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Is there something that is supposed to keep the companion way hatch attached to the boat? Even with my hatch fully closed I can lift it up off the rails and remove it. There doesn't seem much use locking the boat up if I can just lift the hatch off.

Thanks
John

John,

Your companionway hatch should be captured by two aluminum tracks (flat bar stock) that are secured to the top of the slide logs. On the under side of the hatch, there should be two aluminum “U” channel sections that are screwed to thin pieces of teak. The teak strips support the weight of the hatch, and are glued to the fiberglass hatch underneath. The channel sections prevent the hatch from being blown from the boat. The Triton hatch is kind of flimsy, and I may trash the whole thing and start from scratch. The glued teak strips on my hatch were severely worn, and the glue had failed on the port side, so that the starboard side was the only one holding the hatch in place. If they are indeed intact, one would need to remove the larger aluminum flat bar pieces attached to the slide logs to remove the hatch. I’m guessing from your question that neither of the pieces is present on the underside of your hatch.

Joe

The original hatch design was not very good to begin with, and the components have tended to age poorly in most cases. But it should work the way Joe describes, and it should hold the hatch in place, of course. If you can lift yours right off, something must have become detached with time, or misaligned, or something.

Here are a couple pictures of one Triton's hatch to show how things ought to work.