port hole gaskets

[Warren Daniels]

I have several gaskets leaking on the port holes on my boat and I tried a search under several different things to find the gaskets but to no avail.  Is the search feature working properly?

Warren

[admin]

Yes, it is working properly, but no one has talked about gaskets on this site yet and the old messages from Topica have not yet been moved.

Ten years ago we had the same problem with the brass ports leaking on Thistledown. We had a rubber extruding company run out a minimal order of the 2 sizes we needed.

Dave

[Warren Daniels]

My bad, thought the old threads had been brought over.
Warren

[Soggy Paws]

Warren,

We replaced all our port gaskets two years ago as did Jim Dill on Chilly Pepper. 

If you measure the lengths and diameters (3 different sizes) you will find them to be standard stock through Lewis Marine in Fla.

Any marine store that deals with Lewis can get them for you.  They are square outside with a round hole inside and made of proper material for marine use.  We installed them with contact cement after cleaning out the port troughs thoroughly. 

The seam should be up when the port is closed.  I believe I wrote a post on this in response to a thread on Topica within the past year.  It is an easy job and well worthwhile.

Dave

[Warren Daniels]

Thanks all for the responses.
 
When I get back to the boat this Nov, I'll look up Lewis Marine and grab a bunch for installing and spares.

Warren

[Soggy Geek]

Here's the link to the Lewis Marine catalog page with the port hole gaskets on it.

http://www.lewismarine.com/show_catalog ... 9&Page=252

It is a small item down at the bottom right corner of the page, entitled 'Portlight Gasket'.

[lexushiggins]

Hi all
We have leaky windows, some dripping quite badly, on our CSY37, here in the UK I have not yet found a supplier of a suitable seal/gasket.  Lewis Marine were recommended, so I got in touch with them just a few days ago.  Sadly they have informed me that they are unable to supply any more of the portlight gasket as previously used, as perko have stopped making it, they even searched their warehouse for any spare lengths for me , but non was found.

Anybody got any other possible contacts?

Cheers
Sue

[Soggy Geek]

Hi Susan, welcome to the CSY Owners group!

I am sorry to hear that the other gasket material isn't available any longer.

Hi Susan, welcome to the CSY Owners group!

I am sorry to hear that the other gasket material isn't available any longer.  But I googled 'port gasket' on the internet and find that a Hans Christian owner says this:

When we bought our boat in September of 2000 the original rubber gaskets on the ports (the rubber that seals the port or window to make it watertight when it’s closed) were dried out and shot. No doubt they were still the original ones from 1979. With the recommendation of some fellow members of the Hans Christian Owners Association I picked up some 3/8" round EPDM foam rubber from McMaster Carr part number 8605K43 and replaced the gaskets. They’ve sealed well ever since and if I ever need to replace a gasket again I’ll be able to do it in about 5 minutes.

The post goes on to discuss how well this round gasket material works as opposed to the square gasket material, and they reported it works well.  You might need to do a little checking about the size of your channel on your gaskets versus what sizes are offered in this material.

The link to that discussion is here:
http://sailsugata.com/post/replacing-port-gaskets

When I followed their link to the exact McMaster page on the website, it came back as a 'we're sorry', so you might have to search for it a little: '3/8" round EPDM foam rubber'. 

The Mcmaster website is pretty easy to navigate.

http://mcmaster.com

Please come back and tell us what you found.  And if anyone else has an alternate solution, pipe up!

Sherry

[lexushiggins]

Thanks Sherry

Thanks for the links, i'll give them ago,

Sue

[Warren Daniels]

I just did a search for "Perko Portlight Gaskets" and had several hits for the Perko "Y" gaskets in the open cell foam which I think is the EPDM material.    It only comes in ten foot lengths and in widths from 1/4 to 7/16.  Or so it says.

Warren

[lexushiggins]

Hi all

We now have a DRY nav table, we have finally managed to get a seal that fits and works in our portholes.   

www.sealsdirect.co.uk

They sell an Expanded Neoprene Foam, skinned on 4 sides.  This has the hollow centre which enables it to be squeezed and pressed in to the porthole groove giving a nice tight fit, (it looks similar to the seal which was previously made by Perko and sold by Lewis Marine)  The 10mm x 10mm fits perfectly in to our 9mm groove. so we decided not to use glue.  So far it has only been in for 2 wks but not a drip and we have had a lot of rain.

Cheers
Sue

[lexushiggins]

I would just like to add;

If anybody looks at the website, there is a rubber semi-compressible portlight seal 10mm x 10mm further down the (marine and caravans windows) list.   This is what we purchased first, but it would not stay in the groove. It was too firm to be squeezed and pushed all the way in, as soon as we released it, it popped straight out.

A few choice words were used by Mike but to no avail!!!

The trouble here in the UK is we can only purchase metric, nobody makes imperial sizes anymore, maybe this would have suited if it had been slightly thinner.

Sue

[Soggy Geek]

When I did a search today for the product mentioned in this thread, 8605K43 at mcmaster.com, it came up with this link.

https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/126/3800

The 8605K43 product is 100 ft length of 3/8" round EPDM Foam Cord.  You CAN buy it in 10 ft lengths, using product code 8605K122, for only $6.

Sherry

[Soggy Geek]

Also, someone on the CSY Owners Group on Facebook posted this item, available from Defender.  It is more similar to what we last used on Soggy Paws (3/8 inch square with a hole in the middle).

https://www.defender.com/product.jsp?id=2854847

The 3/8" version is 1.69/ft, so the McMaster stuff below is cheaper, but this material is more like what was originally there.

Sherry