There's my WD12 construction webpage.

Laszlo

CLC also sells an invisible hatch cover hold-down kit and the instructions are posted here. It should be quite possible to adapt that to the WD12 if you want a commercial solution.

My own personal bias is that I like mine better for the WD12. Not just because I came up with it, but because it takes up less room inside the hatch, the wooden hooks on the hatch cover are more in line with the spirit of the boat's design than the tacky steel hooks and my tension adjuster is a lot easier to use than tying and untying knots in elastic cord.

To be fair, CLC's solution uses simpler parts and is less work to install. In the past they had a different kit with lovely trapezoidal wood pieces, albeit with the same tacky steel hooks. I think that kit was much nicer, but the current one will still work just fine. For that matter, whichever kit you use it's all completely invisible with the hatch cover closed, so there's not all that much difference in the long run.

So there's 2 alternatives for you. Have fun and happy New Year,

Laszlo

   Laszlo - I've seen your page on the WD you built and I've been incorporating your suggestions in my build.  My problem is that I am having a hard time visualizing how/where the hold-downs are attached on the hatch and in the boat.

   Ok, figured out how to enlarge photos, and now I can see where you are placing the hooks on the hatch.  Still not entirely sure on how this setup works.  If you could provide a bit more detail on tie down placement and the routing of the cord, it would be much appreciated!  Total newbie here.

The CLC instructions show it pretty well and it's pretty much the same setup on my WD12 - 2 loops of elastic cord, one on each side of the hatch compartment. There's also a hook on each side of the hatch cover. Each elastic loop is passed over a hook on the same side. So the left loop gets hooked by the left hook and the right loop by the right hook.

Hooking the first loop is easy. Hooking the second loop is more work since the first loop is trying to pull the hatch cover out of your hands.

The big difference is that CLC's scheme uses one continuous piece of wood on each side with holes at each end to hold the loop ends while mine uses 2 smaller pieces of wood per side. Other than that, the loop attachment is the same.

The 4 D-shaped bits, 2 on each side of the hatch compartment hold the loop. The wooden hooks are glued to the hatch cover, one on each side.

Is this enough or do you need a diagram?

Laszlo

   That is perfect!  Thanks!