Day 352 Hatches
The weather has been really taking it's toll on us lately. We work outside all week in -15º to ( one day this week ) -36º for highs, and by the time the weekend comes just want to stay in for a day where it's warm. I did manage to do some prep grinding on the last set of portlights to be painted as they had slight flaws. Then my fingers froze.  
Gena has been chopping up rubber gasket for fitting into the coated hatches to seal to the glass.

First the gasket must be glued into place. On the first one she used eave trough sealant, which is similar to "Goop" but not exactly. ( I show why below)

Once the glue dries, the holes can be drilled out without the gasket moving around. With a good self piloting drill bit it's easy to drill rubber.

 
 
After the rubber was drilled, the glass was drilled to match.
The kitchen floor seems to have survived the ordeal! No holes! (I checked)
For the glue to seat properly, the glass was put in and weighted down until dry. After a few hours Gena got tired of standing on it and found something else fairly heavy to put on it instead. (ha ha!)
A bit more testing on the eave trough sealant may have been a good idea, as it didn't seem to dry rigid enough and allowed the gasket to move.
Of course we didn't notice this until the glass was in place and the gasket started moving toward the center!

On top of the rubber we used butyl tape, and it never dries. Gena decided to clamp it (left) to hold it in place while everything set into position. It seems to have worked but we'll need to keep an eye on it for a while I think.
 Goop was used on the others and it sticks very well to the hippo coat and the rubber.
The forward hatch was by far the most difficult to cut the glass for. It took Gena well over 2 hours just to get the front curve in smoothly. ( She was probably cursing me the whole time hehe!)

We are presently experimenting with different types of gasket for the inner seal, and their availability. Until then, we may just use some standard gasket to keep the heat in the boat!

   Heavy blue-stuff containers hold in place -100lbs

  

 

Day 352:
12 hours total-gasketed and fit "glass" into larger 3 hatches


To DAY 351		 Are Paul and Sheryl Shard
                   

Moving to a new boat?
To DAY 353+