Bomar hatch

H

hounddog

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2004
RO Number
14582
Messages
18
Can you change the glass/plastic in the hatch lid? Or do you need to replace the whole thing? The ones on our boat look like spider cracks.
 
Check the Bomar website. I think that they can be replaced. Or you may have to remove and replace the entire assembly. Those spider cracks are from stress. Either people walking/stnding on the hatch or flexing of the boat.
 
Plexiglas embrittles when it is exposed to solvents because of a phenomenon
called
"solvent crazing" -- the solvent softens and / or swells exposed areas that
give rise to microscopic stress fractures. These micro-cracks serve as point
weakening of the sheet in a manner similar to scoring the sheet with a glass
cutter, except on a much smaller scale. In fact, PMMA can be cut just like
glass using a glass cutter, but be careful, the edges are "razor sharp". If it is plexiglas this might be a reason for the cracks.
 
I suspect the plexiglass has a tint or smoke color. You can replace them. We rebedded ours as the caulking around them was junk and they leaked like a sieve. For some reason I assumed they were regular glass but now I'm not so sure. Of course mine are going on 18 years old. The crazing could be caused by heat too...
 
I took the old ones out in my boat and had some new ones made at "TAP" plasics. Reinstalled and now looking good.

Dave

Faster now but still steady
 
I just put my foot through a large bowmar deck hatch on the bow, and had the plastic replaced without much difficulty. They get brittle over time in sun
 
The material is polycarbonate (Lexan) not acrylic (plexiglass). Polycarbonate is extrememly strong and impact resistant which is a good thing in a hatch, but it isn't particularly UV resistant and crazes after a while in the sun. Any exposure to alchohols of any kind will craze it instantly.
The solution is to replace the material with new. You can source it at any plastics supplier, and they can probably cut out the shape for you as well, for not too much cash. Take the old material out of the hatch molding, and give it to them for a pattern.
 
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