I couldn't be happier with how all the windows turned out! We now have a mostly sealed up boat for the first time in a very long time!
The Paxson Family Blog
The windows that were in the boat when we purchased her, were simple Plexiglas panels bolted in and sealed, or were sealed at one point because they leaked a lot! We knew replacing these leaky crazed windows was definitely going to happen and since we were painting the boat it was a perfect time to pull them off and fill the holes. Removing the windows was fairly easy. Removing the silicone from the boat was another story!! Armed with my trusty razor blade I went to town scraping away until i finally reached a point where the sander would not gum up. To fill the bolt holes we re drilled them to an exact size then hole by hole I took small doweling, dipped the tip into a microballoon & resin mix and slipped them through just enough to be flush on the back side, then with a Rigid multi-tool, cut the remaining doweling down so it was flush on the working side. After the resin set, we could sand it down and just had to wait until the painting was complete. In January, here is Seattle we have a huge boat show. This last year I walked around and looked at every boat trying to find the porthole and portlights of my dreams!! Then I found them! The most beautiful portlights ever and the guy selling the boat had no idea what kind they were! But my incredible husband had an idea of what they were, and we were able to locate a rep for ManShip a few weeks later!! Of course these were not the cheap option but I knew this boat needed something a bit special on her! Every girl needs a little bling when she goes out right?! After figuring what company we were going with, we were able to see the standard sizes they had available and saw that we needed to modify some of our openings to fit the new portlights and hatch. Here are our final approval sheets. After these were submitted we just had to wait, like kids anticipating Christmas morning! When they came they were even better than I had hoped! Now for the installation. Being as the windows we choose were a different style than the previous, we needed to increase the thickness of the side where they would go. The side of the house is 1/4" and we needed to add 1/2" to get the required thickness. Jeff cut plywood rings, I did a quick coat of resin on them, then we used the microballoon epoxy to fix them to the house. We put a piece of plywood on each side screwed together to hold the rings in place until they had set. Once the resin was set, we were able to do a quick dry fit to see how they would look! Once the fit and placement looked good and we painted the interior we were ready for final install! To install the portlights we took Butyl to fill all the gaps and create a flexible watertight seal. Once all the gaps were sealed we also lined all the bezels with a ribbon of Butyl, pressed the two pieces in place and screwed all the bolts in place. Now onto the fixed windows! For the fixed windows we went with Bounty Marine. John Gothie fabricated these stunning windows with the color matching almost dead on! The prep for these windows was mostly the same however we did not need to create the wood rings as the window are engineered a little differently. Also instead of the Butyl with these windows we use an adhesive foam tape sent with the windows from Bounty.
I couldn't be happier with how all the windows turned out! We now have a mostly sealed up boat for the first time in a very long time!
8 Comments
2/1/2017 10:11:07 pm
Anya,
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Anya
2/2/2017 12:59:00 pm
Thank you very much!!
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Don Chase
2/2/2017 11:30:35 am
They're beautiful, looks worth the work. Congrats.
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Anya
2/2/2017 12:59:33 pm
Thank you Don! She's coming along!!
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Sharon Exly
2/2/2017 11:41:56 am
Wow!! You made it look easy but I know this was a TON of work!! Beautiful portlights, beautiful bling!!
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Anya
2/2/2017 01:00:25 pm
Thank you Sharon!! Can't wait to see it shining in the sun!!
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Gail Kortum
2/2/2017 12:09:11 pm
The windows are beautiful, money well spent and the shine on your ship is almost blinding. Very impressive.
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Anya
2/2/2017 01:01:34 pm
Thank you!! She is really a beautiful boat and we are so happy that we get to bring her back to all her glory!!
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August 2015
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