Kurt, Of course you do remember that the molded liner in the cabin and the cabin molding itself ....means that there is a space (approx 3/8- 1/2") between the two moldings. When the port lights are removed that's the space you see.
That space is just that: space. When the frames of the lights were screwed together with the 9 or 10 itsey-bitsey, teeny-weeny #4 machine screws...
those frames:
outside frame to inside frame tried (and Failed) to clamp the floating piece of glass that is the 'light' into something useful. The tiny screws cannot be tightened because they have no where to go. Besides clamping tighter wouldn't work anyway, because that would distort the cabin sides even more, and it didn't work anyway, ever. The something useful is really something shockingly stupid.
And selling these boats as "....Ocean Racer Cruisers"
So your Dreaded Former Owner attempts to use Evil Silicone to stop leaks. Since the DFO is gone a little nuts with constant leaks....
he constantly slathers on more and more evil rubber, until he runs out of hope and money, and sells the boat.....
BUT the cabin moulding and the cabin liner are not connected...the liner is sort of suspended.... Just AIR IN THERE. A I R . You have to fill the space (part of it) with epoxy gel or something. Around the windows and wherever there are thru-fittings (hocky-pucks.)
That's what ebb did, and it's explained ad nauseum elsewhere in this forum.
If you are going to work on the cabin port lights you simply have to do something with that space.
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The inside cabin liner is connected to the boat squeezed between the strongback and cabin under the mast.
It runs along on both sides under the deck close and not connected, loose, to the bridgedeck where it is squeezed to the underside of the bridge
at the bulkhead. There may have been an attempt at the factory to glue the sides of the liner to the underside of the deck, but it was
failed on A338. All leaks thru fittings, mast, port lights ended on on the stringer shelves.... known as gutters by some. Pearson could only have planned for the the liner not to be sealed, otherwise it would have collected stagnant liquids and made the boat uninhabitable. Bad design.