Enigma with her tea tray window
Enigma with her tea tray window
Tea
trays from Ikea in fact. £1 each and made of sturdy thick plastic. Useful
for carrying drinks, eating dinner whilst watching the TV and of course as replacement
boat windows. So how exactly did a man of my impeccable standing come to spend
two months sailing around with a plastic tea tray stuck to the side of my boat.
When we get to a certain age things start to wither and crack, it happens to
us all, and it happens to our boats too. Anyone who has a boat of any kind thats
older than about ten years will have something that leaks somewhere. My little
problem was my portlight window and so I decided it was time to fit a new one,
but the first problem was to find out where to get a new one.
After a few days fruitless ringing around the most obvious contacts, I discovered
that no one could, with any certainty, tell me the exact part number of the
window fitted by the factory when the boat was built ten years ago. The closest
I could get was to identify it as a Bowman ‘Gray series’ portlight,
commonly used across the range of American built Legend yachts, but difficult
to obtain in this country through the usual outlets. So after carefully measuring
every possible dimension, a great deal of soul searching and as much helpful
advice as I could muster, I decided to risk fitting a Vetus portlight that looked
like a perfect match. I got my new window down to the boat and began the task
of removing the old window. It came out with surprising ease, and without the
need for the usual torrent of foul language I normally resort to when undertaking
these kinds of tasks. Sadly my virtuous serenity did not last for long. The
external dimensions of my Legends window matched the Vetus and Lewmar ranges
so closely I assumed the ‘cut out’ dimensions would follow the same
theme. Across the pond ‘assume’ means to make an ‘ass of you
and me’, and with the window now removed I could see the gaping hole in
my boat was pitifully small compared to the vetus portlight I was now waving
at it. So, one thirty percent re stocking charge for the Vetus portlight paid,
and I was vigorously chasing and begging my way along the ever increasing chain
of “well you could try this number, they might be able to help”
which finally ended at C-Quip in Swanwick who are sole importers of Bowman hatches
and portlights in the UK. They do not deal direct, and only normally sell to
trade, but I must have sounded desperate enough for the lovely lady to accept
my order, as long I was only buying one. Of course the model I wanted was not
in stock, and I was advised that it would be a eight week wait for a new one,
so I placed the order, glued the Ikea plastic tea tray over the hole, and then
drove back home feeling like a badly gybed spinnaker.
Once
the surface is cleaned you can add the sealant. Do not scrimp on product here,
I have made that mistake before and had to re fit, so my rule now is to add
more than I think I need, then double it and I might have enough.
I
had to replace two windows, the first one was guess work and comes under the
heading 'voyage of discovery' but the second one, when I knew exactly how to
do it took an hour and a half from start to finish. The window was £180
the sealant was £10 and it took me a morning to fit two. A boatyard would
have charged at least two and a half times that (because I did get Quotes) and
the difference when doing it yourself is that you know how it was done, and
if your workmanship fails you can get on and fix it. 
