Hi, New owner of an old hull (#170) that needs much TLC. 3 of the 4 companionway hatch slides were gone when I bought the boat. Schock says they might have replacement slides for me, but I'm wondering if there might be a better system for the hatch--particularly, one that doesn't depend on parts to match the long expired sail track that was used.

Has anyone replaced the hatch track system with something else? Changing to modern harken/schaeffer track is a possibility, but the cost of suitable track slides for attaching the hatch is a bit much (100-150 for the track and nearly $200 for 4 simple threaded track slides--more than I paid for the boat!).