# Hobie Outback Front Hatch Leak - And Solution



## YakAttack (Aug 8, 2006)

During some self-rescue exercises the kids and I did, I found that the Hobie Outbacks my son and I have have pretty poor sealing of the front hatch. After one of the yaks being inverted for 10 mins or so, it had more than 2 gallons of water in the hull. Not good.

After looking into it a bit I found that indeed it's the front hatch that was letting the water in. I found a nice little fix for it, so I thought I would share it here. We used adhesive backed foam weatherstripping inside the lid. It's 1" wide X 1/2" thick foam. Now instead of the gasket sealing against the hatch lid, it seals against the foam, which is comperssible so it conforms nicely to provide a good seal.

Here's the lid with the foam installed. The gasket around the opening in the hull is the factory seal. From the factory there is no seal on the lid itself. Notice how the foam still has the indentions from conforming to the gasket. After a while it will return to the original shape. We spent a good 30 mins withe the yaks upside down adn intentionally pushed the bow underwater to test the seal and there was very little water in the hull.

View attachment 1551


Here's a roll of the foam:

View attachment 1552


Maybe this will help someone out one day.

- Luther


----------



## surfnsam (Apr 28, 2008)

thanks for the info. might need that on the hatch on my tarpon


----------

