Custom made portholes

[landonshaw]

I need to have 8 portholes made, there seems to be no standards available. The size is approximately 6 X 31. I am looking to have them flush mounted. The glass from the old ones are good, although I understand I will probably need to buy the entire unit. Repairing the old is not an option.

Being in Grenada, I will go out to other countries for these to be made.


Please let me know if you have any suggestions or contacts.



Thank you,
Dave s/v Aloisius

[tkeithlu]

My recommendation is that you ship one glass panel and one traced outline of the hole to a custom porthole builder, probably in the US. A phone call might establish that tracings of both will do. Here's an example, with no recommendation attached:

https://boatwindows.biz/?gclid=CjwKC...BoCfjkQAvD_BwE

Your project has moved from caulking to replacement. Projects have a nasty way of doing that. I'm hoping for your finding a really good solution. Best wishes.

[landonshaw]

That is a great suggestion. A little expensive, but a great savings to get the correct size portholes. It also shifts the engineering to the mfg since they have all of the specs.


Thank you, now to find a company to custom make them.


s/v Aloisius

[coopec43]

Sunex 82 AS2. is apparently a standard for safety glass.


Have you thought of having the glass cut to size and gluing them to the hull instead of using aluminum frames? (I am told most production boats are built that way). Car windows are glued to the steel chassis these days.

[chowdan]

I would glue down new glass

[Mike OReilly]

When I was faced with this same dilemma I chose to pull all the old ports, fiberglass over all the holes, and then cut whole new portholes for sizes I could find.

Results were perfect. I ended up with top-notch opening ports that were much tougher and far better suited to some big water sailing.

[mvweebles]

Your best bet would be a custom window maker for Marine and RV. There are several, but it won't be cheap to do 8. You will need a template for each one.

I am in the process of having windows replaced on my trawler. I have a fixed lane and a sliding pane - see attached sketch - but you could do something similar just not as deep of a flange given yours are a single pane. For me, original were clamp style, similar to your aluminum ones where an inside bezel is screwed into outside frame to clamp the cabin side. The yard in Mexico I'm using fiberglassed a flange around the perimeter of the opening that recesses into the cabin. This creates a place where the glass can be glued in place, and a trim ring glued to the outside. With Mexican labor, about the same price as replacement windows - Mark Plastic in Corona CA can provide (he's old school - phone calls only).

An affordable albeit less strong option would be to keep your glass but replace frame with rubber welting. A company in California called Wefco makes rubber welting to mount windows. You may want to give them a call. I recently checked and their website was down. If your old glass is good, there's a outside chance you could reuse it with new welting instead of aluminum frame. There would be a loss of strength.

Peter

[chowdan]

I replaced my portholes last summer. I was fortunate that going one size up meant I had to cut holes, and not expand them.

Glassing over and putting in standardized sizes would be a good route to go as well

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

When I was faced with this same dilemma I chose to pull all the old ports, fiberglass over all the holes, and then cut whole new portholes for sizes I could find.

Results were perfect. I ended up with top-notch opening ports that were much tougher and far better suited to some big water sailing.