LeComte port installation

[Quetzalsailor]

I'm about ready to disassemble one of the small ports. Does anyone (Chris, John) know if there is anything else holding the glass in besides the trim ring? Can I remove the trim ring and not have the glass fall out? What's the best sealant between glass & fiberglass for use on a port?

[Hirilondë]

What's the best sealant between glass & fiberglass for use on a port?

Almost anything works, polysulfides like Lifecaulk, or polyurethanes like Sikaflex 291. I have used Sikaflex 291-LOT on many Hinckley glass port projects and have never been called back for a leak. I personally don't like polysulfides as they are a nuisance to clean up compared to polyurethanes and the white tends to yellow in time.

[Chris Campbell]

I never had the windows apart myself, so I don't know. Hopefully John will chime in. I seem to recall that he was surprised by how little there was holding the glass in, though...

Good luck, and let us know!

[Quetzalsailor]

OK

Here's the skinny on the fixed ports on a LeComte, and presumably, other Tripp-designed boats with the trimless appearance (Hinckley B40, Seafarer, Javalin, etc).

Remove the trim rings. Remove the bungs using your favourite method to preserve the surrounding veneer or face wood; I used a 1/8" flat bladed cheepie screwdriver as a chisel to chop/cut the bung well within the glue line and then pick the remains out. Take care to clean the entire screw so that it does not lif the veneer on the way out. Prise the trim rings off; I used duelling spackel knives, one to protect the wood panel and the other to exert the force. The edges of house liner panels are concealed by nailed trim strips. Prise them off and then the bottom edge of the panels. Slip a long putty knife up under the panel and slowly ease the panel off the port surround (port bedding will have bound them in place). The panels are only about 3mm thick, three ply plywood and any delamination or rot leaves them very fragile. And the question of Saturday morning? The glass remains bonded to the fiberglass, at least as of 4pm yesterday. I added duct tape to the exterior as belt and suspenders to keep the boat dry. Ports are approx 4mm tempered glass. The difference between panel and glass thickness is made up with a rubber gasket.

Going back together, I will repair the delaminated panels with new veneer from within as necessary and coat out the backs and edges with epoxy. I will wood and refinish all the removed trim components. I will re-engineer some of the pieces because the panels went into the boat before other casework; I cut things apart in a way that will not show but some concealed connections are lost. I will be adding grab handles to the inside of house so that getting my large stiff body into the forepeak bunk will be easier; I will epoxy fiberglass pats to the insdide of the house fiberglass, drilled and tapped for the handle bolts. All the wood, except the trim rings, goes back in before the glass.

Two of the ports were rebedded once before using silicone. Gotta get the faying surfaces perfectly clean...

[JonnyBoats]

Quetzalsailor has just about said it all, I really can't add anything of value here.

On my LeComte, Altair, I replaced all the small portlights with opening stainless portlights from Hood. While traditionalists may consider this a sacrilege, I feel they are much stronger than the original. As a further benefit I now have six opening portlights instead of just the one in the head before.

[Quetzalsailor]

Next stage in port and hand hold work. I've taken a couple of West Marine's Teak handles and reshaped 'em so that they look like LeComte's. For affixing, I bought a 12" square of 1/2" polyester fiberglass, cut to 3+" strips, drilled and tapped for 1/4-20 bolts. The handles are ground to an angle so that they will be horizontal; the bolts and holes are of course horizontal, too. As it happens, the surrounding original nailers are effectively more than 1/2" thick. I made shim strips to locate the backup blocks of fiberglass, and made rough plywood strips to jig them in place. I masked the backup blocks and cast a reinforced epoxy pad to bring the blocks out to the plane of the liner panels. The shim strips were placed behind the bolt holes to give a bit of room for accidentally over tightening and punching through the house side. After the pads were cured enough, I took the jigs off and cleaned the masking off the backup blocks, ground the faying surfaces for the bonding epoxy. Of course, the epoxy pads had the impression of the shim sticks in their faces. I placed Dr Scholls' pads, home-made out of duct tape and bits of a foam swimming noodle, to preserve the space behind the bolts and epoxied the backup blocks in place. Spring sticks pressed things in place.

The picture shows how I jigged them in place for epoxying.

Interestingly, a LeComte NE 38's forward ports are assymetrical; the port port is nearly 1" farther aft than the corresponding starboard one. I chose to line my new handles up with the bottom of the port trim rings and shade the port one a tad farther forward. Of course, the handles are identical so the remaining distances are less on the starboard side than the port.

Also in the picture, you can see plywood battens that I installed to hold the glass in place. The two ports in the forepeak were rebedded using at least silicone. The other starboard port was the original installation and there was no bedding. The original installation was simply a foam gasket. The glass fell out sometime, perhaps days, before I installed the battens to restrain it!

[Tom Young]

Nice work and documentation Doug. How did you come to locating the handle in that spot? I too would like an easier way out of the vee berth.

[Quetzalsailor]

Thanks, Tom.

You will recall that I'm a larger-sized bear than you. I found getting in and out of the berth way too much like work, especially more than once a night. I would find myself pawing around for something to grab onto as I tried to turn around and not disturb Sue. There really are only four places possible on each side to mount handles: parallel to the front house corner and on the front face, ditto and on the side face, parallel to the deck edge and on the front face and ditto on the side face. All four places on a LeComte or a Challenger are equally difficult, technically. A LeComte needs some sort of mounting affixed to the single fiberglass shell of the house, or a backup block and through bolts (I did not want to see the carriage bolt heads or worry about their leaking). A Challenger's 1" thick Mahogany house is probably good enough to retain the screws; through bolts and bungs would probably be better. The Challenger's interior gutter/trim along the deck edge might lead you to a different location.

Bottom line is that I judged all four positions to be equally functional, and just as unlikely to hit my head on, so I chose the location which would be less seen; the starboard handle will be seen from the end, from the saloon, which is visually much smaller than seeing the 12" long thing from top or side. Additionally, a horizontal handle will be a tempting/useful place to hang something temporarily (I resisted the idea of drilling the fat ends of the handle to receive a bud vase, like a VW New Beetle has).

Big decision du jour, and I mean today, is whether I stain the sun-bleached wood components to bring them back closer to the natural deep red that the Makore was when new.

A question for the woodworking gurus: how do you do bungs perfectly when you've no doubt prefinished the parts before installation? (LeComte pre-fitted and prefinished all the parts before installing them, as witnessed by the finish under covered areas and the pencilled hull number on every piece.)

An aside for LeComte owners, Quetzal's port house liner panel is Teak-veneered 3mm three ply plywood turned back to front and not Makore! It looks like stained Birch. It's original; 'B167' is pencilled on it, and in the same hand, as all the other pieces.

[Quetzalsailor]

Stained...
and urethaned. One more coat., then reassembly. Bung question still hanging; I'm planning to buy the counterbore/drill combo with the right size drill to center and clean out the bores; the catch is that the bores are probably already a bit over 1/2". I disliked seeing the glueline before, and I don't want to see it anew.

[Hirilondë]

Hmm, I didn't see the question you eluded to. I don't drill bungs out, I pick them out with a home made tool expressly for the purpose. I find that no matter how hard I try, drilling them out yields a slightly oversize hole. This is why I don't think bungs should ever be glued in over screws. I use thickened shellac or varnish as a sealer/mild adhesive. You will find most of the older marine carpenters do it this way. It is yet another example of techniques to make removal of boat components practical, as all components will likely some day need removal.