The first job was to close off approximately half of the opening so that the sliding hatch could slide over onto the deck and into the sea hood.

First I cut out the core and filled with thickened epoxy along the edges. I wanted to keep the raised ridge that was there for errant water protection, and to mount the sea hood onto.

Then I glassed in some support beams to hold the new deck area.

This area would end up underneath the sea hood when finished.

And here it is all nicely painted.

I built a "dam" at the front edge. This part will be underneath (just barely) the front edge sea hood, and there will be a lip at the back edge of the slider (which is also just under the front edge of the sea hood) that will come down just behind the "dam". There. Isn't that all perfectly clear now? ;)

I routed in some small drain channels at either end of the dam for any water that got under there and hit the dam to run out onto the deck.

Now it was time to start building the hatch and sea hood.

I started the sea hood with a "male" mold. Here is the framing of the mold for the sea hood. I put a curve along the top to shed water.

Here is the same type of frame for the sliding hatch part.

Unlike the sea hood, I planned to leave the frame "inside" the sliding hatch and just seal up both sides with fiberglass.

I tried to match the curve of the sea hood as best I could since they would be sliding in together. I put a little lip on on the top forward edge of the slider for looks and for something to grab on for sliding.

I covered the sea-hood male mold with Saran wrap in hopes that I could pull the mold out after the fiberglass hardened.

I must have been dreaming or something.......

Well, it didn't exactly "POP" off of the mold, but I finally got it out. Note to self: "Fiberglass sticks to cheap Saran wrap".

I also now know why most vertical edges and corners of fiberglass parts are tapered slightly......

It didn't matter too much about the "looks" of the underside, so I wasn't too worried about that.

LOTS of cutting, sanding, and fairing later, I was ready for a test fit.

Hmmmm.......looks like more cutting, sanding, and fairing.

After lots more sanding and fairing, it was time to put on some non-skid and paint!

Here is the sliding hatch part with non-skid applied.

The little bubble in the center front edge is for the overlapping part on the doors.

My next task was making the supports that the sea-hood would sit on. I had always planned on bolting the sea hood to the small risers that were part of the opening FROM THE SIDE --- I always try to screw things into vertical surfaces on the deck instead of the horizontal deck itself, if at all possible. This gives the least chance of leaks.

I didn't want the sea hood (with me possibly standing on it) to take all of its weight on the bolts that went into that small riser. I wanted part of it to rest on the deck itself.

I made these Starboard supports that fit the curve of the riser edge on the deck, had a lip for the bottom edge of the sea hood to rest on, had holes for the bolts, and had drainage channels for any water to get out. WHEW! These were complicated bits of Starboard!

Here's the way it looks when they were finally mounted. The weight of standing on it is mostly taken onto the lip of the Starboard and then to the deck. The bolts really just keep the fiberglass sides up on the ledge of the Starboard.

You can just see the drainage channels underneath.

Next I had to make some Starboard sliding rails.

I used the squared edge of the rails forward and aft to "lock in" the hatch when closed. Some precisely-sized blocks perform the locking function and also serve as sliders on the underside of the hatch.

Here is a picture from underneath. The white block is part of the hatch, screwed to the top. The thin rail, also attached to the underside of the hatch, is only to take up the gap between the hatch and the bottom rail

Here's the way it looks when the hatch is partially open.

I will be putting some teak on the underside of the hatch when I start the inside of the boat.

Here is the back edge of the hatch with it closed. There is also a block there that keeps the hatch from sliding too far forward. These fore and aft blocks insure that the hatch closes in the same position every time.

The back lip of the hatch also performs this "stop" function, as it catches on the water dam in the right half of the picture.

So after LOTS of trials and tribulations, fussing and fighting, fairing and sanding, it came out pretty good after all.

As of this writing, it has been through several severe thunderstorms in the back yard with out a drop of water getting through, but no real sea-trials yet......