Building cabin windows

[SScoville]

I am considering building a cruiser/house/shanty type boat and would like to make my own cabin windows. I've seen designs for hatches and doors in various books, but never for a hinged window - with screens! (We're out of the drought here in S.C. and have the mosquitoes to prove it!).

Anyone know of any designs for this type of thing? I understand that leaky windows are a common problem in boats so I want something sound if I am going to build them instead of buying marine grade windows.

[peter radclyffe]

I am considering building a cruiser/house/shanty type boat and would like to make my own cabin windows. I've seen designs for hatches and doors in various books, but never for a hinged window - with screens! (We're out of the drought here in S.C. and have the mosquitoes to prove it!).

Anyone know of any designs for this type of thing? I understand that leaky windows are a common problem in boats so I want something sound if I am going to build them instead of buying marine grade windows.
you can buy a house window, then copy it

[Larks]

I am considering building a cruiser/house/shanty type boat and would like to make my own cabin windows. I've seen designs for hatches and doors in various books, but never for a hinged window - with screens! (We're out of the drought here in S.C. and have the mosquitoes to prove it!).

Anyone know of any designs for this type of thing? I understand that leaky windows are a common problem in boats so I want something sound if I am going to build them instead of buying marine grade windows.

Have you thought of having sliding windows and screens similar to train windows (old train windows that is - without screens) which slide down into a cavity in the wall of the cabin? The cavity could have an overboard discharge from the bottom of the cabin wall so that any water, rain or spray, that runs down the window but which isn't caught by the sill, can still run away and not acumulate in the wall.

[PeterSibley]

Have you thought of having sliding windows and screens similar to train windows (old train windows that is - without screens) which slide down into a cavity in the wall of the cabin? The cavity could have an overboard discharge from the bottom of the cabin wall so that any water, rain or spray, that runs down the window but which isn't caught by the sill, can still run away and not acumulate in the wall.

There was an article on just that in WB ,a story about the restoration of the sardine carrier "Grayling".

[Larks]

There was an article on just that in WB ,a story about the restoration of the sardine carrier "Grayling".

Fancy that, and I thought I just made that idea up..:o

[The Bigfella]

Grantala originally had wind down windows - like in a car, with a drainage system underneath, except that it, like the shower, discharged into the bilge. Most of the mechanisms were decayed beyond repair unfortunately.

The drainage system is certainly needed on a boat, as there are no eaves to give the windows any respite - and being on open water, they certainly take a beating from the rain. The old windows on Grantala used to even leak at the top, as the wind would push the rain up the glass and over the top.

I still have opening windows at the rear of the cabin. They used to leak until I put a drip rail above them.

[SScoville]

I just looked at the Grayling article. I'm looking for a simpler solution, if there is one - an overhang above, drip edges, etc.

[SScoville]

Copying a house window, as suggested above, might work. It seems they have sills with graduated steps to shed water away from the cabin (don't know the terminology) corresponding to the same pattern on the window frame. With an overhang and drip grooves, I think this could work well.

I would like them to be top hinged, opened to the outside and latched open. But then I don't know where the screen will go unless I had some sort of mechanism to open the window without having to push it out by hand - something else to fail.

[JimConlin]

For a shanty boat, you might get away with manufactured vinyl house windows.

[dm_scott]

Buehler show's a cheap "slide opening" fit in his backyard book.

Maybe some sort of double length of that set up, with 1/2 screen and 1/2 plexi?

[Soundman67]

There are some amazing things being done with fiberglass now in the house window camp. looks like wood and even stains if you want it to but it doesnt move like wood so once its sealed in it wont expand and contract with weather. and they last for decades.


Doug