Port Lights and freezing spray.

[Fishzine]

So Question I don't really think has a good answer, but figured maybe someone has an idea I haven't thought of. Also not sure which forum this would best fit so went with General sailing

This is my first year keeping boat in the water over the winter months (Northern Chesapeake Bay), and with the recent cold/wind spell we had here on the north east US coast I have a interesting problem I don't have a solution to.

When I went down to check on the boat I found two of my opening port lights had developed a pretty serious leak. Looking at them it was pretty clean what happened. The wind kicked up freezing spray onto the one side of the boat (50 mph winds with temps near 0F and the windward side of boat had lots of frozen spray. The sprays then froze on the boat, docklines, everything. Well the water frozed at the port light seal and as it froze expanded and opened up a gap in the seal (about 1/8th of an inch) Which caused a leak. Portlights and seals were fine before and I believe it was simply the ice freezing that opened up the gap. Rare event I hope, but still it made a mess and soaked some cushions.

Short of a Winter cover not sure what I can do to keep this from happening in the future? I did clean up the ice while I was there and lubed up the seals, but don't really think that would keep it from happening again as the ports didn't leak before. Any cold weather sailors have any tricks? Or is this just a sign my seals are pretty much done and a leak in normal conditions will soon be coming.

[Orion Jim]

Care to provide the name of the opening ports? Are they some form of plastic, bronze, or stainless? When my ports are dogged down properly no amount of ice opens them. Perhaps your gaskets have perished and the ice exacerbated an existing problem? Just speculating here.

[wrwakefield]

I agree with Orion Jim re: ports. I have not seen any weak enough to do what you are hypothesizing.

Since you mentioned some interior items were soaked, I assume that was liquid water and you have some heat on the boat? If this is the case, then the wind, temperature, and ice you described that formed on one side of the vessel likely caused the interior of the ports and hull- at least on that side- to drop below the dew point; causing moisture to condense out of the heated air.

This is not uncommon when we have heavy freezing spray conditions here in the NNE Pacific [Alaska...] Even well insulated hulls can succomb to temperature penetration from high winds and cold temperatures, creating a veritable rain forest in the heated portions of the boat...

In case that may at least partly apply in your case.

Best wishes sorting it out.

Cheers! Bill

[Fishzine]

They are Lewmar, the New Standard Portlights as identified on this page.

https://www.lewmar.com/node/14691

So we are not talking dogs or bronze, They are plastic handles to close them, also no frame around the acrylic.... Not exactly built to stop anything, but not exactly cheap crap(well they are compared to some for sure)... It was the acrylic that the ice pushed open in the corner away from the handle. I should have taken pictures, but it was the ice that pushed it open. The good news is everything flexed and nothing on the ports bent or broke.

It was extreme conditions for sure, I measured 50mph winds on the boat, and temp was 3 degrees F. Wind had maybe 1/3 mile fetch with the direction it was blowing and three foot waves were rolling broadside to the boat which had salt spray over deck of boat that has a good amount of freeboard. My shorepower cable had about a 25 lbs ball ice to the point to dropped and was in the water.

But short of spending thousands to replace them, any ideas? And honestly ice can break some pretty strong stuff in this exact scenerio were it gets a sliver of a crack and starts freezing. Really feel pretty luck worse I got from it was a little bit of chafe on a dock line and some wet interior.

[pnw2022]

Do you think that just replacing the seals and snugging up the latches a tiny bit might help?

In order for the water to freeze and expand, it must have been able to get in there a little bit? And once even a tiny part started freezing and opening up along the seal, probably more and more got in? Especially if there were daily freeze/thaw cycles - those are the worst!

You might even be able to find a gasket/seal at McMaster-Carr or similar has a little bevel on one side that could help steer the water to drain outwards and away.