Anyone have experience cutting in new portholes for CD25

[JONESY]

Hi,
I know enough to be dangerous on boat restoration, but i am a pretty handy finish carpenter - so once i have the technique, should be in good shape. so here is the question. I own a beautiful CD25 in great shape where it counts, but its an earlier version, and i really want to "convert" it over with the bronze portholes.

it will involve filling in areas of fiber and gel coat as well as making other areas enlarged to receive larger bronze portholes (which i assume to be the relatively easy part -have a great little Fein tool that should make easy work of this).

Has anyone done this, or can folks offer me advice? much appreciated in advance.

Thanks

[Joe CD MS 300]

Jonesy,

Before you start sawing away check out New Founds Metals (NFM)website.

http://www.newfoundmetals.com/

My CD is an 86 and came with the white plastic ports that were used on a zillion boats of the era. I'm guessing that you may have some thing similar.

I think mine were 5 X 12's and NFM had a direct replacement bronze port. They look good and are very well made. NFM has a very good website with very detailed instructions for measuring which ports you need and installation. My yard did the replacement but it was pretty much a direct swap. The company is also very nice to work with. They are not the exact shape of the stock bronze CD ports but would be a hell of a lot less work if there is a direct swap for the old plastic ones. I think they may be cheaper than the Spartan ports also.

Joe

[JONESY]

Joe,

thanks for the info, and yes that would be great. heres the problem, I have spent a good few hours searching online (portlight section on the board etc) - but one of the port lights is actually very large (and not particularly well scaled to the boat in my opinion) - its 30" by 5" and i cant see that anyone makes that large an opening port light. if anyone knows any different, then would welcome any info, as it will save a bunch of time.

[Ron M.]

I had a CD25 10 yrs. ago and had considered changing over to opening ports. I wanted the ventilation and appreciated the more traditional, salty look. I decided however, I would most likely move up in the near future and couldn't justify the expense.........not to mention the fiberglass and gel-coat work involved. I don't think you will find a 30" long port, and if you could it probably wouldn't conform properly to the cabin side which has some amount of curve to it.
The smaller port forward would likely accommodate a slightly larger opening port. Much easier to make a small hole in fiberglass bigger than to make a big hole smaller.
In the meantime enjoy your boat, the 25 sails wonderfully .
________
Honda Cb200

[JONESY]

Ron,

thanks for the follow up. to answer your question, i dont know! i have sailed all my life and have shared much bigger boats, and race in sag harbor during the summer on a larger boat, but i can honestly say, i have never sailed a boat that is as beautifully balanced as the cd25 (maybe apart from a contesa 32 back in the uk 15 years ago). so, i have pretty much decided to invest the time and money in renovating her. this notice board is so brilliant for info, i just figured that i might be reinventing the wheel. i am actually thinking of replacing the ports with the same ports as on the cd28 (about 5 by 14 inches). they look great in my opinion and seem very functional too.

[Dave Brandt]

I replaced the ports on my 1976 CD-25 during restoration. I had a thrifty attack and used Beckson plastic ports. I am very happy with them, but for aesthetic reasons I wish I would used bronze. It is a fairly big project and I am very pleased with the results.

There are some photos of the port replacement project on my Flickr site under "restoration"

http://www.flickr.com/photos/9447350@N04/

Dave

[JONESY]

Dave,

Thanks for the link and what a fabulous restoration project you did. you have given me a lot of great ideas, just spent an hour or so looking through the pictures. it appears the sequence on the port replacement was to remove, re -fiberglass and then recut on the stern ports? the forward ports look to be fairly straightforward from what i can decipher as they are bigger than the existing. do you recall what size ports you used to replace the former one large port?

can figure out most of the changes you made and all make good sense to me having owned and sailed "dash" for a couple of years. can i also ask where you got the traveller from? my original drives me crazy?

thanks again in advance for your help. will keep you posted.

Chris

[Dave Brandt]

I looked up the Beckson part number and the ports were
PO512-WC-10# or PO512-WC-10 ( fixed or opening ). They are 5"x12"x1". There are 4 ports per side, two opening and two fixed. It required a bit of work to fill in the middle of the single long fixed port to accommodate two new ports and to fill the gap between the cabin liner and the cabin top. When I removed the old ports the gap between the cabin liner and the cabin top was kind of filled with scrap wood from shipping cartons! I made plywood shims and epoxied them in place.

The main sheet traveler was on the boat when I bought it, it's an older Harkin that was mounted across the cockpit seats. I remounted it close to where the original one was using a teak mounting. I like the traveler, seems to work great.

Dave