portlight delamination

[pjcomeau]

I got an unexpected surprise last night. While looking more closely at things, I removed the plastic covers of the Lewmar portlights to replace the Velcro. After removing one or two, I was taking a closer look to see if there was any water damage and noticed for the first time that almost have of the portlights have serious delamination around them (I don't know about leaks yet since the boat has been covered for the winter).

I'm not planning on doing anything right away if I don't have any leak problems. But When (or if) I need to remove/re-bed the portlights what are some suggestions to repair these? Just fill in the holes, I'm assuming I won't be able to compress them back together.

Is this a common problem? I did not find any mention when I did a search on the forum.

Thanks,

Pierre

[Stu Jackson]

Pierre, do a search on "Lewmar portlights" USING the quotation marks to get the complete phrase exact wording -- there are many discussions on this topic.  Since I don't have Lewmars I can't respond specifically, but do remember many good ideas having been presented.

[lazybone]

I think your looking at the boundary layer between the topside structure and the interior liner.   A few years back I drilled two four inch holes thru the cabin top for additional dorade boxes, both plugs literally fell in half.  There was no signs that water had contributed to the delamination.  I think the voids are a result of the methods used by the factory to marry the seperate components. 

[Stu Jackson]

Voids were covered in some detail here:  http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3601.0.html

[pjcomeau]

Stu,

The picture of the portlight in the mentioned post is exactly what I have. Aren't those "voids" a result of de-lamination (fiberglass separated from core)? For my own info, does this mean only use de-lamination if results from water damage?

Either way, thanks for pointing me to that discussion.

If I'm interpretting the long discussion right. If the portlight is not leaking, I don't have to do anything real soon (i.e. deck strength OK) and when I have to re-bed the portlights I can just fill in the voids to avoid leaks from traveling in those voids.

p.s. Thanks lazybone for giving Stu / myself the hint on what I was talking about. As always someone on this forum can clear things up.

Thanks

[Stu Jackson]

U wrote: "I don't have to do anything real soon (i.e. deck strength OK) and when I have to re-bed the portlights I can just fill in the voids to avoid leaks from traveling in those voids."

Uhm, not really.  If you have the gaps shown in the my picture, you do NOT need to fill it in.  I explained why.  If you think of these "voids" as gaps, rather than voids (which I would define as being missing pieces rather than the consistent gaps between layers of the construction), then re-read my Reply #8:  the goal is to keep the water out from the outermost layer, which is the fiberglass exterior.  So, what you do when redoing the portlight, is to make sure that you've made a water tight seal at the outside, then water can't get in, doesn't matter whether you have voids or gaps.