tophatyachts.com

Funny how the priorities change. I knew the perspex on the hatch over the vee berth was old and tired and proved this yesterday when I knelt on it. CRACK! A previous owner cut a rectangular hole with rounded corners out of the hatch. The present perspex piece is 360 by 220 mm and about 6mm thick, screwed on the outside of the hatch. I intend replacing it with the same size and thickness piece of clear perspex. The present piece has square edges (as cut with a tool such as a jig saw and no rounding/profiling was done). The perspex is curved in two directions (it is dished) to match the curvature of the hatch. Any tips on cutting (jig saw?), drilling holes, profiling/rounding edges and bending the perspex???

Cheers, John

When you work this out let me know.
This was the only thing I did not replace / fix during Sea Lady's refit.

Approached a multitude of plastic makers.
None could do it.
Mine is crazed and the previous people at some stage did a poor attempt at perspex.
It also leaks when there is horizontal rain and/or a wave comes across the bow.

If mine breaks it will have to be replaced with fibreglass after I have sweet talked someone else with a Mark 2 to loan me theirs to use as a sample.

Top Hats were designed without a perspex skylight on the forward deck.

In my humble opinion, fiberglass the thing up back to original.

Take it off, drive to Brookvale and visit Plastix. Ask for Rory, he's done a bit of sailing. He should be able to re-create it for you. Bending in more than one direction is impossible without the correct equipment. Even in one direction it's hard enough. Get a professional to look at it.

I've tried three times to make a complex motorcycle windscreen all with no success, and from what I understand it can only be done with the correct machinery to get a quality job.

It's easy enough to cut. First leave the plastic protective sheet on it or tape it off with masking tape if no covering on it so you don't scratch it with the jig saw base and use a fine toothed blade. when cut you can clean up the saw cut with a plane or a smooth file. Bending is the tricky bit. I've made a few screens for my motorbike and can tell you it aint easy. it will bend a fair way in one plane but two ??? look it up on you tube. As was said above I'd restore back to fibreglass.