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Hatches and Portlights
Doors and Hatches
Freeman Marine, www.FreemanMarine.com makes doors, hatches, and portlights for both fancy yachts and commercial boats and they are great about showing detail diagrams and photos so the do-it-yourselfer can see how they are built.
This is a modification of an cleaver idea I saw somewhere. The portlight is 1" thick acrylic with 1" thick acrylic wedges glued on to each end. As the portlight is dropped into it's frame the wedges push it against the hull and seal it against a gasket. To get ventilation into the cabin, you grab the handles on the top of the wedges, lift the portlight out, turn it around and drop it back in so that the wedges hold the portlight open against it's frame. Air can then flow through the opening at the top and window screen on the top prevents the mosquitoes from following. While the port is open, any rain will run down the acrylic to the bottom of the frame and through two small drain holes, fore and aft.
Pilot House Viewports
School Bus WindowsFor the pilot house it was suggested that we check into school bus windows. The pilot house windows need to open and their is no threat to flooding should they be broken in a storm. There might be a buss sitting out in some field with the windows we need but getting them from the local junk yard is not an option. There is a local company that refurbishes buses and they strip the windows out of the buses before they are junked and sell them to replace vandalized windows. The cost per window is about $160 and that window measures 18" h x 24" w. So if you can't afford just the windows, then buy the whole bus! We got this off Craigslist for $500; running, with a full tank of gas. We just drove the windows home. We'll sell off the engine and other parts we don't need and keep the windows, steel frames, and anything else that might come in handy. We've been stripping the Bus and we've stored the foam from the seats with is actually fire resistant. Most of the seats had 2 vinyl fabric covers over then so we now have material for Kay to sew into covers for the welders and plasma torch boxes as well as cable covers. It also yielded a large amount of sheet metal that will be put to use making a larger model as well has templates and metal art work for the patio.
Resourceswww.sdplastics.com
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