I am ready to attach the rubber hatch cover to my Wood Duck 10. I intend to scuff up the deck with sand paper where the hatch cover is to be attached and glue it on with this 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant. After building this beautiful boat I have decided to not ever put it in the water and to just mount it on a wall and enjoy the beauty. I would not ever open the hatch so I think I would not have to drill into the deck and screw it on. Would this work? Would I have to also sand/scuff up the hatch portion that would attach to the boat deck? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
For a strong, permanent attachment I would suggest G-Flex toughened epoxy which adheres well to dissimilar materials. You’d be all set if you ever decide to get it wet.
5200 is a permanent adhesive. Truly permanent. If you ever need to remove that hatch, say for repairs if you drop the boat while you’re mounting it on the wall, an earthquake strikes, a kid’s baseball comes through your window and hits the boat, etc. the chances are that you would seriously damage the boat. Cleanup after application is also messy and somewhat annoying and involves toxic VOCs. I’m seconding Dan’s suggestion that you go with a different adhesive. I’ve never tried G-flex but Dan is an experienced, professional award-winning boatbuilder, so if he says G-Flex is good, I’d trust that. If for some reason you can’t get G-Flex, 3M 4200 is a good, non-permanent alternative to 5200.
Now, I’ve been trying really really hard to sit on my hands and not say anything about how you want to use your boat, but I can’t, I’m sorry. That’s just too nice a boat to turn into a wall hanging. It’s needs to be outdoors under the shade of trees in full leaf under a blue sky, gliding silently across shallow waters, where jetskis dare not go, transporting an appreciative owner through lily pads while listening to the bullfrog serenade, the buzzing of dragonflies and the calls of ospreys, kingfishers and redwings.
If being out in the wonderful world is not a good enough argument for getting it wet, how’s this? Looking at that picture of the boat in your she cave, I’m struck by just how particular you are about how things are ordered and maintained. By those standards, your boat is not a wall ornament. For starters, the grain and wood color change across the puzzle joints. The rubber hatch, while wonderfully functional, will be discordant with the wooden deck of a museum piece. You should consider this boat as the practice piece for the museum boat, the one that will have the flush wooden hatch cover that will blend almost invisibly into the flowing sapele deck; the one built from book-matched sheets of plywood so that the grain and color continue uninterrupted across the puzzle joints; the one with fillets and taping at the joints that approach or achieve perfection because of the practice that you’ve had with this boat; the one worthy to hang on your wall.
And in the meantime you can take the practice piece out for a spin and everybody out on the water will remark on the most beautiful boat that they’ve ever seen.
Laszlo
Wow.
That’s an argument
Laszlo, Thank you for your response. Sorry for the long delay in acknowledging it. I am very happy to report that the kayak is finally, after 3 1/2 years, finished. YAY! Way too old (age 73) to build another ‘museum piece’ wooden kayak, especially since this one took so long. Thank you very much for your kind, helpful and prompt responses to my questions during the bu
ild. It was quite the project, I must say say!
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