Stella Blue's New Portlights

I'm still recovering from 5 days of hard, hot work on Stella Blue so I'll make this a short post. 

Last week I flew from Salt Lake to Port Charlotte, Florida to spend a week on Stella Blue and install the new stainless steel portlights that we had ordered at the Miami Boat Show from New Found Metals. The replacement of the portlights was a great improvement in both the look and functionality to Stella Blue.  

Now I need to go scrub my hands and try to get the rest of the black caulk off of them. Enjoy the photos and let us know what you think!

First was a stop at Wal*Mart for a weeks worth of food. I ate 12 PB&Js and wanted to go for 15 but my stomach started rebelling at 9.

Here is what our old portlights looked like. This is the best one as most of them were cracked and leaking.

I clamped a template to the removed portlight space, traced the area to be cut with a sharpie and used a RotoZip to cut through the cabin top.

This is what it looked like with the port side portlights removed.

This is the template in the head. Fiberglass dust went everywhere and since I was staying on the boat during the work, it made for some itchy nights until I could do a complete cleaning.

All of the portlights were 4"x14" but the aft section of the cabin top had extra space and I wanted to try and squeeze in a 6"x15" on either side for more light and ventilation. This required a bit more cutting and fitting but worked out great as you can see in the next few photos.

6"x15" portlight over the galley. You can compare the 6"x15" size to the 4"x14" to the left (forward) and see how much bigger it is. 

Starboard side view before I have cleaned all the butyl and Life Caulk off of the portlights.