Help me Identify these Fixed Portlights

The frame and trim ring are white plastic. 18 screws clamp the inside trim ring to the frame. There is a foam weather-strip like gasket for (theoretical) sealing to the cabin side. The glazing is crazed so it's not glass. The max outside length is 28 1/8" and width is 8 3/8". The minimum cutout size is 27 1/16" and 7 1/8". Both of these are slightly larger than the Lewmar 4L/4R.



I removed the aft starboard one easily by removing the interior screws and pushing it out. The only thing holding it in was my exterior anti-leak tape job! The hull side cutout was shockingly precise by Ericson's standards so I suspect this is not original. The glazing is solid in the frame and the weather stripping is shot so my leaks are between the portlight and the cabinside. Since the glazing is crazed and I see no way to get it out of the frame to replace it, I'm probably looking at new portlights just to fix the crazing. I'd like to know who made these if we can figure it out.

Thanks,

Mark

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?11323-Fixed-portlights

Reponse #9 above mentions a type of glazing channel which might make it possible to replace the lenses. This comes up a lot but I never can seem to find a definitive answer as to whether it works.

Bomon makes custom replacements, and has stock templates, which is a common way to go.

You might give select plastics a call, maybe they'd recognize the dimensions or hve a suggestion: http://selectplastics.com/?p=136

Hey Mark- I don't know about the portlight type, but when you go to reinstall you might think about filling the gap between hull and interior with thickened epoxy. Future leaks would then not end up in strange places as water travels between hull and interior and it won't get trapped in there and rot, either.

Best,

Doug

Thanks guys!

I think I will send some pictures to Select Plastics to see if they know who made them.

I actually like these portlights. They are stiff, have no corrosion being plastic and the glazing is still rock solid in the frame. The two joints in the plastic extrusion/frame are glued together similar to a finger joint in wood, so I don't think they were designed to be re-glazed. This may also be the reason the glazing is still solid in the frame. The exterior plastic frame is showing the beginning signs of a little cracking so I don't think re-glazing these is the best idea. I would consider another set depending on the price vs the custom Bomons. I would install them with butyl tape instead of the weather stripping. The Bomans have the longevity advantages of being stainless and have tempered glass vs cast acrylic to justify their price.

The good news is that because they are not "sealed" with caulk, butyl or worse (4200/5200), they look like they can go back in temporarily with new weather stripping/gasket material until I figure out the best solution for replacements.

I also have four cast aluminum Goiot opening ports that are all leaking too. These look to be a bigger job to re-engineer or replace, so I will do these first. Their design is bad and I have a small space in the cabin sides to fit them in.

Mark

Weird. From the photos they look just like the standard aluminum frames. I wonder if they're already a custom after-market item.

I think that all of our fixed ports must be "custom" jobs. Though they use standard channel extrusion that is used on other makes (e.g. Catalina) the shape is unique to the design of (each?) Ericson model, since they "grow" to match the cabin profile. Whether the actual bending of the channel was done at the Ericson factory or by a contractor, I couldn't guess. Well, actually I'd guess that it was done by a contractor somewhere in SoCal. Maybe the plastic channel was offered by that same contractor?

Here is a close up shot of the joint area and the spigot. The weather strip/gasket is 1/2 inch wide x 3/8 thick and sits in the shallow channel on the bottom of the shot -which is the back of the outside exposed frame. I'm guessing these could have been made very inexpensively. Two pieces of molded plastic with one piece of acrylic glued in a channel and then the two channel joints glued together.

I'm going to keep them as spares if they don't leak with new weather stripping. I'd probably re-install with butyl as a fix if I could see through them.

Mark

If the channel is the same dimensions as the aluminum frame, that gasket material can be had from Catalina Direct, and I believe someone recently posted another source for it in another recent portlite thread. In fact, I have a roll of it on my workbench at the moment. Not quite simple weatherstripping... It's a vinyl strip with some ridges on the side that help it "snap in" to the channel. Seals the interior of the boat against liquid that gets around the glazing. And fills the channel so "stuff" doesn't accumulate in there.

What we need somewhere on the web site is a curated database of sources, past and present, for all these little bits of our boats! At least the OEM stuff.

Recalling some prior fixed-port threads here, I seem to recall someone saying that in the 80's Ericson had made a deal with Lewmar to supply the trapezoidal signature Ericson style ports. They are similar to the standard "large" Lewmar fixed port, but not the same on one end.

Loren

Possibly Mark Plastic of Corona, CA

From the thread linked below, which was referenced at the bottom of this current thread, I strongly suspect my plastic fixed portlights might have been made by Mark Plastic of Corona.

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?1205-E34-Fixed-Portlights

The author (Gene Stoddard), back in 2004, references plastic portlights for $190 ea. from Mark vs $350 ea. for the Lewmar 4L/R. This all makes sense looking at my plastic ports. I'm going to contact them for more details.

www.markplastics.com

From the website, it looks like they were a big supplier to the California boat building industry in the 70s and 80s.

An affordable plastic portlight would be a nice option to know about.

Mark

If they were Lewmar, I suppose that explains why they were using 5mm glass in 1970. Still not easy to come by... If I'd known what a rabbit hole it was going to end up, I'd have gone with acrylic.

Also note that the fronts & rears are completely different sizes. Obvious, but I never really noticed until I went to replace one.

Mark Plastics of Corona, CA it is!

I got a phone call from Mark of Mark Plastics today in response to an email sent April 8. The portlights were made by them. Mark was very knowledgeable about all the portlight details that need to be addressed. It appears mine may be replacements of the original factory portlights, but Mark Plastics did supply Ericson with portlights for new boats in the early 80s. (Their records only go back to 1984.) I'm guessing mine are about 20 years old and replacements because someone, trimmed the cabin side cutouts neatly which seems to be NOT typical for the Ericson factory install. An exact size replacement will fit nicely.

Custom replacements to your dimensions or a tracing of your existing portlights cost as follows: Tinted acrylic $180/each, Tinted scratch resistant acrylic $200/each, Tinted tempered glass $240/each. Lead time is a couple of weeks from receipt of your dimensions. Shipping coast to coast is $60-65 for 4 tempered glass portlights typical size (twice as heavy as acrylic), bubble wrapped in a plywood box.

My current plastic portlights are solid in the frame and are not leaking between the acrylic and frame, there is no gasket between the frame and acrylic. The exterior frame is just showing slight signs of small cracks. It may also be a little yellow, but that may also be due to Gorilla Tape residue. I doubt any maintenance (wax, Armorall, etc.) has ever been done to the exterior frames. Mark says that the vinyl available now is much more resistant to UV degradation and discoloring due to all the research in the vinyl siding world. He also said the frames were designed to be bedded with a caulk not the weather stripping I found under mine. He likes Dow 795 for bedding, but I am going to use butyl tape.

I never felt my white portlight frames stood out by not matching my cast aluminum opening ports and hatches but Mark said the white frames can be painted. A number of Cal 40 restorations have used his portlights and painted them silver to match the other ports. Painting will protect the plastic from degradation, but how long will the paint hold up? I'm certain cleaning and treating the plastic frames with Armorall or another preservative on a regular basis will keep them like new.

I'm leaning toward these in tempered glass over the more expensive aluminum Bomons. I like that the plastic won't corrode vs aluminum and that the acrylic is solid in the frame. I need to find out how the acrylic is sealed in the frame, but I like that there is no rubber gasket to degrade. I think the exterior will hold up as well as aluminum with proper care.

For a smaller Ericson or anyone on a budget, that needs to replace the portlights due to frame damage these may be the least expensive option.

Mark

An Example

I just realized that the clean E38 for sale in MDR in this link:

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?13903-For-sail-in-MdR

is sporting white Mark Plastic portlights in combination with stainless New Found Metal opening ports. I only noticed from an interior picture of the trim ring, not from any of the exterior pictures.
The white portlight frames just blend into the white cabin sides.

Mark

markvone said:

I just realized that the clean E38 for sale in MDR in this link:

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?13903-For-sail-in-MdR

with these supporting pictures:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/137561790@N07/page1

is sporting white Mark Plastic portlights in combination with stainless New Found Metal opening ports. I only noticed from an interior picture of the trim ring, not from any of the exterior pictures.
The white portlight frames just blend into the white cabin sides.

Mark

Click to expand...

Here is a link I found=
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/boa/5536744811.html

Very Nice looking boat.

Loren