[C38] Leaking windows, Steve has the solution

[Steven Ribble]

Steve mentioned new style replacement windows. I'm away from the boat for
winter, but I'm pretty sure mine has a flexible plastic outer frame (they
are white and I guess they could be podwercoated or painted)...are these
the new style?

When I bought the boat the PO said the windows had been replaced and that
"these" could be removed and rebeded if needed...sure enough they ave
needed it for a few seasons and it is the #1 item on the spring to do list.
For those that have been through it before, I have heard that the biggest
challenge is keeping the glass in one piece; usually they break
(apparently). Is this true form [your] experience?

Steve R
Tittravate


On Sunday, December 30, 2012, les wrote:

> Hi, Steve,
>         While that no doubt works, the frame and the fiberglass do expand
> at
> different rates, so the seal is not permanent.  And as Don pointed out,
> even pulling things apart and sealing will not provide a long term fix.
> On Jace, we ordered new seals from Catalina Direct, and replaced the old
> seals as described in their documents.  One thing that I did that was
> not mentioned was using lemon juice (actually acetic acid) to clean the
> aluminum channel before installing the new seal with silicone, using the
> silicon they suggested.  The frames were sealed to the hull using caulk,
> which is flexible and seals better.  This was done quite a while ago,
> and from what I can tell of the blog, the folks cruising Knee Deep are
> not having any problems.  That is about 8 years since I did the work.
>
> It is paramount to clean every trace of the old seals, caulk, silicon or
> whatever off the interfaces to get a good seal.  It took the two of us
> about 5 days to do the whole job working a window or two at a time.  But
> I did not have to do it again.
>
> Another leak is the stantion bases.  I hired someone to help with that
> task (places I cannot fold my bulk into) but we removed all the
> stantion's, the pushpit, the pulpit, then cleaned and rebedded each one.
> I replaced all the screws and nuts at the same time.  Each screw is now
> double nutted to prevent backing off.  I am not sure if they all were or
> not when we took them off, but I think they were.  We used caulk on
> these, too.  Caulk is better than silicon for a water proof seal on
> dissimilar materials.
>
> Regards,
> Les H
>
> On Sun, 2012-12-30 at 07:26 -0800, Donald Strong wrote:
> > Steve:
> >     For years we had a full boat cover on Discrete Charm and did not
> > have to face the music of a 30-odd year-old boat in winter rains. Two
> > years ago we switched to cover just the cockpit, and all of the
> > windows held forth with big leaks.
> >     After reading and messing around, I found that the leaks come in
> > between the aluminum frame and the window as well as between the
> > aluminum frame and the fiberglass of the house. On the outside, remove
> > the old silicone with a probe (frame-window) and a razor blade
> > (frame-fiber glass), tape, and apply new silicone. You don't even have
> > to remove the inside frames. While San Francisco is not nearly as
> > rainy as Seattle, this year has been very wet. NO LEAKS YET!
> >     The mast, of course, leaks onto the depression on the floor and
> > into the bilge. A tiny Rule bilge pump empties the bilge into the sink
> > and out the sink through hull. The other two large bilge pumps would
> > come on automatically if the little guy failed.
> > Regards, Don
> >
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Steve Ribble
207/852-0971
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