Portlight Project

Just in case you were thinking that your pals the Ceol Mors were taking forever to do an easy task, such as a simple rebedding of the portlights let me throw some illumination down. I think you'll have a better understanding of why    its taking so gosh darned long.

 Mark, being the most meticulous of boat owners- is always careful to do every job to the best of his ability with an eye towards improving the boat and always keeping in mind the effects of water ingress on the boat. Sadly, the previous owners were not quite so forward thinking. Their slapdash, haphazard rebedding of the portlights in the quickest and easiest fashion means that all of the degradation that has occured must be repaired before we can move forward.

Mark gave me a very detailed, step by step tutorial on how he is effecting the portlight repair. It was very methodical and precise and unfortunately I think I fell asleep about 15 minutes into the lesson. So here's a brief run down of what's going on aboard Ceol Mor right now. I'll probably forget something crucial, but that's what the edit button is for-revising the post after Mark corrects me!.
1. Remove portlight
2. Spend a few hours removing rotten core and any saturated core with the much loved Dremel. (seriously, I think our Dremel count at this point in time is 3)
3. Seal up the opening and wait for it to dry out completely.
4. Cut marine grade ply into shape

5. Install ply wtih West System epoxy ( we should have bought West System stock)

 6. Cast fresh epoxy to portlight spigot

7. Grind out excess epoxy with the Dremel

8.Bore out exterior mounting holes to 3/8 and fill with epoxy.

9. Remove 45 degree chamfer from exterior lip

10. Sand

11. Paint.

 See? Easy peasy, quick and breezy.

                                                                       
Ok, so I totally lied about that quick and easy bit .

Fortunately, the weather is nice so Maura is usually off playing with her pals while the work goes on. Kitty is happy to play in the cockpit while keeping an eye on the progress. I'm just happy that while its slow going, it is moving forward and the finished portlights do indeed, look spectacular. More importantly, they keep the water outside which is Fan. Tastic.