Lewmar Port Seals

[JusDreaming]

When it rains really hard our port lights leak. It is pretty obvious that the seals are worn out. I looked at the Lewmar site and they want 33.00 for the gasket kit, which seems extremely high!!!!!!!
Anybody use another way to make seals? Or have a cheaper source for these seals?

[Chief Engineer]

Doesn't seem high to me......How long did the old ones last?

[Jim Cate]

G'Day JD,

We too have Lewmar ports,and they sometimes leak in heavy rain. Spoke to a hatch repair pro about it, thinking that we would also replace the gaskets. His reply was, first, it is VERY hard to get the new gaskets installed in situ. They have a sorta arrowhead shaped flange which you have to thread through a slot all the way around the frame, and it is bloody hard to do... often tearing the gasket in the process. HE suggested first that they were probably not that badly degraded, and that the first thing was to carefully clean their surface with meths or similar solvent. Second, coat them very lightly with silicone grease. This process certainly helped ours... He also said that another leak source was the two rubber inserts between the upper and lower halves of the frames. The outer portions of these are exposed to sunlight and can degrade. He suggested that we carefully dig out such degraded material and replace it with Sika or such sealant. We've not tried this yet on the one port that still sometimes leaks.

Good luck with your project, and please post your experiences when done. There are lots of fellow Lewmar users out here!

Cheers,

Jim and Ann s/v Insatiable II lying Salamander Bay, NSW, Oz northbound at last

[JusDreaming]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Doesn't seem high to me......How long did the old ones last?

well your right Chief, but I guess it is relative!!! I guess 15 years equals a dollar per year, as I found them locally for 15.
And Jim, my guy said the same thing, he said the first one may take a day, but the second would only take a couple of hours He said his guys use a spoon to push it into the groove. But I will let you know how it goes. By the way mine are definitely worn out and some are not even in the groove anymore , and have major deterioration

[colemj]

In chandleries in the French Caribbean islands, I saw large spools of gasket materials for Lewmar and Goiot hatches being sold inexpensively by the meter. So it must be commercially available. Have you tried McMaster-Carr?

Mark