Bomar Hatch warning

[Jody House]

I have a 2000 60´ Viking. Last week I moved the boat from Florida to North Carolina. I was in 3-5´ seas. We had an occasional wave spray hard over the bow. At about 12:30a, I got a bilge alarm and found that the 20"x20" bow hatch was GONE. We took water into boat through hatch. We changed course and managed to keep water from continuing to enter boat. Tense situation.

Someone had been sleeping in the bow stateroom 15 minutes before the hatch gave way. There had not been any leaks up until the time of the failure. I inspected the hatch, I found that the two lift cylinders were in perfect condition. Not bent or damaged at all. The cylinder/cam lock assembly were secured to the hatch by glue. It appeared that the glue gave way.

Before we left marina, I personally secured the boat for open water. Checking (I Thought) everything thoroughly. The dogs were all in correct positions, however there was a screen over the hatch and I didn´t push up on the glass to confirm it was closed.

I called Bomar to start the process of getting a new hatch. When I gave them the S/N of the hatches I was told that they no longer manufacture those hatches because the glue failed! I questioned if there had been a recall, was told no.

Viking installed the 3 hatches on the bow facing forward (Hinges aft). I assume the moisture, vibration then a spray of water loosened the seal then lifted the hatch enough for it to catch the wind and water and simply rip off the boat.

If you have these style hatches where the hatch is NOT BOLTED but is glued to a round 2" diameter plastic pad you need to beware of potential failure. The glue that holds the plastic pad to the "glass" failed for me, and is a known issue with Bomar. Perhaps this is widely known....

The Model # on one of the remaining deck hatches is 99000787, which is a 13" square hatch i think...

 

[mvweebles]

Sounds like a lousy night.

I recently posted issues with Lewmar Ocean hatch (size 60 in my case). According to Lewmar, if the bedding around the lens leaks, it cannot be reliably repaired due to how its manufactured. It must be replaced. They kindly replaced mine even though it was slightly past the 3-year warranty period, but I still would not purchase one again.

TwistedTree had a similar experience with Lewmar leaks and ended up going with Manship as a replacement. It would be my choice if I need to replace the Lewmar.

Good luck. Hope there wasn't too much interior damage.

Peter

 

[Alaskan Sea-Duction]

Did you request a replacement from Viking and/or Bomar?

 

[SIBERNUT]

Since we are on the subject of hatches- I do canvas, and some owners will ask me to cover the hatches for heat/light exclusion. I will, but ONLY if the canvas is snapped to the hatch, not the deck. On most larger boats, that hatch is your emergency exit. Yeah, YOU could probably force your way out, but how about a woman or child? If you cover is snapped to the deck, try it.

 

[Comodave]

Welcome aboard. Sorry to hear about the problems. Did anything inside the boat get ruined?

 

[Max1]

Since we are on the subject of hatches- I do canvas, and some owners will ask me to cover the hatches for heat/light exclusion. I will, but ONLY if the canvas is snapped to the hatch, not the deck. On most larger boats, that hatch is your emergency exit. Yeah, YOU could probably force your way out, but how about a woman or child? If you cover is snapped to the deck, try it.

Good tip! Thanks for the advice.

 

[Shrew]

Since we are on the subject of hatches- I do canvas, and some owners will ask me to cover the hatches for heat/light exclusion. I will, but ONLY if the canvas is snapped to the hatch, not the deck. On most larger boats, that hatch is your emergency exit. Yeah, YOU could probably force your way out, but how about a woman or child? If you cover is snapped to the deck, try it.

Just from a convenience standpoint, I wouldn't want to the cover snapped to the deck. If it were snapped to the deck, I'd have to get out of bed, get dressed, go out and remove the cover, then come back in just to open the hatch in the middle of the night??

Pffttt. If someone installed the cover with snaps to the deck, they'd be getting an earful from me and the bill to fix the fiberglass.

 

[C lectric]

Glad to see you post this here.
I saw your B.D. post. It is a good warning to check hatches even for those of us who do not venture out into seas like you describe.

When we bought our current boat our bow hatch was mounted backwards. I figured eventually I would turn it around. Never did.

It took me a while to figure out the why. Our hulls were normally built as commercial fish boats, gillnetters or trollers. They are often out in snotty and dangerous conditions travelling. Some, I am told, would overnight off the west coast of Vancouver Island to stay on the fishing grounds.

A forward opening hatch would be a serious liability so I never again considered reversing it.

Of course our boat is no where near the size or capability of the owners boat here.

We have had boarding seas , not to your degree, but enough the hatch was buried but it did not open or get ripped off. Just leaked a bit.

Maybe consider opening to the reverse. You will still get lots of air flow when they are opened.


THANK YOU FOR THE WARNING.

 

[Jody House]

I did purchase a newer model hatch from Bomar with same dimensions -

We did have some damage, Had to replace VIP mattress, The bowtruster stopped working for a while - had to spray electrical cleaner on connections, Carpet was soaked - had about 6" of water in forward area of boat when I pulled up a bilge cover. Two 24v bilge pumps got the water out pretty quick.

I do plan to try to turn the hatch so that hinges are forward. Not sure if it will interfere with the tender.

 

[Comodave]

You would think Viking would have thought about this possibility and either turned the hatch around or specified a heavier duty hatch. I assume they plan on the owners taking a 60’ fishing boat out in somewhat heavy seas…

 

[rslifkin]

You would think Viking would have thought about this possibility and either turned the hatch around or specified a heavier duty hatch. I assume they plan on the owners taking a 60’ fishing boat out in somewhat heavy seas…

With a sufficiently heavy duty hatch, direction shouldn't matter. I'd expect the dogs to be as strong as the hinges, so it should handle similar force from either direction before coming apart. This sounds like a case of an inadequately designed hatch with poorly attached dogs.

 

[Cleanslate]

I would make sure all of the hatch fastener are thru bolted and not glued in place like the failed one. My old Bomar hatches, 1980 , everything is fastened through the plexiglass. I don’t believe any marine hatches are glass anymore. Think they were back in the day , but they had a wood frame with through wire safety glass.

Anyway, you sure don’t want the same problem again.

 

[DDW]

Not just Bomar, some early Lewmar hatches have a glued on dog.

 

[Comodave]

Viking isn’t a poorly made boat, I am just surprised that they apparently put in an inadequate hatch.

 

[Capn Bob]

I have a 2000 60´ Viking. Last week I moved the boat from Florida to North Carolina. I was in 3-5´ seas. We had an occasional wave spray hard over the bow. At about 12:30a, I got a bilge alarm and found that the 20"x20" bow hatch was GONE. We took water into boat through hatch. We changed course and managed to keep water from continuing to enter boat. Tense situation.

Someone had been sleeping in the bow stateroom 15 minutes before the hatch gave way. There had not been any leaks up until the time of the failure. I inspected the hatch, I found that the two lift cylinders were in perfect condition. Not bent or damaged at all. The cylinder/cam lock assembly were secured to the hatch by glue. It appeared that the glue gave way.

Before we left marina, I personally secured the boat for open water. Checking (I Thought) everything thoroughly. The dogs were all in correct positions, however there was a screen over the hatch and I didn´t push up on the glass to confirm it was closed.

I called Bomar to start the process of getting a new hatch. When I gave them the S/N of the hatches I was told that they no longer manufacture those hatches because the glue failed! I questioned if there had been a recall, was told no.

Viking installed the 3 hatches on the bow facing forward (Hinges aft). I assume the moisture, vibration then a spray of water loosened the seal then lifted the hatch enough for it to catch the wind and water and simply rip off the boat.

If you have these style hatches where the hatch is NOT BOLTED but is glued to a round 2" diameter plastic pad you need to beware of potential failure. The glue that holds the plastic pad to the "glass" failed for me, and is a known issue with Bomar. Perhaps this is widely known....

The Model # on one of the remaining deck hatches is 99000787, which is a 13" square hatch i think...

Wow! That must have been a shock! When sailing from the Kingston NY area to Myrtle Beach, SC several years ago, we encountered rough conditions and took some green water over the bow. We only got some water into the anchor locker (which of course ran into the bilge), but I can imagine the volume of water that your boat took on. Thanks for the heads-up. I had installed a new bow hatch in the foredeck, but it was a Lewmar Ocean hatch with all fittings through-bolted. I did re-check mine after I read this!