Front hatch leaking between glass and aluminium frame

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Trevelyan

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Hi all,
My seal 22 has a leak on the front hatch, where the glass joins the aluminium frame of the hatch. The existing glass seems to bedded in some kind of crumbly substance (not sure whether this was once a gasket or sealant!). Any advice on how to fix it? Should I dig the mess out of the gap and reseal with silkaflex or...?

Cheers,

Trev
 
Trevelyan said:
Hi all,
My seal 22 has a leak on the front hatch, where the glass joins the aluminium frame of the hatch. The existing glass seems to bedded in some kind of crumbly substance (not sure whether this was once a gasket or sealant!). Any advice on how to fix it? Should I dig the mess out of the gap and reseal with silkaflex or...?

Cheers,

Trev
Click to expand...

My Seal 22 had a moulded GRP hatch, nothing like the one you describe.
Check to see if you have a name on it.
If it's a Lewmar hatch, the 9mm acrylic is bedded in a moulded rubber extrusion which provides the sealing gasket for the hatch when closed as well as the seal for the glazing.
Without some idea of the original maker it's unlikely one can give you any clear guidance.
I'd suggest trying the Seal Association, if they're still around.
 
I would advise that you dismantle the frame, remove the glass, clean up and bed the glass in the frame with a suitable UV resistant sealant - check the Sika web page. On my windows I found that the leak inside was not where the water was entering. You might have the hatch glass secured in a hollow frame between a rubber seal and some bedding tape. The tape on my own boat was sticky and I assume this held the glass in place while the O ring sealed from the outside by compression. Anyway, the only solution was a complete rebuild. On dismantling I found years of stuff squeezed in to try and cure the leak. You may find that the fish plates which secure the two halves of the frame and associated aluminium screws are shot as well. A lot of assumptions here and this could be wide of the mark in your case but that's my experience!
 
Thanks for the tips so far... The glass isn't in a rubber seal, I think it is some kind of aged sealant which has now degraded (the boat is more than thirty years old!). The hatch glass is actually glass, so it seems that Sikaflex 296 is Sika's recommended product. It looks like it is £33 for a 600ml tube (!!!) which is lots more expensive than the normal stuff. Anyone got any ideas? I'd like to take the hatch off, but can't see any obvious way to dismantle the hinges - there doesn't appear to be any pins to knock out, nor is it obvious to me how to unscrew the hinges....
 
Trevelyan said:
Just worked out that it is a Houdini Hatch.
Click to expand...

I found from previous threads on here that old Houdini hatches have a habit of going, especially around the hinge seals. The hinge seals were said to be possible to repair, but with a degree of difficulty and with uncertain outcome. As our Houdini hatch (also about 30 years old) started to leak last year, and I've enough on my plate without such malarkey, I went an bought an identical replacement (they still make them somewhere in Essex). I think it cost about £180.

If you do a search for YBW & Houdini hatch you will probably find the threads that informed me.
 
Trevelyan,

try googling ' Eagle Windows ' - they are somewhere on the East Coast and reguarly get very favourable comments from people here.

Warning; a friend bought a ' Houdini Direct Replacement ' hatch from Seateach at Emsworth; the hole in the boat was different, as were the bolt spacings - apart from those minor details I suppose it was a direct replacement, eventually !

They do sell Lewmar Ocean hatches at good prices though, which may be something worth considering, far better than any Houdini or anything similar, but not cheap even from Seateach.
 
Mine isn't so much creeping crack cure, as huge chunks of dried up sealant falling out... but might give that a try if my resealing attempts fail!
 
A chum has a similar problem on his windows. A tip from a very canny boatbuilder mate was to use strips of glass cloth wide enough to bridge the dodgy joints. Then use sealant smeared on first to hold the strips. A credit card, used as a squeegee then gets a nice smooth finish. Works very well, saves a lot of frustrating dismantling and the boatbuilder plans to sail back home to New Zealand with his.
 
Spuddy/parsifal - just to clarify that, is that using it to bridge joints
hatch frame to hull,
hatch lid to hatch frame,
hatch glass to its frame (stuffed in the gap)
...or several of the above?

Cheers,
Trev
 
Trevelyan said:
Just worked out that it is a Houdini Hatch. Does anyone know how to remove the hatch without having to remove the frame?! Picture of the up to date version of the hatch here: http://www.houdini-marine.co.uk/Houdini_hatches.html

Trev
Click to expand...

Reading the link, I would give them a call and ask for advise. I suspect that if the seal between glass and frame has gone then the seal between frame and deck may also be suspect and would also benefit from being redone. If you do find out how to remove the glass and intend to re-bed using Sika then I would advise careful masking up on both sides of frame and glass to avoid it going where you don't want it. For fixing back onto the deck I would use a Butyl tape.

Yoda
 
We had the same problem with our Houdini Super 50 hatch which was 21 years old. After a couple of seasons of trying unsuccessfully to patch it up, we bit the bullet and just bought a new one from Houdini and fitted it. The holes on the frame matched those in the boat perfectly. We sealed it to the hull with Arbomast BR, which comes with the replacement hatch.

We are glad we did it, as we have had leak-free trips (at least from the hatch!) ever since, which is five years now. They are not cheap, but spreading it over 20 years makes it feel better!

It is worth a chat to Houdini themselves, as Yoda says; we found them to be very helpful.

If you are interested, I have described how we replaced our hatch on our blog, under the Refurbishment section.
 
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