Porthole seals worn out, looking for supplier

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cygnusv

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A couple of my 64 year old portholes are leaking. The seals have compressed over the decades and they now drip a bit in medium / heavy rain. I have no idea what the original sealing material would have been. The seals have an i.d. of 115mm and an o.d. of 125. Fortunately, out of a total of 8 portholes, there are only 2 that face forward and these are the ones that are leaking.

Any thoughts?
 
cygnusv said:
A couple of my 64 year old portholes are leaking. The seals have compressed over the decades and they now drip a bit in medium / heavy rain. I have no idea what the original sealing material would have been. The seals have an i.d. of 115mm and an o.d. of 125. Fortunately, out of a total of 8 portholes, there are only 2 that face forward and these are the ones that are leaking.

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Probably just cut lengths of neoprene .

That age could be catapult elastic even

Have a look at Seals Direct
 
The ones that I had on my old boat were 6mm (IIRC) round section rubber. Think "O" ring. I just got a length of O ring material, cut to length, and glued the ends with superglue. If however, yours are a flat section rubber, I'm sure you could do something similar.
 
cygnusv said:
Thanks very much folks

Seals Direct had the material and I've ordered it.
Click to expand...


If it is rubber you had in there, I can recommend that you change it for round expanded neoprene, from seals Direct.
Its far superior to rubber, takes the strain from the hinges and thumbscrews and makes opening and closing a port hole a pleasure. It seals better with less pressure.
Put the join at the top!
 
Squirt a very thin bead of black silicone sealant round on top of the old seal, very sparinglywipe a film of grease on the corresponding mating surface to stop the sealant sticking, then lightly close the port.
Job done.
 
Try to clean the rubber and then apply a coat of vaseline cream.Let the portholes open not latched for a couple of days if possible.The rubber absorbs the vaseline and swells. That did my job on mine
 
Had the same problem on some old Lewmar oval ports. One was dripping on the galley and the other over the chart table. Bought some neoprene from seals direct, but found it was not much proud of the groove in the ally, so (time was short) put a bead of Sika 11FC in the groove and carefully replaced the neoprene cord with a constant exposed height. Did the trick.

Oh, and did put the join at the top. These ports were inclined and that compromised the built in drains.
 
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