Archives for May 2010
Sailboat windows and hatches
20 May 2010 | Sailing | 2 Responses
Recent hard rains have proven that the big leaks are now gone. I haven’t been able to find small leaks either but I’m still rebedding the remaining deck hardware, ports, windows and other possible sources for future leaks. In the last few days I’ve rebedded a few more lifeline stanchions and have rebuilt/sealed the small windows or portlights in the forward cabin of the Pearson 28.
Fortunately the small window uses the same seals that the larger cabin windows do and due to it’s small size cleaning and resealing it was easy after doing the larger windows. The small, opening portlight was made by Bomar and I was able to find the proper seal for it too. Beyond installing new seals, screens and fasteners it’s a lot of fun to polish up the soft alumimum frames of these portlights. I’m not expecting the shine to last too long so have taken a few photos to remind me of how good they can look. Maybe these photos will motivate me to polish the aluminum again sometime in the future.
Pearson Fore Hatch Restoration
17 May 2010 | Sailing | No Responses
Another small victory has been won towards the restoration of my Pearson 28-1 in the form of a clean, functional and shiny forward hatch.
The forward hatches on many Pearson sailboats are layed up without gelcoat on the top and bottom surfaces to allow some light to pass into the boats cabin. Since the polyester resin that is used to lay up the hatch isn’t UV resistant the polyester erodes leaving a dried out looking hatch with fiberglass strands exposed. I considered cutting this section out for replacement with a sheet Lexan but I decided I didn’t want to spend the extra time on this just to have a scratched up forward hatch after a few months of use. I may still make this change in the future but for now I have kept the hatch in it’s stock setup.
Restoration of the hatch included replacing most of the hardware, fixing the most of the fasteners which were stripped and loose, and adding a coat of polyester to the top and bottom of the hatch. The results look great and now that it is warming up I’m glad to be able to open up the forward hatch to catch the breeze. I still need to add a screen to the hatch, and I may need to beef up the seal in the future but for now the hatch is done.
Pearson 28-1 window resealing and cleanup
1 May 2010 | Sailing | 2 Responses
My recent boat work has been focused on repairing deck leaks since it will be easier to do the interior and hull work that is needed if the interior of the boat stays dry when it rains. For the last month I’ve been away from the boatyard but I wanted to share a little about the recent window resealing project before I get back to Bock to start on new projects.
The cabin windows on my Pearson 28-1 were the largest remaining source of top-side leaks and they were looking dull with their oxidized aluminum frames and crumbled seals.
Finding the proper seals for the windows was a challenge since I wasn’t able to find the seals that go in between the glass and frame at any local sources. Fortunately other Peason 28 owners on the Yahoo hosted P28 Forum pointed me in the right direction and I ended up finding the proper glass-to-frame and frame-to-cabin seals at GordonGlassUsa.com.
The parts and prices for the seals that I ordered are:
| D752C | CRL Glazing Vinyl; 11/32″ Channel Depth 9/32″ Metal Opening for 3/16″ Glass – 100 ft Roll | $40.58 | |||
| 98814X12BL | CRL 1/4″ x 1/2″ Black Double Sided Glazing Tape | $21.52 |
This provides you with extra but I couldn’t find a way to order smaller quantities. If you are planning to take this project on you may also want to order some grey butyl putty for sealing the frame seams as you reassemble the frames. These seals are also common to a number of boats out there. I know that other Pearsons used the same frames on some boats and I think other manufacturers like Catalina did to some extent as well.
Removing the windows is pretty straightforward as was disassembly and cleanup of the frames. It did take a lot of scraping and acetone to get the old adhesive residue off of the frames but that was the worst of it.
In order to clean the exterior surface of the frames up and to polish them I started by wet-sanding with 360 grit sandpaper. A small block helped get into the few contours of the frame. After the 360 I wet-sanded again with 1500 grit though this didn’t require as much sanding time. After the 1500 grit I went over the frames with aluminum polish and was really pleased with the final appearance of the aluminum. The visual difference made by cleanup and polish on these 35+ year old frames was huge. I’m sure different grits and approaches will work, but I found that something more aggressive than polish, or even 1500 grit was needed if I was going to get the frames cleaned up in a reasonable amount of time.
After all of the prep and cleanup all that was left was reassembly and installation. I thought a bit of Windex and a little elbow grease would pop the window assemblies back together easily. After more than an hour on the first attempt at reassembly I had to step away for a little while. I eventually got the hang of reassembling the windows and the second window went together in a few minutes. I’m not sure what I started doing differently and can’t share any assembly secrets here beyond use lots of Windex and don’t hesitate to take a break if you start getting frustrated with it.
When reinstalling the windows in the boat it helped to spray both the cabin surface and foam seal on the underside of the window frame with Windex for positioning. The foam seal that goes in between the windows and the cabin is adhesive on both sides so initial positioning of the window would damage the seals without plenty of Windex. Another helpful tip is to use an electric screwdriver for all of the little screws. I used my drill and set the clutch to a low or weak setting to reduce the chance of stripping the screws. I started them all by hand but finished things up with the drill.
