Tuesday 21 February 2012

First Look at Portholes & Hatches

We made a number of boat design decisions at the beginning of this project.  Portholes instead of windows, and houdini hatches to let in more light plus allowing summer heat to escape.  The houdini hatches will have blackout and insect screens.  Minimal brass; I’ve polished enough of that in my life thank you! We wanted to be cool in summer and warm in winter.  Hence the decision to double insulate the walls and ceiling as well as having insulation under the floor.  Finally we decided all the glass would be double glazed.

Today we unpacked our portholes and houdini’s so we could finally see what we had ordered.

First impression was, they are very solidly built.  The top half opens which allowed me to see the thickness of the frame.

The distance between the inner and outer surfaces of the double glazing is approximately one inch (25mm).

The houdini hatches also have a very solid feel about them.  Prior to examining them I though they might be the security “weakpoint” in the boat but I’ve now changed my mind.

They are actually quite heavy and the thickness of the double glazing is very similar to the portholes.  We are quite pleased with the quality of the product. 

Hopefully they will all be fitted either later this week or early next week.

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