Can you get replacement hull windows for a Beneteau Oceanis 331 from anyone except Beneteau dealers?

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Duggy

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Shouldering through some moderately choppy sea in ~28knts just south of Chichester yesterday in my 2004 Beneteau Oceanis 331, I was a tad alarmed to get an update from a hungry crew member in search of cake that there was '....an awful lot of water in the cabin!'.

Sure enough, when I poked my head below, there were a good couple of inches of water sloshing around above the sole boards near the settee (we were admittedly heeling on a port tack, so it probably looked worse than it actually was). I figured out the problem quickly enough as another wave sloshed through the hole that used to have a hull window in it behind the settee, so once we got the sails down and were back on an even keel, we got back to Portsmouth without too much drama (although the crew were still a bit put out about the lack of cake).

Anyhoo - when I started making some calls today to find a replacement exterior frame and pane (the interior bit was still in place), I was braced for some expense coming my way. I know that bespoke parts from Beneteau are notoriously expensive, but ~£350 for a 50cm X 15cm aluminium frame with a rubber seal and a piece of plexiglass is a bitter pill to swallow.

I get it - these are not high demand parts and they are not being manufacturerd in volume for my 20 year old sailboat these days, but still....

Does anyone know of anywhere apart from Beneteau/Beneteau dealers where I could get a part that fits? I can see that there are some companies out there that make bespoke marine windows, but for a part as critical as a hull window that is subject to getting knocked about by waves and even occassionally submerged, I am hesitatant to go down the route of taking measurements to have something made that might not have quite the right dimensions and ends up being a weak point.

Any suggestions from forumites who have any experience with this would be welcomed. I have attached some pics of the offending window (the same one further back) and the hole it left behind.
 

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wonkywinch said:
Has it got a makers name, eg Lewmar, stamped anywhere. Boat makers rarely make anything except the hull.

https://www.lewmar.com/mst_attachment/attachment/click/attachment_id/381/
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Unfortunately not - and one of the results from the many searches I did online yesterday seems to suggest that while Lewmar do indeed make all of the hatches on the coachroof, the fixed portlight-style hull windows are made by Beneteau themselves.

I suppose I was kind of hoping that someone might be aware of a company/solution elsewhere that might leave me less than £350 worse off, but based on what I've read, I'm probably going to have to suck it up.

@MikeBz - thanks for the suggestion above. Very helpful chap at Eagle, but he didn't seem to think a custom built window would end up cheaper (and would need very careful dimensioning).
 
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Not a lot different in price from a Lewmar size 3 fixed portlight which is around £300 (bit shorter and fatter). You don't say why it needs a total replacement.
 
Would a piece of suitably sized acrylic sheet not do the job? That’s what we used to replace a similar window in the hull of our Oceanis which was damaged.
 
chris-s said:
Would a piece of suitably sized acrylic sheet not do the job? That’s what we used to replace a similar window in the hull of our Oceanis which was damaged.
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Yes it would, but the missing frame is the problem. Out of interest, how did you manage to apply pressure to the window/frame assembly when you were replacing it in the hull of your Oceanis? I assume you used something suitable from Sika (or similar) to attach.
 
Duggy said:
Yes - that was exactly the sort of vendor I was hoping to find. Similar sized Lewmar fixed hull windows for only €72. It doesn't look like they have anything for a Bene 331, but I will definitely get it touch and see. Thanks for this.
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That link looks good but they look like plexiglass pattern parts not OEM suppliers. If you click on any of the links, the respective page has the comment "In order to avoid any errors, provide us with your paper template".
 
Duggy said:
….I know that bespoke parts from Beneteau are notoriously expensive, but ~£350 for a 50cm X 15cm aluminium frame with a rubber seal and a piece of plexiglass is a bitter pill to swallow.
….
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Wow that is massively CHEAPER than I was expecting from the manufacturer - I thought might be 3 or 4 times that, Order it now.

Surely you should have recognised the BOAT unit - Bring On Another Thousand (£).

£350 is under half a BOAT - so applying rounding, in boat terms it is zero. A free fix. Be happy, as not many of them :-)
 
£350 seems a small price to pay for peace of mind about keeping the water out. You know it will fail in the worst possible circumstances, these things always do, and you'll always be wondering. Id stump up the £350.
 
That window is just an acrylic plastic (Perspex) sheet cut to size and bonded to your hull with a thin moulded cover probably made out of fibreglass.

The cover has no mechanical function in retaining the window. It may reduce UV degradation of the window to hull bond by sunlight.

Beneteau typically used 6mm thick perspex.

They also used to provide UV protection of the bond by painting the bonded edge of the perspex with acrylic paint on the inside.

This could be done with white acrylic to hide the bond and give the same appearance as your assembly.

They used a combination of sika primer 209 D and sikaflex 295 uv for bonding the window to the hull.

Just make a paper template from one of your other hull ports, source a piece of perspex cut& bond as above.
 
TSB240 said:
That window is just an acrylic plastic (Perspex) sheet cut to size and bonded to your hull with a thin moulded cover probably made out of fibreglass.

The cover has no mechanical function in retaining the window. It may reduce UV degradation of the window to hull bond by sunlight.

Beneteau typically used 6mm thick perspex.

They also used to provide UV protection of the bond by painting the bonded edge of the perspex with acrylic paint on the inside.

This could be done with white acrylic to hide the bond and give the same appearance as your assembly.

They used a combination of sika primer 209 D and sikaflex 295 uv for bonding the window to the hull.

Just make a paper template from one of your other hull ports, source a piece of perspex cut& bond as above.
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Good answer.

I would make a template from another portlight (as you suggest) and send it to a plastics company, i use Project Plastics in Colchester. Get them to cut it out, put the bevel on and polish the edge. Mask the edge and paint it white. Would be indistinguishable from the others.
 
Duggy said:
Yes it would, but the missing frame is the problem. Out of interest, how did you manage to apply pressure to the window/frame assembly when you were replacing it in the hull of your Oceanis? I assume you used something suitable from Sika (or similar) to attach.
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We used a double sided bonding tape and then a sealant around the edges supplied from Hadlow Marine who deal all sorts of replacement acrylic for boats.

To apply pressure, we used two approaches, first was large sucker pads on the inside tied across the cabin and we also made up a wooden ‘arm’ that hung off the toe rail with a bucket of sand on the end and then partway between an extra arm against the window keeping it at about 45degrees. We were ashore at the time so easier to arrange. You could use a couple of pan head screws and remove them before fitting some trim o something like that’s
 
Tintin said:
£350 seems a small price to pay for peace of mind about keeping the water out. You know it will fail in the worst possible circumstances, these things always do, and you'll always be wondering. Id stump up the £350.
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Except that the original one fell out. Good to understand why and remedy.

£350 sounds ok to me.
 
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