Wind break

I have a Kadey Krogen 48' North Sea. Where the helm is on the Fly Bridge there is a Plexiglas wind break that wraps around and is contained in a stainless steel frame. It has gotten so discolored I can't see through it. Anyone know someone that fabricates or do you know if that is an item that can be ordered as a part?

rpeterson said:

I have a Kadey Krogen 48' North Sea. Where the helm is on the Fly Bridge there is a Plexiglas wind break that wraps around and is contained in a stainless steel frame. It has gotten so discolored I can't see through it. Anyone know someone that fabricates or do you know if that is an item that can be ordered as a part?

Click to expand...

Took mine off and to a place that sells glass, plexi (although we replaced with Lexan) and does window fixing, etc...
They cut the shape for me and I just drilled the holes and mounted...pretty simple overall...

Here is what I did over the Summer:

http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s32/weekend-venturi-project-10971.html

Tom, that turned out incredible!

Tom B. Nice! Problem is mine is one piece of material that bends from starboard to port side if you can picture that. It seems to be a molded piece in a stainless steel frame.
psneeld is yours flat like Tom B.'s? I need to find someone that can take Lexan and bend it so I end up with one piece that wraps around.

Here is a picture of the wind screen

Lexan coldforms fairly well. That doesn't appear to be much of a radius.

curved...but when unfastened it lays out into a pretty unusual shape.

mine was in 2 pieces...split in the middle behind a support...I doubt I would have tried one continuous piece...too difficult to handle...sure you can't split yours someplace?

Might be the same, down the middle.

The KK42 is also in 2 pieces. I think it would have to be because of the thermal expansion. When I reinstalled ours, I used nylocks and didn't tighten them down all the way to allow for the expansion and yours is larger than ours.

Two questions:

First - Like Scott said... Are you SURE it's one single piece?
Second - Have you tried KK and see if it's a part you can still order from them direct? Your boat looks pretty new.

If both answers are no, call a few local acrylic places and see what they recommend. I wonder if you could cut it flat and gently heat it to conform. I have never tried it and I wonder if it would cloud the material when it bends.

No I am not sure it is one single piece. I bet it is the same as Larry M's picture, two pieces split in the middle. Yes I tried KK and they said the wind breaks are put on overseas as requested and they are a custom piece for each boat.
Good suggestions. I will start hunting local acrylic places.
Thanks for the help

Tom.B said:

Two questions:

First - Like Scott said... Are you SURE it's one single piece?
Second - Have you tried KK and see if it's a part you can still order from them direct? Your boat looks pretty new.

If both answers are no, call a few local acrylic places and see what they recommend. I wonder if you could cut it flat and gently heat it to conform. I have never tried it and I wonder if it would cloud the material when it bends.

Click to expand...

mine was cut flat and just bent into place without any heat....no need as the guy insisted I use Lexan so it was thin and drilled/bent easily.

took my old bent/broken one as a pattern and the guy sold me the Lexan and him cutting it for around $200.

Mine was a 3 piece venturi- 2 curved sides, and a flat front piece. Materials from TAP Plastics was under $200, and I did the cutting and forming myself.

When I bought Retreat in 1994, she was 14 yrs old and had a purplish venturi. At the time there were many other boats around with the same purplish coloured venturis, so I didn't think anything was wrong. Yhen I dropped the bimini onto it when I got a shelter and needed to reduce the headroom. I took the broken piece to a glass shop for replacement and was told it had originally been "bronze" coloured, and could only be replaced with bronze or clear. I took the other three pieces in and now, with the bronze venturi about 14 yrs old, the bronze colour hasn't faded a bit.
Mine is curved all the way around. The middle two pieces are each about 4' long, the ends each about 2'. The curve was obtained by heating them and letting them droop until the correct curve was obtained. The glass guy had no trouble getting it right on the first try. I think these are plexiglass, but don't know for sure, as they could be lexan.