Portlights | Installation

When I installed the portlights the first time round I used white sealant and immediately realised that it clashed with the stainless steel surrounds, so this time I used clear sealant.

The first task was a test installation of all four portlights to make sure that everything still fitted and that I was comfortable with how to do it.

The outer flange of each portlight had to be held firmly in place against the hull with its screws fitted, so that the nuts could be applied from the inside.

Here is an outer flange taped to the topside, holding the screws in place.

And here is a view of the machine screws from inside the cabin.

The acorn nuts can now be fitted and tightened, as here.

Finally the tape is removed and installation is complete, like this.

That was quite straightforward, so now to try it with lots of slippery sealant all over the place!

It actually went very well, with little or no drama. Here are the portlights installed on the port side.

This is the rear portlight.

You can see I even made sure that the screw heads were aligned fore and aft!

The clear sealant seemed to cure more quickly than the white, and it had started to harden around the joint between the inner and outer flanges before I could clean it up. It also cured lumpy and unsightly.

Clearly those joints would need to be resealed, so I obtained some sealant remover. This is it.

This is the port rear portlight, suitably anointed with remover to clean out the joint.

That worked very well, and I was able to remove all the softened sealant from inside the joint with a sharp sliver of wood.

This is the joint between the inner and outer flanges after cleaning.

Finally I applied a new bead of sealant around all the portlight joints, shaping them with a wetted finger and cleaning up with methylated spirits.

This is the port rear portlight, fully sealed.

That looks OK! Onwards and upwards …