Companionway hatch slide tracks - replacement

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Trevelyan

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Hi all,
My companionway hatch (the horizontal "lid") is rotten and, while pulling it apart I managed to damage the track slides.

There is a "C" shape track mounted to the deck (facing upwards) and the previous design used Holt Allen sail track slides (like would be used to attach a sail - these http://www.allenbrothers.co.uk/item_detail.asp?prod_id=29&id=494) which were then embedded in wooden battens within the hatch "lid".

As I want to make the new hatch lid out of acrylic this might be difficult to replicate - any suggestions anyone please for tricks or alternative replacements? Google is not yielding much!

Cheers,

Trev
 
I have just replaced my hatch and old tracks yesterday with these brass ones from Classic marine. http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/boatstore/search.asp?strKeywords=sail+track&submit=%BB
I used the C and T section. With the C section on the hatch and the T section fixed to the coach roof and it keeps it waterproof.
I had to drill the track as it didn't come with mounting holes, but its soft and easy to drill. Make sure fixings are countersunk so not to catch.
 
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I have something similar to what they call an 'internal sail track' fitted to the coachroof at present. So am I reading this right - what they are calling the 'external sail track' is the "T" section which fits within the 'internal sail track', i.e. C section. Did you use screws to fit both of the T and C sections? Does this run risk/problems of the screwheads clashing if not perfectly flush?

Trev
 
I used screws yes. I counter sunk them so they were flush on the C section, but the screws I used on the T section were small pan heads so they fitted between the T and sat
proud of the brass, but there is enough space, about 5mm between the base of the T and the inside of the C for screws to pass.
 
Some time ago my mate and I rebuilt a wooden hatch which ran on brass track with a strip of PTFE on the hatch to reduce friction. Lovely, but when we launched, the hull took on its water-borne shape and opening the hatch was like a cop in a film busting down a door! Point is, you want a little slack in the mounting to allow for such contingency, so the fittings need to be a little oversize to accomodate this. Even though it is possible to make an edge runer to simply allow the acrylic sheet to slide in, you really don't want any rubbing of the sheet itself or it will become the sacrificial part of the mechanism. Acrylic thick enough to stand on, supported only by its edges, when you're flaking the mainsail is quite pricey so your design shouldn't use it as a consumeable component. Simply screwing sme extrusion to suit to the edges of the sheet should sort that out. Many tracks are simply load bearing tracks and wooden edging pieces are then screwed to the coachroof to prevent the hatch lifting out and to set the extremes of its travel.

Rob.
 
I really like that Davey & Co solution!
Out here our acrylic slides are usually 12mm acrylic sliding in 12mm SS "U"-channel. Some of the builders I have seen have fabricated slides with a Z-shaped (the Z is a 90-degree construction 12mm high- nominal bends at 25 x 12 x 25mm) plate screwed down to the companionway frame, with the SS extending all the way into the "garage".
The real issues are getting the thing to seal, so there is an upstand under the rail that forms a gutter outside the runners, because otherwise the rain/spray/fog condenses on the hatch, trickles round the edges, fills up the SS rails and weeps down the companionway!
The current boat I'm on has nylon strips as runners with the same SS idea, but in this case the SS is just a right-angle, being fixed to the sides of the runners with a bead of stickywhiteshite and 4 small screws: quick and easy to do!
 
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