Resealing Windows
24 October 2015
Richard
Several of the pilothouse windows had started leaking. This seemed to be due to the sealant (put on in 2009) being too thin. One window was resealed in mid-Pacific earlier this year.
In late winter, Carolina (mostly) and I removed several windows, scraped off the old sealant, put new sealant on and reinstalled the windows. After waiting a day, we tightened the mounting bolts (to avoid squeezing out the sealant), ran a bead around the outside and smoothed it into a nice curve by finger.
Finding a sealant that would work was a bit of a task. All the marine sealants that I am familiar with (3M 5200, various Sikaflex ones) need the temperature to be at least 10C. In Castro winters, where we were then, it isn't that warm.
Thinking that people still install windows during the winter, and house and car windows out in the rain and wind would require similar sealants to what boats would, we asked a local glass shop what to use. They sold me some Xin Wang polyurethane sealant (only available in black), which worked well at those temperatures. The windows no longer leak.