I got some Lexan from Home Depot and made temporary
covers, bedded them in BoatLife (polysulfide) and screwed
them down. My plan is to recondition the removed hatches,
apply some sort of finish where the hatch will be bedded,
and reinstall them for good. Then mask and paint around them
when the time comes. The little stuff can stay off until the
painting is complete.

Doug
s/v Callista

"Don W" wrote in message
m...
Doug,

Yeah, those could be a problem in a hard rain. Well looks like you
have the choice of leaving
them on and painting around them, or doing something like duct taping
heavy plastic over the holes
while the hatches are removed.

Of course, you could just leave everything else off, but re-install the
hatches between work
sessions. If you used a temporary rubber gasket (such as the stick on
stuff they sell at home
depot) to bed the hatches temporarily, they should be mostly watertight,
and you'd just pull up the
temporary gaskets while working on the deck. Since the material comes in
rolls you could just throw
out the used material and make new ones every time you replaced the
hatches. Or a better idea is to
put the sticky side of the material to the hatches, so that you could just
pull them up. (Thinking
on my feet here). Not a solution for green water over the deck, but it
should keep the rain out
while you're working on her.

In either case (duct tape and plastic, or replacing the hatches) you'll
have to make sure that the
primer / paint / whatever is good and dry before covering the hatches or
you'll be pulling it off
the next time you remove the hatches. Of course, that stuff dries pretty
fast in the sun.

Good luck with it,

Don W.

Doug Dotson wrote:
I'm not too worried about the little stuff. It's the 24" square holes
left by the hatches that become a problem.

Doug
s/v Callista