Chip & Debbie Willis on s\v Elegant'sea: Removing and resealing the droids - attaching hose to port side

The Plastimo Dorades have been leaking.

We originally installed these in 2013 after one was ripped out the second night of a Cabo to Mazatlán.passage. The Plastimo Dorads themselves are fine - it was the lack of enough sealant under them that made them start leaking. I should fire myself for a not-so-good a job!

Middle of June 2017 - Tied up in Marina Mazatlán, Mexico

Plastimo Dorades

Model B
11.8" High

We removed the top of the dorad and you see the bottom area. There are four holes in the bowl of the dorad. If water comes into the air scoop it will collect here and then drain down to the flat part of the dorad. There is a black rubber ring around the flat part and inside of that there is a high tube of plastic so the water can not get down into the boat or hose in our case. If a big wave came into the air scoop the water would push down the bowl and it would seal on the rubber black ring to keep out the big amount of water from entering the boat. The bowl is on a spring. From inside the boat (if the dorad is not connected to a hose) you can close the dorad by pulling down the bowl onto the black rubber ring.

Here we originally used the Drummel tool to cut away the flange deep enough for the new dorad base to fit in. However, unlike the starboard side, the old flange did not keep the hose secured in the hole. It keeps falling out into the cabinet below.

Here you see the knob that you pull down to close the dorad.

To fix the hose from falling into the cabinet, we did not purchase anything. That is always nice. We take the old flange off the outside of the hose and toss it away. We take the fiberglass insert that is inside the hose and re-use it to connect to the Plastimo Dorade.

We used silicone to seal the bottom part of the dorad....
purchased from Home Depot in Mazatlán..

To the right is the old flange from the old dorad that we cut off and it was on the outside of the hose. This was attached to the old dorad. The new dorad has a small flange on it which is big enough to get the four screws in it to hold

You can see the old flange and the new one, which is on the dorad.

The fiberglass clear insert does not fit inside the new dorad because there are three fins that prevent it from sitting inside the flange.

Here you see the three fins and the fiberglass cleat insert that we are cutting so it will fit inside the flange and will get screwed in. The hose will fit over the insert and the insert has hose barbs on it.

Cuts being made to the insert. They are longer but you get the idea.

Fits nice now.

Ok, the insert is not level. It was cut off the old dorad
and the cut I did was not exactly straight.

I tried to get it better but this is the best it came out. Not a big deal as there is plenty of insert to go into the hose and it will not effect anything or be seen.

Flinges side by side.

All done - now to screw in in.

All done and ready for the hose.

The hose that goes up through the deck and onto the dorad.

Here is the cabinet that the hose is in that goes down into the bilge. This is over the pulman berth. You also see the Caframo Maestro fan and the stateroom 5200 btu Mermaid HVAC digital thermostat control.

Inside the cabinet. The wiring is for two Imtra reading lights

and my C-Pap breathing machine which I keep up here, neither are shown.

The two Imtra reading lights which hang below the cabinet we have removed for re-furbishing and will be in another post. We also have a Caframo fan 12v fan under the shelf.

Hose attached and ready to seal up.

There are four holes in the pan that catches incoming water from the wind scoop.

They drain into the base of the dorad and then out through four scuppers.

Ready to seal up the dorad base.

This is the area where our Plastimo Dorads were leaking.

I had not sealed the area well enough.

How the dorad sits.

You could align the drain holes with the scuppers but I did not think about it. Now that the dorad is together and the screws are silicone sealed I do not want to remove them just to turn the bowl. I do not think it matters as the water drains from under the bowl to the scuppers and out any way. If you were to open and close the dorads the bowl would probably turn any way. We will not be closing them becase we have hose on them and can not get at the knob. However if they were sticking down from the deck you could do that.

Port side all done and looking good again and water tight!

Looks good. These wind scoops will swivel 360 deg.

The starboard side has the hose still attached to the deck so we will just re-mount the

Plastimo Dorads back onto the deck, sealed up good this time.

Cleaned up and ready to seal.

Added some silicone to the deck and rubbed it in and into the screw holes. We also put big beads of silicone under the dorad bottom before mounting it.