Hatch and Laz gasket

[ebb]

Jer, if you want to block off with rubber gasket your sliding hatch's underneath cross bar, if it is Pearson original, it is strangely cut away at the ends.
You can buy some EPDM rubber strip, comes 2"-4'"-6" wide with a very aggressive peel and stick on one side.
Assuming the underneath cross bar on the hatch IS the Pearson cut away style that zero's out at the companionway sides, it's not easy to weatherstrip.
Imco the cross bar could have a blunt ended rubber strip applied on top... if the rubber had stiff support backing.

McMasterCarr has the strip. Thickness range 1/32" to 1/2". Cost range $8 to $16, 36" long.
It's bendy and pliable, but the thicker it is the less floppy. EPDM is the rubber that holds the glass on your truck.
Make a paper pattern of the shape you want to block off, see what width you need when you lay the pattern out flat.
If you are trying to keep the water out in the corners under the hatch and you are going to use the original Pearson cross piece - that has the stainless U-bolt in the center that goes thru the dropboard -
you can cut your gasket with square ends.
For example, it can be a 2" wide piece that is parallel to the curve of the hatch from side to side.
But you'll have unsupported ends that would flop around. So it needs some stiff backing. Doorskin might do the trick.

Cut the ply backing undersize at the sides so that the rubber overlaps it to make a soft seal against the companionway sides.
Use 1/8" thick doorskin ply and rubber that is also thin enough (1/8"?) so that the U-bolt still engages the drop board slot without having to change it out for a longer one. The ply and rubber probably around 1/4" thick. Seal the ply with epoxy first, then stick the rubber on.

Better would be to have the ply backing with the rubber stuck on behind it, against the crossbar, so most of the rubber is unseen.
It would then be called 'ply fronting'.
If it's philippine mahogany, it'll varnish up nicely and the jerried weatherstripping goes unnoticed.
How to attach it to the old painted crossbar? Brass nails? Small flathead screws? Monel staples?

This 'cheat' will do the job, but it is better imco to take that original Pearson crossbar off and replace it with a more practical blunt-ended piece of wood better able to keep weather out at the sides where you need it.


McMaster-Carr.com online catalog page 3510. EPDM is outdoor rubber.
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I've radically EDITed the original post.
For high winds when away from the boat perhaps a sunbrella cover lashed over the top and down infront would better keep the rain at bay.