Window seals

A leak in a cabin window (porthole) had developed over the last year.

The windows are original aluminium framed, riveted on with a black rubber wedge sealing strip. These rubber strips are ageing - perishing, some shrinkage and cracking occured. They might be originals.

Rubber wedge strip end cross-section for I563

Pulled the strip out where the leak occured, siliconed the gap and pushed the strip back into the silicone. Put silicone into any gaps appearing around the sealing strips and window frames on all 4 windows. I used grey roof and gutter silicone, it's easily visible , so any excess was wiped off the seal strip/perspex window with a rag immediately after application, but it also indicates where it was repaired.

Hose test 1 - the bad window still leaked. So siliconed the lower frame/cabin join inside the cabin. It held up on the 2nd hose test.

It was a quick fix. The next level fix would be to source new rubber seal strips and replace.

Ideally for a full refurbishment, the entire frame should be removed, siliconed and a new rubber wedge strip inserted. The rivets would need to be drilled out and the frames through bolted (for future maintenance, removal)

(NB Noticed that the starboard front windows rubber seal had been replaced (prior to 2013) by a previous owner.)