Starboard hatches?

hobson · #1 09-16-2006, 06:36 PM

I'm in the process of gutting my boat and will be recoring the floor and all the hatches. I have a CNC machine at my work that can basically do anything and was thinking about making the hatches out of solid starboard or a material similar to save time and money. Anyone have ideas about this or see a reason it might not work. Thanks for any input.

1bayouboy · #2 09-16-2006, 07:44 PM

I think it would work fine....but starboard is pretty heavy.

Old'sCool · #3 09-16-2006, 08:16 PM

And slippery as deck material......

warthog5 · #4 09-17-2006, 01:22 AM

It warp's in large panel's too.

JW-Tex · #5 09-17-2006, 02:56 PM

My 20 has them, were on there when I bought it, very slippery. I sanded a couple of them with 80 grit and then painted with textured deck paint. The larger casting deck hatch bows a lot when you stand on it.

joema · #6 09-17-2006, 04:32 PM

Don,t do it to heavy they crack their to flexable I,m replacing mine

hobson · #7 09-17-2006, 08:30 PM

Thanks for the info. I was just thinking about it but now I've just decided to recore everything.

EagleOCNJ · #8 09-22-2006, 07:17 AM

Starboard-they're heavy and expensive!

rockdoc · #9 09-22-2006, 11:13 AM

My 18' Maritime Skiff has a large rear casting platform made of Starboard, and it's fine. It's pretty well supported underneath by an aluminum frame, and there's been no warpage or cracking, and it doesn't seem overly slippery. I'm up and down walking across that sometimes wet rear deck very often, jumping down off the poling platform, etc. and have never had a problem. It is heavy, and expensive. But I imagine it would work well for hatches.

rockdoc