Lewmar windows

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tel1

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ok, so went to eastbourne from portsmouth yesterday, got an absoulote pounding. and low and be hold found new leaks! most of my lewmar hatches leak, i have some big square deck hatches and some little side window ones. i belive its the rubber seals on all hatches that have gone. do they do a new seal kit?? and if so where can i purchase it???

ive removed a little side window this morning, pictures attached. where my finger is does anyone know what this stuff is? i dont think its sikaflex but it goes on the window where the window touches the grp on the outside. i hope ive explained it correctly. i only removed the window to see how the seal goes in!

the white stuff in my hand is what my finger is pointing at on the window. it feels like some kind of putty or something.

many thanks in advance
 
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tel1 said:
the white stuff in my hand is what my finger is pointing at on the window. it feels like some kind of putty or something.

many thanks in advance
Click to expand...

I have Lewmar portlights and hatches too. I had a portlight repaired professionally last year for a leak too. The sealant fortunately was a putty which meant it was possible to remove the portlight without breaking it. The chandler said sometimes sikaflex is used which means that if there is a leak the portlight or hatch must be broken to remove and repair.

I suppose it is best to purchase such putty at a chandler to get a marine grade one.

I was wondering if you could let me know how you removed it, I did not do the job myself because I could not find how to leverage the frame without breaking something.
 
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haydude said:
I have Lewmar portlights and hatches too. I had a portlight repaired professionally last year for a leak too. The sealant fortunately was a putty which meant it was possible to remove the portlight without breaking it. The chandler said sometimes sikaflex is used which means that if there is a leak the portlight or hatch must be broken to remove and repair.

I suppose it is best to purchase such putty at a chandler to get a marine grade one.

I was wondering if you could let me know how you removed it, I did not do the job myself because I could not find how to leverage the frame without breaking something.
Click to expand...

all i have is a plastic covering on the inside of the boat, i pulled that off gentley and it revealed loads of screws around the frame i then unscrwed all of these and this removed the metal frame on the inside. i could then pull the whole window out. i think putty is best, im going to have a hunt around. a new window is expensive and using sikaflex will mean a new window if i ever have to remove it again.

still need to source the new rubber seal though. anybody know where this can be obtained?
 
lewmar website

Just ordered new seals for the portlight hatches and the deck hatches. very hard to find the correct size as it does not say size on the hatch. only orderd two seals at the mo to make sure ive got the right ones. not cheap though, £65 for two seals then £9 postage!!!!

at that price i expect them to be at my door by tuesday!
 
Having had a few small leaks last year, I took all windows out and sent away to Eagle Boat Windows to have acrylic replaced (18 years old and very crazed). Windows came out easy enough with the same kind of sealant you describe which is a non-setting type. Eagle supplied a butyl non-setting sealant to seal the windows when refitting. All worked well, no problems and the non-setting sealant will allow the windows to be removed again if needs be.

Lots written before in this forum re not using sealant materials with adhesive properties due to difficulties of getting the windows out again in the future.
 
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tel1 said:
ok, so went to eastbourne from portsmouth yesterday, got an absoulote pounding. and low and be hold found new leaks! most of my lewmar hatches leak, i have some big square deck hatches and some little side window ones. i belive its the rubber seals on all hatches that have gone. do they do a new seal kit?? and if so where can i purchase it???

ive removed a little side window this morning, pictures attached. where my finger is does anyone know what this stuff is? i dont think its sikaflex but it goes on the window where the window touches the grp on the outside. i hope ive explained it correctly. i only removed the window to see how the seal goes in!

the white stuff in my hand is what my finger is pointing at on the window. it feels like some kind of putty or something.

many thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Ahh - think I'm in the same boat as you - my Bene has the same portlights and I've got a few leaks as well. Been rummaging around various forums and came across the following link that I think applies to the leaks I've got:

http://goreads.com/lewmar_port_light__fix.htm

At first I reckoned it was the black rubber seal that was leaking, so I took one out, cleaned it and refitted it. No better. I then tried tightening the screws that hold the inner and outer frames together. No better again. So, I'm now pretty confident that the leaks are due to the small gaskets that sit between the outside top and bottom frames.

I've just tried (tonight) tried some Captain Tolleys fluid, so will know soon whether I'm on the right lines.

I decided to try anything that didn't need the outer frame to be removed as it seemed pretty securely fitted. From past experience, anything that looks tricky usually is, and breaks just to prove it!

Hope this helps.

David.
 
Tel - You didn't mention where you had ordered the seals from (although it's late so I may have just not noticed).

Regarding the non-setting butyl rubber based sealant that a few others have mentioned. I believe that Eagle.. and the original Moody windows.. were bedded in Arbomast BR.

This is available off the shelf at Port Solent for less than the cost of any of the setting sealants that you would not want to use anyway! £4.90 / tube.

http://www.marine-super-store.com/posit/shop/index.php?selectedpartno=06030

Do a search for Arbomast BR and you will find it has been mentioned on a few previous ybw threads.
 
I have those ports on my Bav44. I doubt it will be the black rubber seal unless it is dirty or damaged. In my case the seal between the main port frame and the GRP was foam impregnated with some type of mastic. Where I had leaks it was where the foam strip did not properly engage with the GRP due to mis alignment or not quite sitting correctly at the corners.

Over time I removed all my ports, cleaned off the old sealing gunk and laid a fine bead of silicone in a channel on the inside surface of the port then refitted the backing plate inside screwing the many screws in a sequence to ensure an even clamping action ( a bit like tightening the head nuts on a motor). No leaks since but if I were to do it a gain I would use some ot the non-setting butyl mastic instead of the silicone, but I did not have any available at the time.
 
haydude said:
The chandler said sometimes sikaflex is used which means that if there is a leak the portlight or hatch must be broken to remove and repair.
Click to expand...
Some Chandlers talk rot!

I have just fitted a new Lewmar portlight to provide more light/ventilation to the galley in our boat. The instructions from Lewmar specifically say to use a mastic/sealing compound on the frame when you bolt it to the hull.

I guess you can try a non setting putty, but I use Sika Flex - and I have removed loads of items that are bedded on the stuff without breaking things...
 
dje67 said:
I decided to try anything that didn't need the outer frame to be removed as it seemed pretty securely fitted. From past experience, anything that looks tricky usually is, and breaks just to prove it!

Hope this helps.

David.
Click to expand...
My guess is that you will end up having to grit your teeth and remove the frame and re-bed it on some sort of mastic. The Lewmar portlights are not hard to take off. The only problem might be that the s/s screws have corroded themselves into the frame of the portlight. You can drill the heads off the machine screws if they won't budge in situ and then the whole thing will come off the grp easily to leave you with the remainder of the screws to soak in oil and boiling water etc and then use a mole grips to remove.

The way these things are mounted is that the frame of the port light is 'clamped' onto the grp by the action of the screws round the edge. There are lots of screws - 10 on a size 0 Lewmar portlight - and I know because I just fitted one!
 
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Well, we had a spot or two of rain (i.e.torrential downpour) in Largs last night and, for the first time, I has no water ingress on any of the portlights. So, so far I'm still pretty confident that the water is getting in through the small gasket between the top and bottom frames. Tolley seems to have done the trick, thus far.

BTW I have already been round all the securing screws and all are now hand tight. Several seemed to be very loose, though I didn't see signs of water ingress in those areas of the frame.
 
I had the same problem with leaks in my Lewmar windows. After many attempts at replacing rubber seals etc etc I discovered the same thing...... The water was getting in through the gap between the top and bottom frames on the outside. Sealed them up and have had no further problems hopefully.
 
I too found that many screws were loose but unrelated to water ingress. I suspect the screws can come loose if they were not originally because of the slight movement/flexing of the coachroof and the ultimate drying and perhaps shrinkage of the original filler. As to where the water comes from, don't forget water can make its way along many a tortuous path from the initial ingress point before we see where it drips out.
It sounds like you are on the right track by fixing the seal between the main frame and the GRP.
 
Guys,

A quick test. If you suspect a leak on the rubber seal between metal frame and acrylic, put a piece of ordinary writing paper in the window where you suspect the leak to be and shut the window. Then try to remove the paper. If it is gripped firmly, it is very unlikely to be the source of the leak.

Further, if the paper is loose, you can unscrew the metal "forks" which the plastic handles engage into. Behind each catch-block is a rubber packer; taking this out and reattaching the catch-block will increase seal pressure and in many cases stop any leak.

Hope that is of help to some of you,

BR, Ben (yes I am attached to Lewmar)
 
Well, I stoped in Eastbourne for a day and as it was nice enough to remove a window, as seen in the pics. The sealent stuff that was on there was well worn. I replaced it with a sealent (not sikaflex) and so far no leaks. I have a seal on order for my heads window as I'm fairly sure that seal has gone ( the windows are 20 years old almost) but if the seal does not stop the leak I think I shall remove the window and re bed. As for my leaky for hatch, I've now sourced the leak. The rivets that hold the plastic bit on the frame for the window to dog down onto have holes in! So at the weekend I shall drill out the old rivets and replace with new ones which don't have holes in!
 
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