Oh for some fresh air

Time to service the Dorades

Eximius has 2 Dorades with Silicone Vents (those white vent Cowls in the pic) They look pretty nasty, and they do not function. There is a handle on the inside of the boat beneath each cowl that is used to open or close the vent.

The design of the Dorades is meant to keep out water, but the closure facilitates control of the ventilation. One is stuck wide open and the other is stuck fully closed.

The Cowls are Silicone but have been (badly) painted in the past and look awful. Time for a Makeover.

Here are the two vent covers (they would be visible if you could see down the vent cowl). I spent 10 minutes cleaning up the one on the right, compared to the condition prior to cleaning (the one on the left) it looks like this will work out well.

Same idea, this is the screen plate that is attached to the boat under the cowl vent, the one on the right has been cleaned and the screen removed, it looked pretty much like the one on the left.

I replaced the wire bug screen using aluminum screen material from Lowes Home Improvement store.

Getting the center nut off was a problem, 48 hours of PB Blaster applications did nothing to help, so I used my Dremel to cut a slot in the backside of the nut and they came out easy.

Here they are, threads cleaned up, new wire screen (I have a 84" x 36" roll, most of it left over!) and all polished up. They look good.
If I have to replace the screen wire, I have enough for repairs for the next couple of lifetimes.

Last part of the valve covers, I used my thread cutting kit to clean the bolt threads that are on the backside of the covers.

Very pleased with how these turned out.

The Cowls were another story. The surface has been painted, but it looks like the paint was applied before a thorough cleaning, I had to sand them down, soak them in chemical cleaner, douse them in Acetone and smooth out the surfaces with Magic Eraser. Even then, I'm not overly pleased, however, they are 30 year old vents.

Decision made: Paint them Black on the outside and Red on the inside of the Port Vent and Green on the inside of the Starboard vent.

3 Cans of Krylon from Wally World, Red, Green & Black.

Here's the Before and After the initial painting.

I spent a couple of hours cleaning the one on the right then 5 coats of Krylon - A couple more after 48 hours cure time.

Meanwhile, I'll get to work on the other one.

Not bad progress so far.
Plan is to complete the Furler Repair on Wednesday and install the new Tank Monitoring system. Dorade vents should be complete and ready to install Saturday.

Well that took longer than planned due to the 48 hour wait period between coats. But they are finally ready to reinstall. Of course, the zip lock bag that I put all of the screws in is nowhere to be found. Good news is that Lowes had packs of 40 of both types of screws, so I'll have a bunch of screws left over, what's new about that situation?

Finished the install.
I used Butyl Tape to seal the surfaces between the vent 'valve' and the Fiberglass mounting surface and between the Cowl lower part (fixed) and the mounting surface.

Countersank the screw holes in the mounting surface to improve the water seal.

The valve knob (accessible from inside the cabin beneath the vent hole) is set using Loctite.

All cleaned up and looking good

The install took about 30 minutes work on each side, most of that was cleaning up the mounting surface, then applying a bead of Butyl tape around the edge of the Opening Valve as well as filling the holes with tape. They look as though they have been filled with resin and re-drilled previously. I used a sharp blade to remove the silicone caulk that was used on an earlier repair, most of it had shrunk or peeled, it was the residue that took the effort to remove.

Very pleased with the results. Should last a good while now.

That's the last project before we head out for the weekend, plan is to motor down the river, head out for a sail on Friday up to Hillsboro Inlet then up the ditch to Lake Boca. Sunday we'll return the same way. Weather looks good for the whole weekend.

See you on the water!

Paul