Portlights still leaking...

port lights

Those Tartan ones sure look identical to the ones I put in a Valiant 32 last summer. They are made by New Found Metals. I think they are in Port Townsend Wa. I learned a few tricks about the installation. Hodo

trying again...

So we went down today and did some upkeep to the latches (as per the article that Loren sent, Thanks Again!), then did some experimentation as to exactly where the water was coming from. Turns out to appear to be the little black expansion gaskets on the to sides. So we got everything dried out and cleaned up and put a thin coat of silicone over some to see how this helps. I'll let you know how it worked next week... Racing in Naptown this weekend.
Chris

Bowmar/Pompanette agreed to replace mine for 1/2 price since the OEM models don't have replaceable lenses. That tells you something about the markup.

Port Size

Geoff - do you happen to know the port size? I sent an email to Bomar asking about screens and they said they had screens for the ports but needed to know the size. I'm not going to be up at my boat for a couple of weeks and wondered if you had the size since you are working with them. thanks for your help!!!

Frank,

The model number is N3410 (it appears to be the smallest size) and my contact, who has been very responsive, is Hope Colburn (hope_colburn@pompanette.com). Make sure the new screeens fit the OEM portlights. I was informed that I could not simply swap out the opening portion because the hinge design had changed.

Seems to have worked...

Just a quick update for anyone watching the progress on this trying to find similar leaks-
The thin coat of clear silicone seems to have solved the issue on all but one of the ports. Thanks to those who suggested to look at those two expansion gaskets. The clear silicone helps to keep the "ugly" factor down, you'd have to look pretty hard to even notice it's there.
Again, thanks to all of everyone's ideas and help in this!
Chris

Chris,

I looked at the hardcopy of the email I got from Lewmar a while back (Ray Abbott (Spares and Aftersales Coordinator; +44-23 92471841.

He suggested for the black seam gasket 'scrape out as much as you can and refill with a good silicone-based mastic.' This was supposed to fix over 80% of the problems. If I ever get to it I was thinking of pulling out the gaskets, etching the aluminum frames around the old location and then working in an adhesive/sealant (4000UV?) from the outside and creating basically a new gasket. Your results and my tape test are quite encouraging.

Thanks for the report.

Another success report - my E27 lights were leaking water like a seive when I got her. I used the E27/29 Window doc from the Specs & Documents section as a guide. After careful cleaning, I:
- put butyl rubber closed-foam (black) weather stripping tape around the outside seam
- caulked butyl rubber caulk (aka flashing & gutter caulk) around the inner gasket that contacts the glass on both sides of the window.
- slathered some caulk into the joint of the frame.
- methodically tightened the frame screws so as not to over-tighten on one end or the other. This required a follow-up after the weatherstrip tape conformed to the joint.

Now, after about 3 weeks, I am happy to report NO MORE LEAKS from the windows!

Now the only leaks into the cabin are from the mast, cockpit drains, and the V-berth ceiling vent!

I bought all materials from Home Depot. The flashing & gutter caulk is from DAP in the caulk section, and the weather strip is near the garage doors & mailboxes in a purple label. Sorry, I forget the brand but you can't miss the purple package.