Land N Sea Windows - Part 3

OK, so after spending about 20 hours working with the small window I took out, drilling out rivets, and dropping $150 experimenting with replacement parts I finally have the perfect plan. I'm not screwing with any more windows. There was another very worthwhile discovery - butyl tape...more on that later.

So here's the result of all my efforts.

A newly cracked window that doesn't open anymore.

But on to the butyl tape which was recommended to me by a fellow boater. I had planned to use this tape to reseal the windows as I took them out one at a time. It comes in a roll with paper backing. It's a tenaciously sticky rubber, and remains pliable 'forever'. Here you can see it being applied to seal the window frame to the outside of the boat.

 It's very easy to work with.

The results are exactly what I'd hoped...a very small amount of sealant being squeezed out at the edge of the window, showing me that there is a positive seal.

Couldn't be happier with the butyl tape. A perfect, sticky, flexible seal that will allow easy removal later. This stuff is used by better boat builders for the hull to deck joint.

So now what to do with the other windows to keep the water out? Like I said, I don't care if they leak, as long as they don't leak inside the boat.

First off, until I take them out for replacement, I decided to externally reseal them. I used a small circular wire brush to clean out the old caulk. This made marks on the fiberglass but they easily came off when I swabbed the area with acetone.

Next, mask the frame area for easy cleanup. I didn't mask the first couple windows and the cleanup wasn't all that bad because I used latex caulk.

You may notice that there's no masking at the bottom of the window, and there's a reason...'cause I'm not sealing the bottoms of the old windows. In fact I want them to 'leak'. The effort will be to have the water that leaks in, leak back out.

The double leak approach is because I can't really tell where the water is leaking in. It could be from around the windows, but I also suspect that rain on the roof finds it's way inside the roof sandwich through the myriad of holes put in over the life of the boat from who knows how many owners. There also all the pop-rivets used to attach the flybridge as well as the cracked stanchion bases. This water might then run to the inside the window frame then out onto the cushions.

So if the rain does come from inside the frame how would one get that water to run out instead of in? Damn, that's a challenge. Damn...dam. That's it, I'll use a dam.

Here comes my buddy butyl tape again, along with some clear plastic strips about the thickness of a credit card. I stuck the plastic strips onto the frame inside using the butyl tape. The top half of the butyl strip was used to hold/seal the plastic, the bottom half of the butyl strip was used to seal the frame to the side of the cabin. The plastic strip is higher than the outside frame, so if/as water collects behind my dam, it will run out well before it's deep enough to run in.

So will this ugly mess actually keep my cushions dry for my trip to Lake Powell? To test the dam, I poured water between the window and plastic strip to see what would happen. For this to work, the butyl tape would not only have to mechanically hold the plastic, but would also have to maintain a watertight seal. And there would have to be a 100% seal at the bottom of the frame to the side of the cabin.

Guess what? The water I poured between the window and plastic strip came up about 1/2" inside the dam and even though I kept pouring, it never got any higher - the water was running out rather than in.

Twenty four hours later, there was still 1/2" of water behind my dam, and no sign of moisture inside on the cabin wall.

Now we have to see if the dam will maintain on the road and on the lake, but at least it's a start and will help me decide how much roof sealing I'll need to address before installing new windows.