Windows in hull

[pmagowan]

This is not about a northern version of Microsoft!

I was wondering what people's opinions were on windows set into the hull of a yacht. Obviously they let light in down below and often at a height that is convenient when seated. However they look a bit odd to me from the outside and surely they pose a risk to the watertightness and integrity. Would you cut a big hole in a fair hull to put them in?

 

[pvb]

They're usually fairly substantial items, designed for the purpose. I've got them on my boat and rather like them. Can't see that they're any more of a risk to watertightness than underwater skin fittings.

 

[johnalison]

They always look odd to me. The old HRs had windows in the blue line and in styling terms that looked OK and they are well above the waterline in stiff boats. They also had the advantage of having metal frames, which, true or not, looks more substantial.

I'm sure that Benetaus and Bavarias and others are carefully engineered but I always wonder what would happen if the boat fell off a wave in heavy weather onto the window. Probably nothing, but that doesn't make me like them.

 

[lpdsn]

This is not about a northern version of Microsoft!

I was wondering what people's opinions were on windows set into the hull of a yacht. Obviously they let light in down below and often at a height that is convenient when seated. However they look a bit odd to me from the outside and surely they pose a risk to the watertightness and integrity. Would you cut a big hole in a fair hull to put them in?

Faced with having to take them out to replace the Sikaflex over the winter, curses on them.

Generally, maintenance apart, I don't think they're at all dangerous. The modern big rectangular ones on the more recent Beneteaus & Jeanneaus just look ugly though,

 

[nauticalnomad]

I was at HISWA last week (The Dutch attempt at a boat show) Where they jack the prices up due to the inconvenience of having to leave their place of business to come and show their wares..
I saw this boat and they were advertising for potential clients for new builds....

 

[Greenheart]

I had reason to drive one of the most dreadful-looking cars I've ever encountered, this morning...the Nissan Cube...

...it very nearly lives up to its name - just as awkwardly tall and angular as sportier cars are low and svelte...

...but oh my lord, it was comfortable, and spacious, with great visibility. A genuine pleasure...

...so while I have profound detestation for the aesthetic characteristics of black rectangular windows in yachts' sides, I'm forced to admit that what they contribute to the cabin space within, must easily make up for their outward visual unsubtlety.

Regarding safety, remember how Westerly's Riviera windscreen suffered from the public's doubts about such a large expanse of glass encountering green water...

...the company took pains to immerse the superstructure 5ft under water, and the screen apparently didn't leak a drop. So I doubt the topside-windows in AWBs are even a remote liability.

 

[VicS]

I had reason to drive one of the most dreadful-looking cars I've ever encountered, this morning...the Nissan Cube...

..

Somehow or the other Googling Nissan cube lead me to the Sexyladiesfastcars . com website. I think i have found the source of some of lakesailor's pictures

 

[Tam Lin]

Windows in hulls - just not right!

 

[maby]

We have them and would not consider a boat without them - but, on the other hand, our boat seldom goes more than 10 miles offshore and we would not willingly be out in more than a force 6. If we were blue water sailors, they would not be there.

 

[bitbaltic]

Can't see that they're any more of a risk to watertightness than underwater skin fittings.

I'm sure they're no greater a risk in terms of the security and strength of individual fittings, but more holes in the hull = more risk. For me hull windows would be less necessary than (at least the minimum) skin fittings.

I don't have any hull windows on my boat but at 30ft she's too small to need them. On larger AWBs I always look at them with suspicion but I've never seen or heard of any problems.

 

[KellysEye]

I remeber a Jeanneau 37, that has windows in the fore cabin, sank off Virgin Gorda, BVIs when the windows were left open. When divers went down to bring it up it was sitting upright on the bottom with the sails still up.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

This is not about a northern version of Microsoft!

I was wondering what people's opinions were on windows set into the hull of a yacht. Obviously they let light in down below and often at a height that is convenient when seated. However they look a bit odd to me from the outside and surely they pose a risk to the watertightness and integrity. Would you cut a big hole in a fair hull to put them in?

The structural reinforcement around a window in a hull opening should make the opening stronger than the non reinforced hull itself and if the window material and fastening is designed correctly then there should be no loss of strength. These days you get thin clear plastic that one can fire a shotgun at, for example, which will not break. Most of the big windows in modern superyachts are also glued in. Sikaflex have written an article on this and examples of good design practise for glueing windows to hulls. Aesthetically I think they look nice if aft of the beam, not forward of it, but that is a personal opinion of course.

 

[RupertW]

We've got 5 of them and apart from the oddity of 3 on one side, and 2 on the other I am very happy with them for blue water sailing but would not be if they were opening windows. Even the low opening windows are above side deck level apart from the two in the cockpit benches.

The only truly annoying (but probably not dangerous) opening windows were large hatch style ones in between the hulls of a catamaran I sailed for a while. Day after day the aft cabins would get seawater in as they leaked and were so low that the peak of any normal wave would be half way up. Lots of duct tape was a temporary fix but I'm not a fan.

 

[johnalison]

Styling is a matter of individual taste I suppose. Some of the French boats with shaped windows that look like a discus side-on aren't bad, but the Bavaria ship-of-the-line style leaves me cold. This is odd because we sail to Germany often and I normally admire their sense of design and general visual awareness.

 

[JumbleDuck]

The modern big rectangular ones on the more recent Beneteaus & Jeanneaus just look ugly though,

I am sure they could be done well, but too many makers just seem to stick 'em any old where without any consideration for aesthetics. I suspect that's because they are hastily retrofitting them to existing interior layouts to meet a current trend and rather than designing from scratch. Motorboats are particularly bad for this, but the yacht builders you mention are pretty god-awful too. Like open transoms with rectangular apertures inside and hard corners round the outside, they will look very. very dated very, very fast.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Escape hatches are mandatory for Offshore Multihull Racing. Although they are not exactly attractive they do serve a good purpose in allowing escape for crewmen who are trapped underneath an inverted multi. Granted that they are usually between the hulls and are therefore not so evident aesthetically. Here is a typical one from Goiot; note the number of securing handles.

 

[Tranona]

My old boat had one each side in the saloon, both opening. Very useful for extra ventilation in the Med, but too small for any viewing. Never leaked, nor did I worry about integrity and it did break up the visual size of the topsides. New boat has one, non opening in the aft cabin adding to light in there.

 

[bitbaltic]

The structural reinforcement around a window in a hull opening should make the opening stronger than the non reinforced hull itself and if the window material and fastening is designed correctly then there should be no loss of strength.

Yes, 'should'. Bet DeHaviland said something similar about the comet

It reminds me a bit of a conversation between a newbie mobo chap and the RNLI. The RNLI were saying something about water coming through a hole in the hull at a thousand gpm; the chap opined that he had a 2000 gpm bilge pump. Impeccable logic which prompted a friend of mine to remark that the chap hardly needed a hull at all.

 

[John the kiwi]

Don't think of them as windows so much as potential Gunports.
Royal Navy.- putting the Great into Britain since 1660!

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Yes, 'should'. Bet DeHaviland said something similar about the comet ....

I imagine that the likes of Bavaria know how to manufacture a strong window in a hull, compared to the likes of me armed with a ruler, felt tipped pen, drill, jigsaw, balsa, FRP, epoxy and Sikaflex (and a sheet of Perspex). DeHaviland didn't understand how to do that until later, maybe they should have asked a boiler maker.