Hobie - Hatch 8" Twist-N-Seal - 71702011

Great product. Easy to install.

Works great!!!

Hobie quality. A little pricey for what it is.

This is actually my second 8" Hobie hatch. I have been pleased with the first hatch, but became extremely frustrated with Hobie on this unit. Luckily, the seller bent over backwards to make things right. I'm just frustrated with Hobie for the aggravation, which is why I deducted one star. For starters, the Hobie hatch arrived without a rim gasket or an o-ring for the lid. I instantly recognized the missing rim gasket, contacted seller and only took an additional week to arrive. This gasket is reportedly essential to preventing water from leaking through the outer rim. After installing the hatch, I took my kayak out fishing Big mistake and lesson learned to perform a garden hose test before hitting the water. While crossing the lake, I noticed my kayak became increasingly difficult to paddle and also appeared to sit extremely low in the water. I then opened my square hatch to see the hull had half filled with water. I immediately turned around and luckily made it back to the dock. After draining the water, I took the kayak back home and used a garden hose to determine that water was definitely pouring through the Hobie hatch...in an old kayak that had never leaked before. Frustrated, I finally compared to my old Hobie hatch and realized the lid was missing the rubber o-ring. Again, contacted the seller and they had one shipped to me. If you decide to purchase one of these Hobie 8" hatches, it may be beneficial to carefully check for these two items. This experience also convinced me that I need to purchase a small bilge pump and keep it handy inside my kayak b/c I would have been screwed had I been out BTB in the ocean, or been out in rough conditions. As a result, I purchased a pair of Malibu Crack of Dawn 8" hatches for our front platforms and couldn't be happier. Build quality appears to be equal, flawless installation, plus all the mounting hardware (screws) and gear bucket were included. The reason why I deducted a second star was having to spend the time and money to separately hunt down these b/c Hobie does not include them. My review reflects my personal experience and if you're willing to check carefully and spend the time to purchase screws + liner separately, then the Hobie 8" hatch is potentially a 5- star product.

The image does not match my hatch. Mine has only 6 screw holes and a hard backing ring about 1 inch thick . Also no screws or gaskets. Which sucks because it's use less as is.

The hatch does not come with screws, seal gasket and is way over priced. It does not seal well even after purchasing their over priced gasket that is made very cheaply.

Got mine pretty quick, but missing installation screws and gasket. Very disappointed.