BBB2015

I used these (well some black ones from Bimble Solar) to stick down some panels on my boat the other day. I used Tiger Seal PU glue. They seem very effective. Might be worth buying some security screws and a corresponding bit so they are more difficult to steal too.

Thanks Mike and this is why I took a long time to think carefully about this solution. There are many ways to tackle these things all with varying degrees of success. I even considered having some kind of tri-layer polycarbonate moulding made but thought this would look better (it does!). The temporary solution used by myself and the previous owner was an inflatable dingy which was sitting covering the old single glazed hatch. That actually worked perfectly and was also a good insulator but was a bit unsightly to say the least!! As prices have already been mentioned, for the sake of completeness I should say that should it be neccessary to change the internal window - a vacuum double glazed unit of these dimensions (1.6m x 1m) is around £200 but to be honest I don't think it will be required.

Mike I'm not sure if you read my post properly. The purpose of this exercise was not to look at the stars or for ventilation but to resolve a problem that was already in place when I bought the boat. The fact that you get extra light and a view of the sky is a bonus. I already have a glazed window which is underneath the hatch and this is why I have decided it is not neccessary to line the steel hatch fully. The the hatch is already secondary glazed and there is also a blind which acts as an additional barrier from warm air reaching the glass when closed. The hatch was installed in March and I have not experienced any condensation yet and I have a large aquarium on my boat. Should this happen in the winter then I intend to replace the internal glass window with a vacuum double glazed unit - thus triple glazing. Of course there are important considerations when building something like this but I do not envisage condensation being a problem with this design.

You deserve it as it is a great design and an excellent product. I meant to write up about it earlier but was having problems getting into my account and posting here. Thanks again

Hello there I am a new member here so hello to start with! I bought a secondhand boat about a year ago which had a flat skylight panel which inevitably leaked slightly where the glass sealed into the aluminum frame. I spent quite some time looking into a solution and after some consideration found a good solution which I would like to share with anyone who is interested. I decided to have a dog box style hatch built out of steel. I thought it would probably involve less looking after than wood and as my window panes are quite large would support the glass better. My boat is quite modern and I thought a steel hatch would also suit it better. The hatch is 1.6m x 1m and this is what was built. The hatches on either side are single glazed and I retained the original flat window panel for an extra layer of water tightness and a secondary glazing. There is a small air vent each end of the hatch to deal with any day to day condensation between the glazing and the hatches are bolted down so that they can be lifted for cleaning. The inner hatch is bolted into a steel window aperture and the new outer dog box style hatch is screwed into the roof. This means that we can still remove the hatch and window should we need to lift large items out of the boat (albeit with a bit of hassle) and I have sealed the screw heads with paint. The result is attractive and 100% watertight and we are very pleased. The inner wood trim even matches the american oak in our lounge! Here is the view from the inside: I hope this helps anyone who is considering a solution to a similar problem as it took me a while to decide how to tackle this. Martin at Kedian Engineering manufactured this. I had heard good things about him on the internet and he surpassed even my high standards. Hope this is of interest to some fellow boaters.