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The pictures are somewhat blurred.  I'm still getting to know the specifics of the digital camera. I'll post better pictures when I get a little more experience with it.

    After several years of varying methods of attaching the ship's deck, I have hit on one that is cheap, easily constructed, and engaged (Figures 1, 2, & 3).

        Figure 1                             Figure 2                        Figure 3

    The latch consists of the following parts:

1.    #4 Stainless Steel machine screw
2.    2 - #4 Stainless Steel nylon lock nuts
3.    Thick brass strip, threaded for screw.

    I made the brass strips from a sheet of brass which was first drilled and threaded, then the individual strips were cut loose.  The separation of the strips was quite an effort, using a razor saw, but cutting one or two loose between sorties at Nats spread out the work.
    Once the parts were ready, I assembled them as follows:

1.    The screw was installed and held in place with one nut.  The nut was tightened so as to leave little wobble, but not hard enough to restrict rotation.  The strip was screwed on, with a dab of Locitite to secure it.  A scrap piece of ply the same thickness as the sub deck was used to get the strip the right distance from the deck.  This fit was such that the strip rotated into position with some drag.  This prevents it from turning during ship operation.  The second nut was then installed as a lock nut to lock the brass strip in place.

    The latch is turned with a screw driver to engage.  Figure 3 shows the head of the screw on the top of the deck.

The front (or rear) of the deck is held in place with a fixed latch of wood (Figure 4).  This is a fairly standard method.  One problem for me has always been the glue joint failing.  The addition of another SS screw and nylon nut is used on Adam's HMS Invincible to correct this (Figure 4).

Figure 4

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