UV crazed ports/hatches

[nicho]

Do you put up with these? As we were looking at second hand boats this year, it seemed they all suffered. In the end we bought a 2001 Gibsea, superb condition, and a glowing survey, but the hatches and most ports are UV crazed. I was going to replace the Perspex (or whatever it is) but it is expensive, and I'm sort of used to it now.

 

[ditchcrawler]

When I bought my boat(Moody31) the forecabin hatch was crazed.The surveyor said that previously he had condemned such hatches until he took one at home which was crazed and tried to break it with a sledgehammer.He failed.The crazing as you say is UV and unlikely to be structural.I still have the crazed hatch and put up with it as the forecabin is only used for sleeping.

 

[Cardo]

I find the crazed hatches provide a decent bit of privacy to the cabins!

 

[KAM]

Have a look at this.

http://www.mysailing.com.au/news/how-to-fix-crazed-acrylic

Just had a go on a test piece the crazing was 0.75mm deep on a 15mm hatch so not much loss of strength. Its relatively easy to abrade and polish up but I think it may be a nightmare to restore any sort of reasonable optical appearance. Not sure if I want to try the whole hatch.

 

[PetiteFleur]

When I bought my boat(Moody31) the forecabin hatch was crazed.The surveyor said that previously he had condemned such hatches until he took one at home which was crazed and tried to break it with a sledgehammer.He failed.The crazing as you say is UV and unlikely to be structural.I still have the crazed hatch and put up with it as the forecabin is only used for sleeping.

I also replaced the windows in my Jaguar 27 some years ago. I also had great trouble trying to break thr old ones - had to put in a vice and take a swing with a club hammer - and ittook several attemps before it broke. It was 6mm thick. I'm not going to bother replacing the hatches on my current boat, they are 10mm thick so I'm not bothered about them breaking when I'm sailing.