polycarbonate windows - good and bad

Posted By: David Lee
Date: 2/8/10 10:20a.m.

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Hi everyone, As you know, having Ohana in our garage during the long Minnesota winters assures that I will take on some projects that make little or no sense! Last year I put in the Lewmar hatch which turned out to be very cool (but it took a ton of time and fair amount of money!). This year I decided to replace my original windows, which were kind of a weird lavendar tint and had become pretty cloudy. I read a great deal about the pros and cons of polycarbonate vs. plxiglas and decided to go with polycarbonate - even though the "literature" might have suggested otherwise. For some reason, I pictured a big square wave on Lake Superior smashing the plexi window and flooding the boat. In reality, I have no intention of ever putting me or Ohana in that situation! In either case, I had the windows cut from gray polycarb and they look great. The only problem is this stuff reeeeallly scratches easily! Just trying to wipe the excess silicone off with a towel seems to have created some scratches already and I still have some residue that needs to come off. Overall, they look great and the main impetus was wanting to paint the frames anyways. I also switched the inside frames (which are less weathered) with the outside frames. I'm almost done but it was not the simple inexpensive project I once envisioned - but it never is, is it? Pictures will be posted soon! David