acouple of my orts have just started to leak. Not bad just a few drops. I decided to remove one and to my dismay the plywood that is sandwichedbetween the fiberglass around the opening is badly water damaged. Has anyone else had this problem and what did you do about it if anything before resealing the port? It would hav ebeen so easy for hunter to epoxy this area when the boat was new. if you do not have leaks at this time you may want to pull your ports and seal the wood. if you wait for the leak to begin you may alreeady have wood damage.
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This is very common.
Most people never pull out their portlights so do not know how prevalent this is. I am replacing all of mine and have been in touch with many others who have done the same. From this experience I know that I have been lucky in that I found minimal dampness around most and rotting plywood around a couple(there are eleven opening portlights on my '79 H37C). Some have found the plywood to be completely gone! So consider it normal and fix it as best you can. Uncover them when the sun is beating down or use some other means to dry it out. Mix up some epoxy and seal it after it is dry. Use a good caulk when reinstalling. I am using LifeCalk, a polysulfide. But I believe Hunter originally used a silicone.
Most people never pull out their portlights so do not know how prevalent this is. I am replacing all of mine and have been in touch with many others who have done the same. From this experience I know that I have been lucky in that I found minimal dampness around most and rotting plywood around a couple(there are eleven opening portlights on my '79 H37C). Some have found the plywood to be completely gone! So consider it normal and fix it as best you can. Uncover them when the sun is beating down or use some other means to dry it out. Mix up some epoxy and seal it after it is dry. Use a good caulk when reinstalling. I am using LifeCalk, a polysulfide. But I believe Hunter originally used a silicone.
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Replacing Ports
I replaced all of the ports on my 1980 Hunter 30, Tense Moments, and used liberal amounts of 3M 5200. The final touch was to mount the outside trim rings. The sealant has a tendency to ooze and push the ring away from the cabin top. To solve this problem, I invested in six quick clamps (for each port. When passed through the open port and left over night, they held the trim rings and added to the seal.
I replaced all of the ports on my 1980 Hunter 30, Tense Moments, and used liberal amounts of 3M 5200. The final touch was to mount the outside trim rings. The sealant has a tendency to ooze and push the ring away from the cabin top. To solve this problem, I invested in six quick clamps (for each port. When passed through the open port and left over night, they held the trim rings and added to the seal.
Not just Hunter.
Leif: We had a large cruiser (40-50') in our harbor in the last couple of years. It had bronze ports in it and they had the same problem. This fellow actually cut out the fiberglass and ply and repaired and replaced the materials and resealed the entire area. My point is that this is not uncommon for these manufacturers to "cut corners" like this. I suppose that they figure that the port isn't ever go to leak so why mess with it. Well 10-15 year later they do leak and what are you left with? (a rotten mess). I would think even if you seal this area, there is no guarantee that the area will NOT seperate either. But at least you will have a chance by not having any exposed end grain in the plywood.
Leif: We had a large cruiser (40-50') in our harbor in the last couple of years. It had bronze ports in it and they had the same problem. This fellow actually cut out the fiberglass and ply and repaired and replaced the materials and resealed the entire area. My point is that this is not uncommon for these manufacturers to "cut corners" like this. I suppose that they figure that the port isn't ever go to leak so why mess with it. Well 10-15 year later they do leak and what are you left with? (a rotten mess). I would think even if you seal this area, there is no guarantee that the area will NOT seperate either. But at least you will have a chance by not having any exposed end grain in the plywood.
Leaky portlights
ALL caulks and sealants eventually deteriorate. There's nothing on the planet that will last forever. It is therefore obvious (or should be) that leaks will develop. It is therefore obvious (or should be) that the coring that's exposed in the cutout should be sealed with something that'll permanently keep the water out of the core, like epoxy resin. It is also obvious (or should be) that the portlights will eventually have to be removed, cleaned and/or replanced and rebedded. The shortcut that Hunter takes by not sealing the coring at the cutout is one of the many reasons they can sell their boats for lower prices than many of their competitors. For the first owner it's a good deal. For the person the buys it 10 or 15 years later, it's baaaad news. Shame on Hunter. On the other hand, at least they don't seal them in with 5200!!! Since the portlights WILL have to be rebedded someday, it makes sense to NOT bed them with something as ornery and evil as 5200. Shame on Rick. Rebedding of hardware is just one of the things that needs to be put on the long-term maintenance schedule. If you buy a new boat every five or six or seven years, you don't have to worry about it. If you keep them longer or buy old boats, simply plan on it.
ALL caulks and sealants eventually deteriorate. There's nothing on the planet that will last forever. It is therefore obvious (or should be) that leaks will develop. It is therefore obvious (or should be) that the coring that's exposed in the cutout should be sealed with something that'll permanently keep the water out of the core, like epoxy resin. It is also obvious (or should be) that the portlights will eventually have to be removed, cleaned and/or replanced and rebedded. The shortcut that Hunter takes by not sealing the coring at the cutout is one of the many reasons they can sell their boats for lower prices than many of their competitors. For the first owner it's a good deal. For the person the buys it 10 or 15 years later, it's baaaad news. Shame on Hunter. On the other hand, at least they don't seal them in with 5200!!! Since the portlights WILL have to be rebedded someday, it makes sense to NOT bed them with something as ornery and evil as 5200. Shame on Rick. Rebedding of hardware is just one of the things that needs to be put on the long-term maintenance schedule. If you buy a new boat every five or six or seven years, you don't have to worry about it. If you keep them longer or buy old boats, simply plan on it.
shooting the messenger and other non sequiturs
My experience with leaky ports is limited to operating and replacing the 11 opening Gray ports on my 79 H33 so what follows is based on experience with this particular port on this particular boat. Where is it leaking? from under the lens gasket or from behind the flange? It may take a little detective work in a rainstorm to find this out. A lens gasket is easy to replace and will fix a lens gasket leak (unless the lens itself is cracked). Leaks from behind the flange which may evidence themselves by an evil brown stain below the flange on the liner are a different matter and won't be helped by any new lens gasket. Taking out all of the original ports (the plastic had crystallized and was crumbling after 21 years) led me to appreciate what was for my boat a really high quality installation by the builder. The annular space between the port frame and the cutout was basically completely filled with a kind of silicone caulk that was in new condition and still adhered tenaciously to the port frame and to the cutout wood. The pristine condition of this caulk after more than two decades of marine exposure effectively contradicts Doug T's . assertion that nothing lasts forever. That old Hunter caulk lasts longer than the Gray ports do. Once out, the two port cutouts that had shown evidence of leakage by brown staining from behind the flanges also showed deterioration of the plywood core. In both of these instances, the water entering the core was traced to leakage sources from the deck top, not from the port itself. The ports were simply serving as an exit point for core water entering from above and as such, were serving as a messenger pointing to leakage problems higher up. Had Hunter sealed the cutout completely and effectively then the water from above would have simply kept going down and around the port to cause other and probably greater mischief elsewhere. Thus, sealing of the core around the gray ports is basically a counter productive operation. Even if the core is sealed, at least leave the top of the cutout unsealed so that it can serve as a conduit for leakage from above. With the inner flange of the Gray port unsealed (as it should be) then the barrel of the port will serve as a kind of funnel delivering core leakage water to the inner liner below the port so that visible it can serve as an effective warning of leakage above the port. I chose a high quality silicone to rebed the Gray ports because the port manufacturer specified it and because the demonstrated success of the original installation used it. 5200 is not evil nor ornary, just very very strong and might also be a defensible choice since it is much stronger and might add strength to the overall installation in a capsize situation. It just doesn't gun nearly as well as the silicone and gunning ability is essential in trying to duplicate the excellence of the original sealing of the annular space.
My experience with leaky ports is limited to operating and replacing the 11 opening Gray ports on my 79 H33 so what follows is based on experience with this particular port on this particular boat. Where is it leaking? from under the lens gasket or from behind the flange? It may take a little detective work in a rainstorm to find this out. A lens gasket is easy to replace and will fix a lens gasket leak (unless the lens itself is cracked). Leaks from behind the flange which may evidence themselves by an evil brown stain below the flange on the liner are a different matter and won't be helped by any new lens gasket. Taking out all of the original ports (the plastic had crystallized and was crumbling after 21 years) led me to appreciate what was for my boat a really high quality installation by the builder. The annular space between the port frame and the cutout was basically completely filled with a kind of silicone caulk that was in new condition and still adhered tenaciously to the port frame and to the cutout wood. The pristine condition of this caulk after more than two decades of marine exposure effectively contradicts Doug T's . assertion that nothing lasts forever. That old Hunter caulk lasts longer than the Gray ports do. Once out, the two port cutouts that had shown evidence of leakage by brown staining from behind the flanges also showed deterioration of the plywood core. In both of these instances, the water entering the core was traced to leakage sources from the deck top, not from the port itself. The ports were simply serving as an exit point for core water entering from above and as such, were serving as a messenger pointing to leakage problems higher up. Had Hunter sealed the cutout completely and effectively then the water from above would have simply kept going down and around the port to cause other and probably greater mischief elsewhere. Thus, sealing of the core around the gray ports is basically a counter productive operation. Even if the core is sealed, at least leave the top of the cutout unsealed so that it can serve as a conduit for leakage from above. With the inner flange of the Gray port unsealed (as it should be) then the barrel of the port will serve as a kind of funnel delivering core leakage water to the inner liner below the port so that visible it can serve as an effective warning of leakage above the port. I chose a high quality silicone to rebed the Gray ports because the port manufacturer specified it and because the demonstrated success of the original installation used it. 5200 is not evil nor ornary, just very very strong and might also be a defensible choice since it is much stronger and might add strength to the overall installation in a capsize situation. It just doesn't gun nearly as well as the silicone and gunning ability is essential in trying to duplicate the excellence of the original sealing of the annular space.
Gee Terry, did you. . . .
have to revisit all of those NFM issues just as I am finally finishing the installation?! Well at least they look really nice right now. And they always look good from the inside.
I found the silicone to be as you described when I removed the old ones, still very pliable and well done. And those ports were relatively dry. Two of mine had been replaced and those are where I found the rotten wood. Not sure why New Found Metals recommends polysulfide instead of silicone. Where I found wet wood the top of the hole was solid, only damp. I hope this means the leaking was at the frames and not from the deck.
have to revisit all of those NFM issues just as I am finally finishing the installation?! Well at least they look really nice right now. And they always look good from the inside.
I found the silicone to be as you described when I removed the old ones, still very pliable and well done. And those ports were relatively dry. Two of mine had been replaced and those are where I found the rotten wood. Not sure why New Found Metals recommends polysulfide instead of silicone. Where I found wet wood the top of the hole was solid, only damp. I hope this means the leaking was at the frames and not from the deck.How about some pictures, Ed Schenck?
Ed, no doubt about it, those bronze ports go with the traditional lines of the Cherubinis. Sure would like to see a picture of your completed ports.
Ed, no doubt about it, those bronze ports go with the traditional lines of the Cherubinis. Sure would like to see a picture of your completed ports.
thanks for your input.
I have really enjoyed getting this type of input from other Hunter owners. I appreciate all of your comments. So far I have only resealed one port and my need to redo that one with a different caulk.
I have really enjoyed getting this type of input from other Hunter owners. I appreciate all of your comments. So far I have only resealed one port and my need to redo that one with a different caulk.
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