Santosha has had issues with the fixed ports leaking, especially over the galley. I looked into getting replacements but as always on an old boat you are looking to have something made custom. My preference would be for opening ports as it gets pretty hot here during the summer, fans only do but so much, and AC on a vessel the size of ours is out of the question.

In addition to the leaks the old black sealant had started to look very messy around the aluminum frame.

Many Seawind owners rave about these excellent quality opening ports from Newfound Metals and they are one of very few companies that make them in a size that fits (27″x7″). 

However I have decided to use my refit kitty on other more pressing issues, such as resealing the deck fittings and hatches, polishing the topsides and repainting the non-skid. I decided to just do a good reseal and see how it goes this year…

First job was to clean off all the old gunk and ran some “Creeping Crack Cure” down into the seal between the cabin and frame. Then I taped it all up and ran a fine bead of UV resistant 3M 4200.

Next task was to deal with the decayed flange. I cleaned the aluminum frame with a razor blade scraper (for windows) and removed as much of the old sealant as I could, re-taped and used the 3M clear marine sealant to coat the old gasket.

Finally paper towels were taped under the interior of the windows to see if they held up after the rain this week. I will try a headlamp refinishing kit on the plexigalss this weekend and see if I can get some of the scratches out.

Only a couple more weeks to get the rest of the spring refit done and I can get some more pics of the bay!

Windows Continued…

Went down to Urbanna today to check on the windows after a log week of rain.

Success! I went on and resealed the Starboard side but only after I had a shot at restoring them…

I read somewhere that you can clean old cloudy plexiglass window with a simple headlight cleaning kit. The windows on Santosha are so scratched up and cloudy that you can barely see through them so why not experiment?

The kit consists of several fine wet/dry sanding disks, some polish, and a drill attachment. It cost about $20 from Lowes.

Its very important to keep the surfaces wet to avoid leaving scratch marks, I left a few on the first window, but the overall improvement was worth it. Here are a couple of side by side pics after I finished the first one.

The difference in the amount of light that came into the cabin we astounding.

Now onto finding the those deck leaks and restoring the Topsides!