This shows the wear where it slides on the rails. I am surprised the wood did not wear more than the fiberglass.

I think most of the loss is the gel coat which is probably pretty soft. To prepare the surface I sanded it down with 80 grit to roughen the surface. I also sanded the edge between the worn area and the good area so as to provide a tapered interface. Hopefully this will prevent the epoxy from cracking at that point.

I used a 3M filler epoxy just because I had some. It's pretty dense stuff so I think it will hold up well. I sanded this down to get a smoother surface.

Next, I skimmed on some gel coat repair stuff and spread it as smooth as I could. A little bit of sanding was required afterward.

The second coat of gel coat went on smooth and did not require sanding. Looks almost as good as new!

When I ordered my new windows for the portlights I also ordered a new acrylic hatch. I gave them the old one to use as a template. Here you can see the difference between the old and new. Note how the old one is still transparent where the vent and hinges were.

Funny how I never needed a tapping set until I bought a boat. I have used it a few times and it comes in handy (i.e. saves my butt when I make a mistake). Here I am tapping the screw holes for the vent.

The edges of the acrylic were pretty sharp and I can imagine being barefoot and slicing a toe open (OK, I'm more worried about getting blood on the boat than the damage to the toe). I practiced on the old hatch with sandpaper but it scratched the top and side too much. I tried a file but it made quite a mess and was not even. I had this old, funny looking stone I had found on a canoe trip and just rubbed it along the edge. It worked great and rounding the sharpness and not scratching anything. That leads to a Mobyism:

Never throw anything out, you never know when it will come in handy.

I replaced all the rubber washers and o-rings. It was really hard finding o-rings that were just the right size. I carried them with me where ever I went and would check every hardware or marine store I visited. I was ready to give up until I stopped in this little hoe-dunk town at the little hardware store that was the town gathering spot. They had the best collection of o-rings I ever saw. Who would think one could get excited about o-rings. The way I got excited people must have thought I found gold.

Now that I had a new hatch the frame was looking pretty sad.

On one of those rare sunny days this spring I gave the frame a paint job. I was very carefull to protect against overspray.

This was an easy job that gave very satisfying results (my kind of job). Everytime I sit in the v-berth now I look out this hatch and smile.