Well this may be the last of the
upgrades before actually getting organized and loading the boat up.
The
original Beckson opening ports (8 of them) had been starting to leak from
around where they joined the hull. To really fix this properly, you would have
to take them totally off and reseal them. They are 35 years old and are brittle
from the sun, which would cause them to totally break apart, so the wise thing
is just to replace them. They are not overly expensive but it is a very time consuming
process.
The first step was ripping them
out, then since there was some damage to the wood where they joined the hull I
filled and faired with epoxy (first picture). I had decided to paint the wood
in a lighter color around the ports to lighten things up down below so fixing
the wood would be transparent anyways. Filling/fairing took time and was
weather dependent so needed to seal the outside from the elements (second
picture). I expanded the window size to fit the “rain drain” parts of the ports
(helps to keep water from sitting on the edge of the port when you open it up).
The next step was painting with two coats of “Brightside”. I ended up using
recessed flush mount barrel nuts so that there would not be any type of nut
showing from the outside where water could eventually wick it’s way in. The
cabin top is fairly thin (3/8” thick) so I had to cut each barrel nut, then
recess them (80 of them) to size and individually check that they fitted flush
before sealing everything. This probably took the most time. After this,
everything came apart so that Heather and I could silicon them together. I used
Dow Corning 795 which was one of the products recommended by Beckson, it is
very strong with good elastic properties and is used on high-rise buildings for
attaching the outside glass – good enough for me.
The last two pictures are the completed ports inside and
out, ignore the dirt on the outside one, it had just rained and the boatyard
had people sanding….it will come off.
Glad this is done, all is dry now.
