Oceanair Sky Screen Window for Hatches

Story:  

In January 2003, my wife Joan and I decided to venture to Atlantic City, NJ for the boat show.  As we toured the various boats, we climbed aboard the Hunter 426 and 426DS models.  I was looking at the arrangement of the hatches and noticed the screens that were covering them.  Joan said "I love these and you WILL install them on our boat".  Not wishing to be lashed by a "cat of nine tails", I complied. So I looked around and found the manufacture which was Oceanair in England.  The local distributor was Maritime Trading in CT.  web address is http://www.maritimetrading.net and you can see the model "SkyScreen" there.  We purchased them thru Defender http://www.defender.com for $185 which is much less that what Maritime is willing to sell them for and they are happy to point you to Defender.

This is what the hatch trim piece looks like with the screen trim remove.  This is the beginning of the problems! The half round that is part of the trim will not allow the the first window we received to mount properly.  So we go back to Maritime and finally get the correct window.  Model number is : SFSS-535/535-R50 - This is important and is for the Hunter 356 with Lewmar hatches.

Close-up of the hatch trim. Maritime told me I will have to remove the staples holding the headliner to the trim piece.  You will need to install wood blocks glued to the deck, above the headliner.  In the picture, the black dot is about were one of the four screws will hold the Oceanair screen.  This places it outside of the hatch trim which the old trim piece was attached to - circled.

Above picture is the screen trim that came with the hatch. It is held on by eight screws that penetrate the hatch trim, which is covered by the headliner.

This is the Oceanair screen.  The attachment screws are located in the four conners.  Because of this the screws are outside where you would normally install the screws.  I will need to glue wood block to hold this is place.

March 29, 2003

Screens are finally installed and what follows is how I got there!!

Under the headliner is the raw fiberglass of the deck.

Black dot is where the new screens mounting screw will be placed.  This is way outside of the trim piece and requires something to mount to.

The surface of the deck is not close to being level to anything which complicates how to mount the screens.

The mount point for the screens is 3 inches from the corner.

Two previous pictures are a thought I had!  Was thinking of using these metal brackets which would attach to the backside of the trim piece and provide a mounting point.  A gentleman I met who is rebuilding his Irwin 34, told me this was not a good idea since I would have to place backing pieces to the trim to keep the screws from breaking through the trim.  Use wood he says.  And I switch to WOOD.

Created wood plugs that are 2" in diameter and 2" long. Plugs were coated with epoxy. Plugs are 3/4" plywood, three layers thick, which have a length of 2 1/4 in.

This is a plug fitted to the deck, problem is the deck slopes at two different angles.  I was able to use a rotozip bit installed in a dremel tool and allowed me to shape the plug to a close fit.  Every plug was fitted to the surface, every surface was different.  Once this was done, I used 3M 5200 to glue the wood plugs to the deck.

Just love having this wiring run right were I need to install a screw!!

YEA!! It's Installed with the shade closed. 

The sun was shinning in so much it was ruining the photo.

This little project took three separate weekends, I live 70 miles from the boat and had to insure I brought the right tools.  Which I didn't! What's new!

These shades/screens were worth it, they add a certain eloquence to the interior.