1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Installing the Starboard Salon Aft Bilge Vent Duct

The repairs from the big Nor’easter damage in March are finally wrapping up. I’ll write about that soon, but in the meantime I’ve been working  on the bilge duct vents that open at the mahogany toe rail. I finally got the last duct in the salon installed. Getting these installed is essential for getting the exterior weatherproof. There are eight vents in total, so I’m half done with them!

To install the duct, I had to remove the starboard muffler

There was just enough space between the muffler platform and the aft ER bulkhead for the duct to slide in and down, then up the vent hole in the ER ceiling/salon floor panel.

The duct passes through that hole

Kinda like that!

I’m getting too old to be spending so much time inside cabinets. I’ll be very happy when this is all done.

That looks about right

It’s a bit tight at the base

You can see on the far side of the duct that rain had leaked from the original duct and rotted out a 1″ spot on the bulkhead and floor panel. That’s why my ducts all pass through the floor by a few inches and drain into the bilge. When I install the duct, I’ll wet out the rotten spot with  epoxy and fill it with wood flour-thickened epoxy.

There’s not enough room for the duct face panel

I used my Harbor Freight multitool to open up the hole in the floor to make room for the duct face panel, then removed the duct and coated the last exterior surface with white-tinted US Composites 1:1 epoxy, leaving the contact area with the floor frames bare wood. The following day, I wetted out the bare wood areas and the floor frames and plywood with epoxy. Once that was saturated, I applied wood flour-thickened epoxy to the area and slid the duct into place. Before sliding it home, I applied Sikaflex 291 LOT to the joint area on the underside of the deck.

Sikaflex files the joint and covers the toe rail screws in the area

When I sprayed foam insulation on the hull, I took care to cover all of the toe rail screws with the closed cell foam so water wouldn’t condense on them and work its way up the threads. Water plus aluminum does a bad thing to paint jobs. But I avoided putting foam in areas where I’d be installing ducts. I’m coating these screws with blobs of Sikaflex for the same purpose. I hope it works!

I went a bit nuts with the caulk

The duct is bonded to the floor frames and panels with epoxy and sealed with Sikaflex

Next, I installed the duct face panel

I’m using Sikaflex to seal all of the duct face panels in the salon. I don’t expect they’ll ever have to be removed, but if they do it’ll be easier with Sikaflex than if they were glued with epoxy.

Done!

I considered sanding the duct face and coating it with white-tinted epoxy but decided it was good enough. It’s got a heavy coat of epoxy sealing it up, and that’s what’s most important.

Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Repairing the Damage from the Big 2018 Nor’easter