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| Nice! |
As anyone with a Gulf 32 may know, the cabin doors leave a few things to be desired. For one, they are, in my opinion, rather ugly. The choice of a dark acrylic was maybe alright for the SoCal climate where they were made, but for those of us here in the less solar NW, the darkness is of no benefit and considerably diminished visibility from inside the boat out into the cockpit. The acrylic is held in place by being sandwiched into notches of wood that are part of the wooden frame. Not a bad design, but they leak readily if rain hits the doors. You could caulk it inside or out, but that looks bad if you aren't a magician with caulk. And the design of the wood looks like something out of an old western bar room. To my eye, it was always the most dated and out of place part of my boat.
Between the leaking, the look and a need to revarnish anyway, I decided to go ahead and upgrade my doors. I cut out the old acrylic, cutting right along the reinforcing rectangle of wood that faces the interior of the boat. With this cut out, I then drilled holes through the new, clear acrylic and the doors. I used 5/16" bolts. The acrylic is 3/8" thick. To keep water out, I laid a bead of silicone along the side of the acrylic that would be pressed up against the door. I overlapped the acrylic enough that water would not readily get in. I also rounded the edges of the acrylic with sandpaper.
After varnishing the doors with three good coats, I put it all together and they look great! No more leaks, no more dated looking doors. Unfortunately I had to have nuts on the back side of the bolts, which means when the doors are open, and you lean up against them, you definitely need a cushion between you and the door, but we did that anyway.
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| View of the inside part of door, showing bolt and nut pattern |
