so last night mary had done a great job asking me about “why i loved Catalina” questions. pretty much the only thing i could come up with that i did not love about Catalina was the leaking windows. they are not actually made by Catalina but on the 440 they are quite large and seem to not always been manufactured optimally. on palapa the forward port and aft port window still leak. both forward ones have been replace 1 or more times so it seems a bit of a crap shoot. in any case this came up last night so today and i was poking at the forward port window and it popped out! or at least part of it did. this elevated the problem to a much higher state as i pushed a little more and it easly came all the way out.
somehow i managed to get sietes involved in this project, i think by asking his “opinion”. long story short, the window is in and leaking much less almost not at all. note that i decided to drill two holes in the lexsan to pull it into the frame as it is not the same shape as the frame and last time i tried this it puled away from the outside. i am thinking the bolts, in spite of the 5200, will leak but at least i can fill them in at some point. also this will give me an easier option when i need to redo this job. my hope is i will not have to redo it as 5200 seems to adhere to everything. sikaflex, which they sell in europe, does not seem to adhere to aluminum or lexan!
after this we had grilled oysters wtth garlic butter, but thats a separate blog!
cheers – Roger
Dear lord. Aimee turned you loose on deck with a gun full of 5200? Did you touch up that paper towel roll holder in the companionway while you had it open? I’m guessing the blue tape was Sietes suggestion.