The Saga of the Opening Ports 

Dr. Dave's boat came with cheap plastic opening ports not suitable for blue water cruising. We didn't think it would be a problem to yank the plastic ports out and slam some nice new shiny stainless steel ports in. Sounds easy doesn't it? New ports of the proper size were ordered. The following photo (from the inside looking out), shows what we found when we pulled out a plastic port. The cut out for the ports were jagged holes filled with putty!

The cut outs had to be made smooth and the right size. 'Ever tried to make a hole smaller? Here's what we did: Templates were made to fit the nose of the new ports and screwed to the inside and outside of the cabin side. Epoxy and micro fibers were used to fill the gap.

The result was a nice smooth hole that fit the port with only enough clearance for bedding compound. This procedure was repeated for each of the ten ports.

The thickness of the cabin sides made the port noses stick outside the cabin too far (they would have bitten ankles), so teak rings were made to extend the ports half an inch inboard.

And since the cabin sides are at an angle, the screw holes in the inside ring and outside ring wouldn't line up. "T" Fastenings were embedded in the outside of the cabin so there would be something to screw the inside ring to. Here's what the surveyor said.

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