When the portlight openings were finished I eagerly carried out a test installation of the portlights themselves.
Santa left four Vetus PQ51 portlights under the tree at Christmas, and now it was time to fit them!
Each portlight consists of two parts - an inner flange with a hinged opening 'light, and an outer flange. The two are fastened together by six 4mm machine screws which pass through the hull and secure the assembly.
I quickly found that it is impossible to fit all six screws at once.
Also that 4mm screw holes make the fit too tight.
Accordingly I drilled all the holes out to 4.5mm, which adds a little 'wriggle room' for the screws.
With some experimentation I found that the best approach was to fit the outside flange first with just two screws, held in place with some tape so that the interior part could be installed and held firmly in place with two washers and nuts.
Like this.
Then the other four screws could be inserted and fixed in place with tape, like this.
They too then had their nuts and washers fitted, and the portlight was installed!
Here are the portlights on the port side.
And here they are on starboard.
They have only been fitted with plain steel fastenings at this stage. I will have to purchase stainless steel fastenings for the final installation.
Looking really good!
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