Leaky Windows on a 82 Catalina 27

[mtitus]

Hello everyone, I am a noob to this boat owning thing and I am hoping to tap into your collective experiences. My issue: an annoying drip from both port and starboard cabin windows. Are these easy to to reseal? Should I replace?
I did see a kit available on the Catalina Direct site. Anyone with experience with this fix kit?

In any event, any suggestions, thoughts and advice is greatly appreciated by this first year skipper.

 

[Cat36Amoore]

I too am a new 27 Catalina owner, (1983)with the same issue, only one leak on the port side. The windows are called port lights. Sail magazine had a good articles on resealing the ports. I have not had time to research which edition. The kits you speak of sound interesting.
I look forward to following this thread

 

[Buzzlovelace]

Its easy to take one of your windows out one at a time. Mine, I just cleaned up the Inside and surrounding fiberglass. For a quick fix that works well there is a product at West Marine or Jamestown called "creepy crack filler" that is on the verge of amazing. Its in a bottle with a small applicator tip, not messy and has a multitude of uses. Window kits are pricey and I would explore all options first. Also it never hurts to spend some time in your boat on a rainy day

 

[npettett]

Leaky on my CAT30, I can spray them all day with a hose and no drips, it rains they all leak. I have a bottle of rubber gasket conditioner in the mail to me now. Will update if that helps at all when I get it.

 

[caguy]

I resealed the outer window frames with butyl tape. The rubber channel seal that goes between the window and the frame seemed ok at the time. About two months later the outer beveled part of the rubber seal started to come off so I tucked it back in. The boat has been through several washing and still do not leak. I have inquired and you can only get the window rubber channel from Catalina Direct, and it only comes as the kit. I may go back and permanently glue the bevel piece in with butyl caulk.
The leaks on mine stemmed from the crappy job that Catalina did on sealing the outer flange on the frames. I also found that the easiest way to clean the frames are with Interlux 333 or turpentine.

 

[mtitus]

Thank you all so much for your input. I will likely be tackling this very soon. Beginning with the lesser expensive options- I'll keep you posted.

 

[dive7mmwet]

ok on our 82 TR Catalina Californian breed, we re-bedded the out side with Butyl tape after a good cleaning, still had a drip after a strong rain in one window as our windows had a bead of silicone on the out side this lay up when she is home we will seal all the windows and re-glaze the out sides.

 

[Eastwind]

I bought the kit

Hello everyone, I am a noob to this boat owning thing and I am hoping to tap into your collective experiences. My issue: an annoying drip from both port and starboard cabin windows. Are these easy to to reseal? Should I replace?
I did see a kit available on the Catalina Direct site. Anyone with experience with this fix kit?

In any event, any suggestions, thoughts and advice is greatly appreciated by this first year skipper.

I bought the kit. It has everything including the masking tape to tape around the window. I had some window seal that the previous owner left me and I tried it first. The basic shape is the same but it's just a little thicker wall. That little extra thickness made it nearly impossible to push the window and seal back into the channel. I used soapy water for lube but it was way too tight. When I used the Catalina Direct seal it was much easier. Still a snug fit, but not a fight to get back together.

I'm doing mine one at a time and I've done just 2 so far. Each one so far has bent frames from people over tightening the screws in attempts to make leaky windows stop leaking. I straightened them and put them back together and they fit well. No leaks in the new seals.

I scraped butyl rubber off both frames and I don't think that was the best thing to seal the outer frame. It's a big gap to fill so I think caulk is the way to go. The kit comes with 4200 sealant and I put a healthy bead around the frame and had to remove lots of excess.

Mike

 

[mtitus]

Mike,
Thanks for the review. I think that is the way I am going to go -with the kit. We had a hell of a rain storm over this past weekend so I am anxious to get this done before the real rain season begins in BC.

 

[The Garbone]

I bought the Catalina Direct window rebed kit. Was about to start one morning when a neighbor walked by and told me to try something before I went through the hassle.

On his suggestion I went to HomeDepot and bought a little rubber grouting tool, actually a kit of 3 different ones and a grout clean out tool. The idea was to pull the silicone bead off using the clean out tool and replace it using the tool to clean it up. Turns out the previous owner had used 5200 on the glass aluminum junction an I could not remove it. However I still resealed the cracks in the 5200 using the rubber tool and it worked very well. It pushed the silicone into the cracks and left very little waste. It took me about 2 hours to reseal all six windows and I barely used any silicone. No more leaks..

 

[mtitus]

I bought the Catalina Direct window rebed kit. Was about to start one morning when a neighbor walked by and told me to try something before I went through the hassle.

On his suggestion I went to HomeDepot and bought a little rubber grouting tool, actually a kit of 3 different ones and a grout clean out tool. The idea was to pull the silicone bead off using the clean out tool and replace it using the tool to clean it up. Turns out the previous owner had used 5200 on the glass aluminum junction an I could not remove it. However I still resealed the cracks in the 5200 using the rubber tool and it worked very well. It pushed the silicone into the cracks and left very little waste. It took me about 2 hours to reseal all six windows and I barely used any silicone. No more leaks..

Thanks! I will try that first.