Today was the day that we said goodbye to our old radar arch on the 45. Heavy, bad design, tired, and not doing so well. We are ordering an aluminum pipe arch...stronger, better design, lighter, more modern.
I opted to take it down in pieces. Used a sawzall to chop off the middle section and then take off the side legs before unbolting from the side of the flybridge. I found a lot of rot at the attachment points to the flybridge which consisted of 4 bolts on each side. Also, a lot of rot around the perimeter of the entire structure. Interestingly, the core of the entire structure seemed very solid and no noted water intrusion into the balsa core. Not bad I guess for a 25 year old boat but not great either.
The inner trim had been previously replaced with 1/4" starboard. I took all that down and pulled all the wiring out of the arch before removing the arch itself. Extracting the radar dome was also a pain- set in a lot of 4200 caulk or something but finally got it off.
Attached are some pictures. More to follow once we get the new arch up in a month or so. Lots more projects to come as well as we refit our 4550.
Picture #1: underside of radar mount area.
Picture #2: Radar arch with inner trim removed.
Picture #3: Arch with trim removed.
Picture #4: Picture of cross section of arch....glass exterior, balsa core, thin glass interior, channel for running wiring. Ignore the greyed out teak of the cockpit below in the picture...refinishing 100% of the teak is on our "to do" list.
Picture #5: New home of the old arch...in the dumpster and cut up in pieces!
Attached files [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25494-Arch 1.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25495-Arch 2.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25496-Arch 3.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25497-Arch 4.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25498-Arch 5.jpg[/img]
I opted to take it down in pieces. Used a sawzall to chop off the middle section and then take off the side legs before unbolting from the side of the flybridge. I found a lot of rot at the attachment points to the flybridge which consisted of 4 bolts on each side. Also, a lot of rot around the perimeter of the entire structure. Interestingly, the core of the entire structure seemed very solid and no noted water intrusion into the balsa core. Not bad I guess for a 25 year old boat but not great either.
The inner trim had been previously replaced with 1/4" starboard. I took all that down and pulled all the wiring out of the arch before removing the arch itself. Extracting the radar dome was also a pain- set in a lot of 4200 caulk or something but finally got it off.
Attached are some pictures. More to follow once we get the new arch up in a month or so. Lots more projects to come as well as we refit our 4550.
Picture #1: underside of radar mount area.
Picture #2: Radar arch with inner trim removed.
Picture #3: Arch with trim removed.
Picture #4: Picture of cross section of arch....glass exterior, balsa core, thin glass interior, channel for running wiring. Ignore the greyed out teak of the cockpit below in the picture...refinishing 100% of the teak is on our "to do" list.
Picture #5: New home of the old arch...in the dumpster and cut up in pieces!
Attached files [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25494-Arch 1.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25495-Arch 2.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25496-Arch 3.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25497-Arch 4.jpg[/img] [img]/media/kunena/attachments/vb/664541=25498-Arch 5.jpg[/img]
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