Reboot has two fixed windows in the main salon area. There is a third in the aft stateroom. All three are on the side of the hull below the deck. They let in light (great) but also take quite a bit of abuse when sailing upwind at speed. The aft window doesn't take as much abuse but the salon windows are under water a good percentage of the time. The result of all this water flowing past is that the mean time to leaking is the shortest of any window or hatch on the boat. Also, because of their position it is difficult to re-bed them unless the boat is out of the water. I have done it from the dinghy once, I would prefer not to repeat that repair.
I am trying to get all the below deck outside work done so Reboot can be relaunched. I anticipate staying at Sailcraft Service until the end of the month but it is far easier to be in the water - for example the sinks don't drain the dishwater onto the new bottom paint. So today was the re-bed project.
The windows came out quite easily. Usually at least one of the screws is frozen but this wasn't the case. In fact, they were a bit loose, most likely from all of the stresses of the water rushing past. The next steps were easy if tedious. Clean off the old caulk. Replace with 3M 4000 bedding compound. Put it all back together. Elapsed time for both windows - about 4 hours.
Tomorrow I will clean off the extra 4000 and start the long and tiring process of waxing the hull.
Fair winds and following seas :)
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