coaming box 38-200

I am looking for any information on replacing the coaming box on my 38-200. Not sure if this was standard on these models however mine is cracked and falling apart. I have removed it and am looking for a replacment with similar size.
jim

Coaming Box

Mine was cracked too and repaired badly. The old box was made of some material that got brittle with age and wasn't even compatible with fiberglass in the first place. I suspect it was made of a nylon like plastic.

Anyway, I bought a coaming box on EBay from GreatLakesSkipper?? Anyway it's an SSI plastic box that's just enough larger that it covers the old hole. From my point of view it's better than the original since it's made from ABS and it has it's own rim so I don't have to varnish the wood rim.

I don't have pictures right now but maybe the next time I go to the boat.

The one I bought is like this one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SSI-...fPartsQ5fAccessoriesQ5fGearQQsalenotsupported

SSI plastics has a few that look like they would work well. I have also seen some that have a complete door with a lock.

http://www.ssicustomplastics.com

Gee, those are nice. My '69 32 just has a hole cut into the coaming board, and the inside of the "box" has a plywood base. It wasn't designed to pitch inboard, and there's no drain, so rainwater would accumulate in there and slosh around for weeks or months until the boat heeled during sailing. Then, just as the sailing started to get interesting, the unfortunate schlameel sitting on that side of the cockpit would get a lapful of cold, green water.

[Or should that be schlamazel? One is supposed to be a person who spills something on somebody, the other is the person who gets the stuff spilled on them. Not sure which is which.]

Eventually the plywood bases delaminated, so after I rebuilt them with epoxy twice I wised up and made inverted L-shaped coaming box covers out of Starboard that rest on the top of the coaming board. Now the boxes are bone-dry but I have to store the covers while underway.

One spring my neighbor had a mallard lay eggs in his Catalina 26's coaming box. (He was kind enough to rearrange his sailing so that the ducklings did hatch.) With the Starboard covers, I never had that problem.

One of the two coaming boxes on my E38 is pretty beat up too. A PO replaced the wood trim with starboard trim on mine but the boxes still leak. I am not a fan of replacing plastic with another plastic product like the SSI that will require more holes to be drilled and then it too will succumb to UV like the last one.

I have been planning to removed the one good box and make a plug from it. That way I can lay up new boxes of the same dimensions with epoxy and cloth. Much stronger, OEM look, etc. Now I have to find the time.

RT

Thanks for all the information, i also considered making one out of fiberglass however time is always a factor so i just ordered 1 from SSI. hopefully it can be made to fit.
jim