is still in the water. I pull it up by the bow. A one person job. Now with the water in it in the stern it makes it more difficult to pull up and adds more weight to the kayak racks. And of course, this is when we are the most tired😬

We have a couple ideas on how to find the leak now that we have more access and we will post it.

Debbie is bringing the new hatch cover back from the US.