IG window issues

[Andy G]

The window design on IG's is a fairly complicated and not entirley successful design, by that I mean they have a tendency to leak!

A lot of the issues seem to come from excess water overflowing the drain holes and back filling into the boat. The only thing that stops that is a 'verticle buffer' attached to the fixed window pane. This is not entirley successful in heavy rain.

I was thinking of installing new SS Bailey channels for the glass and cutting out three largish drainage chanels in the bottom of the SS chanels and drilling through the frame to allow better drainage. Obviously the frame would need to be well proctected from the water, however that is do-able.

I was wondering if anyone has already ventured down this, or a similar path?

Cheers,

Andy

 

[BruceK]

Hi Andy, I didn`t have this problem save for the head window which wasn`t protected by Europa overhangs.
Have you got inner and outer drain holes? You`d hope the inner one would deal with any water getting inside the frame. Though on my head window, some bright spark tried opening up the inside drain to the outside with an electric drill. Drill went right through the copper drain tube so the water then drained into the surrounding timber instead of to the outside, resulting in wet wood and rot.
It might help if you posted pics of the window bases and drains. DeanOz in Melbourne did a lot of work on his 32, he might be across this issue.

 

[Brisyboy]

The window design on IG's is a fairly complicated and not entirley successful design, by that I mean they have a tendency to leak!

A lot of the issues seem to come from excess water overflowing the drain holes and back filling into the boat. The only thing that stops that is a 'verticle buffer' attached to the fixed window pane. This is not entirley successful in heavy rain.

I was thinking of installing new SS Bailey channels for the glass and cutting out three largish drainage chanels in the bottom of the SS chanels and drilling through the frame to allow better drainage. Obviously the frame would need to be well proctected from the water, however that is do-able.

I was wondering if anyone has already ventured down this, or a similar path?

Cheers,

Andy

Hi Andy,

A couple of years ago I replaced all the small window frames (with wood) but was able to re use the aluminium double track - but installed new felt.

I did as you are suggesting - towards the rear of each window I drilled vertical holes -(10mm I think) through the track and the wooden frame before final assembly. I drilled several holes in each track but off set them to hopefully not damage the strength of the frame too much. I really went overboard in applying resin (with a cotton bud ) to seal the drill holes so hopefully they wont rot.

I`ll try and find photos

George

 

[Comodave]

Another thing that you can do is to make covers for the windows on the outside. I have used a Keder strip across the top of the window. Then used white Stamoid to make a cover for the window. With the Keder strip on the top, the top will be almost completely waterproof. Then snap the sides and bottom to the cabin side. With white Stamoid you will get light inside and Stamoid is waterproof. If the water can be kept off the windows they won’t leak. Simple fix and you can unsnap the cover and slide the bolt rope out of the Keder strip in a minute if you want to have the windows uncovered.