Replacement windows Swan 41(Trinket) I am sure that I have seen a post about replacing the acrylic windows, but I cannot find it. As we are painting the deck moulding,we decided to remove the covers (are these GRP?) and windows. They came off very easily, the mastic not bonding to the acrylic at all. The original windows are almost opaque now, and I would like to replace them. The choice would be toughened glass or acrylic. I favour toughened glass, however there may be disadvantages with fitting this. Any comments please.
PS new toerails are on, not too bad a job provided one accepts that the interior must be substantially stripped out to get quick access to all the bolts. The new toerail kits from Nautor were superb quality.
These were helpful, but did not consider the use of glass rather than acrylic. I believe that Lexan is just a trade name for acrylic, also called perspex ( or is Lexan polycarbonate?). One problem that I can foresee using glass is that there is a very slight forward to aft curve in the windows, which would not be possible with glass. There might also be a thermal expansion problem. I believe that polycarbonate is very strong and is used for bullet proof screens, so perhaps it could be thinner than the 6mm originals?
Dear Cosmo Little
Lexan is polycarbonate, and the ISO-standard dealing with windows specifies lower strength and stiffness for polycarbonate than for acrylic.
It appears the bullet proof characteristics do not help here.
If you choose polycarbonate take care to not allow it to heat up during machining and drilling, this will develop cracks later.
Glass has much lower thermal expansion than the two plastic materials.
Said before - there needs to be fairly thick layers of sealant in order to cope with the expansion. Sikaflex Marine advice recommended.
Kind regards
Lars
We installed auto glass in our 44 Hatha, 2nd time we've done this over the years. Yes there is a slight curvature in the aftermost windows, and this time I came back the next day to find one had cracked. Relatively easy and inexpensive to replace, and no problems since. I just was a little more careful bedding into the polysulfate and tightening the screws in the frame.
The auto glass is laminated 2 thin layers with plastic in between, you need to find someone to provide and cut to your templates. Once it's in you don't have to worry so much about scratching or crazing like plastic
