Stupid really, but I was really pleased with myself......

[Neil]

I replaced the rubber seal on my Houdini hatch earlier this week. When I'd got the old one off, I was faced with a T-shaped channel full of silicone that had to be removed. I'd tried with a screwdriver which completely failed to reach the ends of the "T" and I realised I needed a special tool. I was digging through my tool locker when I spied a wire "key" from a tube of Sikkaflex lying on the bottom. I was about to cut through the narrow part of the loop to form a small hook, when I realised that if I used some side cutters, it would compress the wire first and form a blade shape. It worked beautifully! I know it's silly but I felt that MacGyver (remember him?) couldn't have done better!

 

[oldbilbo]

Well done, you! I rather like 'out of the box' thinking and problem-resolution.

Now, where do I find out what's happening in SW Co. Cork in late June...?

 

[LittleSister]

Ingenious! Well done.

I finally got around last weekend to fitting the replacement Houdini hatch I'd bought to replace our slightly leaking (by the hinges) one, having bottled out of attempting to repair the seal around the hinge, which I'd read on an old thread on here could be tricky.

When I say I replaced it, I really mean I attempted to replace it, because having removed the old one, and cleaned off all the old sealant, I found that the new hatch wouldn't quite fit into the hole in the cabin top. The inner, downward projecting part of the frame must be a couple of mm or so wider than the previous one. (It's very difficult to work out where it's fouling the somewhat irregular shaped cut-out.) It also looks like some of the screw holes in the frame will not line up well with the exisitng ones in the cabin top, though it's difficult to tell for sure without being able to fully lower the frame to the deck and move it around to try to line them all up. Perhaps there's been a slight change in spec or construction over the years, or either the old or new hatch was a Friday afternoon job. (Someone recently said their replacement Houdini hatch dropped straight in, and all holes lined up.)

Due to an unhelpful set of time and place constraints, and chronic dithering on my part, I ended up refitting the old hatch without sealant while I did a 6 mile trip into a brisk headwind (despite constant spray over the deck, surprisingly little water ended up getting below), then later removed the old hatch again and bedded it on sealant. I'll have to tackle the more daunting and time consuming task of widening the receiving hole in the cabin top and trying again to fit the new hatch at some later date.

I'd be interested to know how succesful your resealing turns out.