Bowmar Hatches

[Rex Delay]

Does anyone have an ingenious way to spring load or otherwise pre-tension a Bowmar hatch. The fore hatch on our C&C 41 is incredibly heavy and near impossible to open from the inside. My other boat had Atkins and Hoyle hatches with a spring built into the hinge and all you had to do to open was release the latch.

[Terra Nova]

You could simply add a gas spring.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Have you tried lubricating the hinges? Though, take care to use a product which wont damage; the hatch's gasket, it's deck gasket/bedding compound, nor the lens & or it's adhesive/bedding.

Also, might there be a possibility that the shape of your deck has shifted slightly, thus changing the shape of the hatch or it's deck frame, ever so slightly. And thus causing the binding/heavy opening pressure.
It'd be worth checking this with a framing square, as well as measuring the hatch across it's diagonals, in order to see.

Have you re-tuned your rig recently? Which could also cause a small change in the shape of the deck. Ergo the stiffness.

If none of those options yields much, & it's still bugging you, it might be time to disassemble the hatch. And the step after that is to pull it out of the boat completely, & do a re-install.

Also, I hate to mention it, but water could have gotten into the deck core over the Winter, frozen, and again, resulted in a small shape change in the deck.

[redsky49]

If this is one of the cast AlMag "Offshore" Bomar hatches, there is little that can be done. This is a dated design, and while likely strong enough for bluewater use, it is clumsy in everyday use.

They take two hands to operate, and sometimes that is one hand too many. I feel your pain.

Additionally, I have had pretty poor customer support from the maker, part of the Pompanette group. This is based on two different boats, many years apart, and they don't seem to have gotten any better.

Also be careful of corrosion where dissimilar metals are used - several locations on each hatch. Use lanolin or some other product to prevent seizing. I am currently using a Teflon based grease.

Good luck!