Just bought a 25.5 Hunter and raising the pop top is a night mare, is there supposed to be a stabilizer shock of some sort like on the trunk of a hatchback suv ?
25.5 Hunter
- Thread starter daniell
- Start date
- Status
Mine was very heavy until i drained all the water from it. The sliding hatch goes back too far and makes cracks where water can enter.
I drilled holes in the underside of the poptop at the lowest point and all the water drained out.
The Pop Top on a Hunter 25.5 comes as you have it. What I have done is, changed out my grab rails for something more solid and using a line strung between both grab rails and the main sail halyard, I haul up the Pop Top. Now this is sometimes more steps than just pushing it up and locking it into place. My fears come into play with the small locking mechanism holding all that weight. Can you imagine if it came down on your head or fingers? To fight that fear I use the main sail halyard attached to a hook on my solid stainless steel grab rails while I have the Pop Top up. I don't sail with the Pop Top up as the boom vang is in the way. I have changed out the existing teak grab railings with my own designed stainless steel ones. I drew up the specs and measurements and had a local welder create them for me. Yes they make the top heavier, but I prefer them to the wooden originals. This way I have no wood to maintain on the outside of the boat. I include a picture to show my upgrade.
Attachments
I had the same leek issues. To avoid damaging the epoxy repair job I did, after removing and replacing the the wooden sliding hatch guides covers with aluminum, I installed rubber blocks at the end of the slot. This way when I push too hard and the hatch slides forward quickly over the Teflon tape, it doesn't slam directly into the end. Basically a buffer. Works well. Then I let the water drain and evaporate from inside the Pop Top. I have gone through the winter and a few spring rain showers and so far its working. Oh I forgot to mention, I also butyl tape sealed the screws holes when fitting the new aluminum hatch cover guide caps, seen in the same picture in my last post.
I too had the leak problem and had to drain it before it became an issue. I removed all the hardware from the pop top, sealed the holes and rebedded everything with Butyl.
- Status