More often than I like I need to acces the engine room of our 26fly/28command. The hatches lift sideways and along their track there are hinges from the bench seat. That seat is hardly ever mounted as it is a hassle to remove and put somewhere while the hatches are open. In fact, one hatch I can more or less jam upright but the other one I can't.

Idea: hinges on the rear of the cockpit so I can open it to enough angle to do a visual check, perhaps drop something in there. Without removing the seat completely. And when I do remove it, the hatches need to open up all the way as high as possible.

Now I am thinking of electrically extending actuators. Not hydraulic. I don't know yet where to mount the non-hatch side though. Perhaps I need two to lighten the load so I can mount them half way the opening on the sides. Not sure yet about the forces at the start of the movement when the rods are 'in' and the angle to the hatch needs the heaviest push to get going.
Also depends on where they need to move to when the hatch is closed.

My request: if you can open your engine room hatches automatically, can you please post a picture of how this is constructed? It would help me to think up a solution for our boat.
This old thread doesn't have the pics (anymore) viewtopic.php?f=5&t=2747&start=10