Hatch Tape / Weather Seal

[SteveM]

Anyone have a favorite hatch tape or weather seal they have used successfully for the forward hatch above the V berth?

I've looked online at various shapes, sizes and so forth, Taco has some, West, Defender. Too many choices.

The old rubber seal on mine is spent. I don't get water, but I can see light through the corners from below.
It would be nice to seal it up snug.

[Marlin]

Go up to BOW in Rivera Beach, great selection, I don’t know what your hatch configuration is, give it a try

[Yannis]

I have a custom made top loading refrigerator and freezer.
The tech who made/installed it had brought with him a roll of adhesive foamy tape to seal the top covers.
I used the leftover length for my hatch, works fine.
Better to stick it on the hatch, as opposed to the deck rim, so that it is protected from mechanical wear and the sun.
I hear that 3M makes a similar foamy tape with grooves, this one should be better than the flat surface one I have.

[FreddyP]

There was a post a few years back that specified a tape that I used and it worked well. I'll see if I can find the brand / model and post back.
Fred

Edit: Here is the stuff: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FS8 ... ge_o09_s00

[CamB25]

McMaster-Carr. much less expensive, lots of choices:

https://www.mcmaster.com/#weatherstripping/=1cd5pbq

[SteveM]

Thank you guys!

[IRGuy]

When I bought my 1983 B33 the foredeck hatch leaked badly no matter how much I tightened the clamps. I don't recall how I found out, but I learned that Bomar made the hatches for B33s .. I suspect they might have made them for other Bertrams as well. I believe they still make the hatches Bertram used.

I called them and found that they still had repair/replacement parts and I bought the rubber sealing material along with some other parts. All I needed were the dimensions of the hatch and a description and they were able to determine what I had. I pulled the old rubber sealing material out and installed the new resulting in a perfect seal.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bomar made hatches for B31s as well.

[Yannis]

Frank,

I think Bomar makes ordinary alu/plexi hatches.
The 28 and the 31, at least the older ones, have this molded fiberglass hatch which sometimes has a plexi inlay for light.
It looks to me as these would certainly be Bertram factory production items.

[incoming]

I used the 3/4" x 1/4" tape made by taco sealing the engine room hatches on my tiara: http://tacomarine.com/category/cat_weat ... Hatch-Tape

I picked it because it was the widest and thickest I could find. My experience with it was that it worked very well initially, but it is very, very soft and stretchy, and the adhesive doesn't seem to resist slippage very well. The end result was after only a few months worth of hatch cycles I noticed the tape had been pushed around quite a bit in certain sections. The channel that I laid the tape in was about twice as wide as the tape, so YMMV. But wanted to point that out since you asked for reviews.