Lewmar opening ports and Saloon Tables

[Noah]

I will preface this rant with "Ok, yeah it's my own fault..." but, really!?  

Some of you may know that I am very factitious (to a fault) about my boat... spent most of last year, with lots of sweat and plenty o' cash restoring and upgrading-installing shiny new stuff, getting everything squared away--from my bone-dry bilge to the top of my beautiful re-rigged, rewired, repainted mast. But as always, a few projects still remained. One was finding a solution to replace or repair the yellowed, brittle, cracked, plastic interior trim rings on my discontinued Lewmar "Old Standard" opening ports. No success. So a few months ago I bit the bullet and replaced them with "New Standard" Lewmar replacement ports. $200 ea. Yeah they're still plastic and the dogs that latch them are a bit tricky and need some manhandling to lock tight, but they look great--another shiny new install. Well done. So I thought.

Today I went down to the boat to get ready for the long holiday weekend. As I was getting ready to leave I decided I should probably stop and check the water level in my 4 "shiny" new T-105 batteries. I lifted the cushion over the battery compartment and "what-the '$"@#%?" the underside of the cushion was soaking wet! ALl of the dinette cushions were soaking wet--like a sponge!!! Grrr! Where did the water come from? Frantic search ensued. Turns out, while the it appeared that all the ports were secured, the two on the port side just looked closed, in actuality they were closed, but not fully latched/locked. My bad (and a little of Lewmar's, and little blame to Catalina too for making that damn dinette table so large it's nearly impossible to get around it to quickly check that the  freaking portlights are latched--usually not a big deal in Sunny San Diego--where we keep our hatches and ports open most of the time, but
last weekend we logged the single rainiest April in recorded history, 1-1/2 inches one hour--and all of it poured down onto my cushions, and sat there for five days. Dang!! Ok so I'm a cry-baby. But I feel better now!  My next project is making a smaller table. I know, Ron, plenty of examples in the Tech Notes. Yep, I've been saving them for the right day! That day has arrived.

[jmcdonald]

Go to the defender catalog, and look at the nautic star teak tables. I used one of their table tops
when I wanted to go to a smaller  salon table. You just add the finish you want and use all the
hardware off  your current table. Two of my dock mates saw the table and bought nautic tables
for their boats. The 22 by 36 is still large enough to dine off, but small enough to easily slip by
to get to the shelf and ports. It's also a lot easier to lounge in the dinette.
Almost forgot. I did laminate a 1/2 inch thick piece of plywood to the underside of the table so
I could use longer screws without coming out the top. I cut the plywood about 2 inches smaller
than the table on each side so you can't see the edges of the plywood.

[Stu Jackson]

Lots of saloon table ideas, here are some we saw last weekend on Lucky Cat, Leonid and Victor's boat

[Stu Jackson]

more photos

[Noah]

Very nice Stu.! Just the kind of table I had in mind!
Thx.

[crieders]

Can't new trim rings be fabricated? I would be surprised that nobody sells that or that they could not easily be made

[mregan]

I couldn't get the trim rings to stay snapped on when I installed my lewmar ports so I just left them off.  They don't look too bad.  I'm debating pulling the interior aluminum frames off and having them powder coated to match the hull.

[Noah]

I did a lot of research on the "Old Standard" trim rings before I gave up on the idea.  They were vacuum formed. I shopped them around to two vacuum forming shops and $$$$ to make a mold and do a short run of 6. Once made they have to be hand tried so labot there too. There was one boat owner I found on the Web who made his own, making a plywood mold and using a home made vacuum forming machine and his kitchen oven! Attached is what his mold looked-like, but it is since long gone. Also attached is a link to a video of DIY home vacuum former.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGBRiYhxRTM
I also shopped around the hought of ising a 3-d printer but no one had a large enough one I could use them out of teak$$$$$ and not and my DIY carpentry skills arn't good emougth for that.
Too hard for DIY. Finally Frustrated, i decided if I was going to throw money at the problem I would just buy new ports. Unforunately, while the new are good looking and new, they don't operate as well as the old ones (for me anyway).

[jmcdonald]

Sorry I took so long to post a photo of the defender table top.

[Rick Allen]

John, I like the Nautic Star Table table and it seems to be well priced. It looks great with the glossy varnish!!
Did you have any issues with applying the varnish over the black deck caulking?  Or perhaps I'm confused, I assume the black area is caulking? Does it stick?

Thanks

[jmcdonald]

I don't know what was used for caulking, but it covers just fine.
I used about 7 coats of urethane, with very lite sanding with each coat.
I have had the table on the boat for almost a year, and use the boat every
weekend. The finish still looks new.
Very happy with the size of the product and with the quality.
Hope it works for you.
John

[Noah]

Can you  slide in and around table standing, easily? From your photo, it's hard to get idea of how long table is fore and aft, from the edge of seat cushions.

[jmcdonald]

The table comes to about the edge of the cushions. I'm 5'8", and a little chubby. I have no problem
using the seat up against the galley as a "Lounge chair" (back to starboard, legs outstretched).
Getting to the ports & sliding door on the starboard side is easy enough.
We wanted something bigger than a small cocktail table (use the lap top on, eat off, ect.)
but small enough to easily slide around. Roughly 22 by 36, compare to the stock table
next time you are at your boat. One bonus is that the center walk way of the salon is now
a little wider, so moving around the boat in General is easier. Take another look at the picture
and you will see the table is starboard of the mast. I guess it doesn't show in the picture, but
I centered the table (fore & aft) between the cushions, so the seating is improved at both ends.
We are in Newport Beach Ca. if anyone wants to take a look.

[Rick Allen]

Very cool, thanks John!

Stu, I like Leo's table too and still looking for some sources....

[stevewitt1]

Hey all

I was just about to cut my throat due to the constant falling off of my opening port trim rings!!!!!   GGGRRRRRRR

Then I finally looked and saw that there was poor sizing of the opening from the time the boat was built.  My dremmel and a little dust and all the trim rings fit perfect now.  I did replace some of the velcro also with fresh stuff.

Steve.

Now if I could only figure out how the screens go on right I'd be happy.

Steve

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