This is how I dug myself into a hole.
One by one, all of my small ports in the V-berth and head (except the one I already rebedded), were developing small leaks. They were small, annoying but managable.
But the straw that broke the camel's back was when two of the fixed ports in the main salon started to leak rather badly too. So back in September of 2020 I decided it was time to redo
all the ports.
For a long time, I've had my eye on some opening SS ports from Newfound Metals for the four small ports. I had some cash in the boat fund, so I sprang for them. This would require some modification of the openings in the cabinhouse walls, but it looked fairly straightfowward using a palm router and a template. How much extra work could it be?
And while I would have all eight of the ports out, it really seemed like the right time to learn how to do 2-part linear polyurethane paint and redo the badly oxidized and worn bandit stripe. After all, how much extra work could it be?
Turns out that the cabinhouse walls are too thin to mount the NFM ports without using their teak spacers, but the teak spacers are too wide to clear the ceiling without some modification. Oh well, I'd already have a palm router, but I'd need to get a bandsaw and a disk sander too. Can't argue about getting new tools!
And I ordered the reseal kit from Catalina to re-gasket the fixed ports in the salon. So I was all set!
But by this time, it was already October, and it was becoming apparent to even my self-delusional thinking that this was shaping up into a project that would take some time, more time than I had good weather left. Especially with eight unprotected openings in the boat.
"No problem", I thought, "I'll just build a PVC pipe frame over the boat, and shrink wrap it, so I can work on it at my leisure regardless of the weather." The yard wanted over $800 to wrap the boat while it is still in the water
, so I thought "I can buy the shrink wrap and do it myself!"
The saga of the shrink wrapping is a whole 'nother story in itself, but suffice it to say that, by the end of November, I had an ugly but functional blue "tent" shrunk over the boat without either falling in the water (barely), or setting the boat on fire. I had chosen the blue film instead of the more usual white because it it is warmer. This worked, but the blue light had the unfortunate side effect of making photography nearly impossible inside, so i wouldn't be able to photo-document the process.
And the tent worked! I was able to keep things up to 50 degrees inside with only a small electric heater. As long as the sun was up.
And, predictably, everything took much longer and bacame much more complicated than expected, so that progress seemed to go at a snail's pace. "At least I've got all winter", I thought.
Well, winter came and went, and I'm still not done. The plan was to be done by the end of April, so I could haul out, de-winterize, and botom paint for the new season, but I've missed that deadline horribly. I'm just hoping I don't lose the whole season!
At this point, I have all the openings reshaped, shimmed and epoxy filled, the stripe sanded, primied, and painted (Its a "five foot" job), the teak spacers recut, reshaped, and varnished, and the four NFM ports all spacered, bedded and installed using "bed-it" butyl tape.
The only thing left to do is the big fixed ports in the main salon. They were a massive pain to get out, a massive pain to disassemble, and a massive pain to clean all the old silicone caulk off. But its done. I've gotten the frames back from the powder coater and they look great. "Almost done!" I thought.
Shouldn't have said that.
Which brings me to my present problem. I've got two of the port's gaskets cut, and have tried to dry fit them, and have a problem. The gaskets go in
very tight, and one of the corners of the frame halves is digging into the gasket and stretching it instead of allowing it to slide into the frame. I'm stumped as to how to proceed. I welcome all suggetions!
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