Two years ago, while we were at the Strictly Sail Pacific Expo, we stopped by the Newfound Metals booth and discovered they were offering a huge discount on their cast stainless ports. Our existing Beckson ports were in very good shape but, as part of our 'no plastic' philosophy, we had planned to replace them with bronze or stainless at some point in the future. So, because the Show Price was so good, we went ahead and bought six of the NFM 14 x 4 ports with bug screens and 'teak' trims. We have had them in storage ever since, and we finally we got around to fitting them.
Beckson Plastic - inside
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Beckson Plastic - outside
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NFM Stainless - inside
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NFM Stainless - outside
NFM provides an installation video and there is also an excellent, very detailed, 'how to' post on the Compass Marine blog, so we didn't see any point in us posting another detailed record of our project. We closely followed the Compass Marine process, with some very small deviations, and wherever we did something different we have made a note here and/or posted a photo. We've also recorded below some comments and general observations on the installation and the ports themselves.
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Although advertised as teak we thought the trims looked a lot more like white oak, in both colour and grain and also, because of very close grain, the wood didn't take stain very well. We had to use several heavy coats of Minwax stain to get even close to matching the surrounding teak in the boat, and the trims are still a couple of shades lighter than we would like.
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Here are the trims after stain and varnish. Fortunately, there isn't much of the trim visible in the finished installation.
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One small step we added to the installation was using tabs of foam mounting tape to accurately align the wooden trim to the port before trying to position them in the cabin wall aperture. Without it, we struggled to simultaneously align the trim with the port and the port with the aperture while tightening the clamps onto the cushion blocks, all the while holding on to everything, and without scuffing the varnish on the trim! The tape eliminated one of those variables. (Note: This step only works if the port isn't sealed against the inside of the cabin wall - see CM Blog)
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When we first opened the various boxes from NFM we discovered the rental template was badly damaged. Because everything had been in storage for so long, the 90 day 'return for credit' date on the template was long past, but presumably some other customer(s) had used and returned it for credit, and for NFM to re-issue it in such a poor condition was very surprising. If we had unpacked and inspected the shipment on receipt we could probably have had the template replaced within the 90 days. Lesson learned!
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Here is a close up of the template damage. It was so badly chewed up in this corner that one of the drill bushings had been pulled out of alignment. In our opinion, whoever returned it in this condition should have forfeited their deposit and the template retired, it really shouldn't have been rented out again.
We called NFM and requested another template, which we received after a couple of weeks. Here is a shot of the replacement part for which we had to pay another, refundable, rental fee.
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We found the Compass Marine guidelines were self explanatory and very easy to follow, although we couldn't match their estimate of under an hour to apply all the butyl around each spigot. Even after refining our technique on three ports, the best we could do was well over 2 hours........wrong butyl packing gadget? more Wheaties?
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We don't have a photo, but one other deviation we made from the CM guidelines was to apply a little penetrating epoxy to the exposed plywood behind the cabin wall laminate. Just a little extra insurance.
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Having read the CM Blog we decided not to use polysulphide caulk to seal the outer port trim and went instead with more butyl tape. We had some of the gray Bed-It material left over from a previous project and it worked just fine. In retrospect, the whole project could have been done with the Bed-It material but there was a generous supply of black butyl included with the ports so it made sense to use it
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Once again no photo but, while CM recommends drilling the initial 3/8" holes through the template from inside the cabin, we were concerned about gelcoat cracks as the drill broke out so we moved the template to the outside, clamped blocks to the inside to minimise splitting the plywood and drilled from the outside.
In summary....
Apart from the various points noted above, the total installation went well, although quite a bit slower than estimated.
The NFM ports look great from outside and, especially good from inside the boat.
With the trim rings and bug screens fitted, the new ports project approx 1/4" further into the cabin than the Becksons did. This isn't a problem other than the one port above the outboard side of the master berth, where an unwary noggin can run (literally) into trouble!
The Beckson ports had tinted lenses and, with the slatted shades, this meant quite a loss of light transmission into the Head and Pullman. The NFM port lenses are slightly smaller but have clear glass and the light transmission is noticeably better, even with the same shade design.
Because the NFM port lens shape is different to the Beckson, the Peek A Booo (aka CloZures) shades had to be replaced, which was an unplanned $200 additional cost to the project!)
UPDATE 7 - 24 - 14
When we finished the install we sent both templates, the damaged original and the replacement, back to NFM for their review. The replacement had to be returned promptly to be eligible for the $80 deposit refund but the original was totally ineligible for credit due to our tardiness in identifying the problems with it and notifying NFM. Despite its ineligibility for credit we still thought they should take a look at the original template that had clearly been damaged before we received it. Imagine our surprise and delight then when we received a credit note for both templates. A generous gesture from NFM and an example of their excellent customer service.
UPDATE 10 - 16 - 16
We have a couple of years experience now with the NFM ports and the results have been generally good. From the inside they clean easily and still look great, the high gloss stainless steel contrasted by the varnished trim rings really adds some 'boaty' character to the interior. The bug screens remove and re-install easily for periodic washing and the seals on both the screens and the hinged lenses appear to be in good shape. We had to adjust all the hinge posts after approx 3 months as we were getting slight leakage when pointing a hose at the ports while washing the boat. After the adjustment we had no further problem so it was probably just the seals settling in. After approx 12 months, and again quite recently, the two most frequently opened ports wouldn't stay open so we had to adjust the friction hinges, again probably just normal wear.
On the downside, beyond the spigot scuffing noted in the main post above, there is considerable discoloration developing on the outside of 3 ports where the spigots are bonded to the frames. We had previously speculated that the sealing/bonding of the spigots was done with some sort of epoxy resin but we don't know exactly what was used. Whatever it was, the discoloration suggests that there is some corrosion going on at the spigot joints with the frames. Encapsulated in the sealing resin, the corrosion cannot be cleaned off. Time will tell if this is just cosmetic or something more significant. Another issue is the design of the bug screen seals. Water is routinely trapped along the bottom edges of them and then runs into the boat when the port is opened. No big deal in the head but irritating in the berth. We have to remember to have a cloth handy when opening a wet port. Finally, the angle of the cabin walls is almost exactly the same as the angle of the port drains. This means that, even with very slight heeling, water doesn't fully drain away from the port, adding to the problems of drips when opening. Again, not a huge deal but the drain angles should be steeper.
Bottom line, would we buy them again? Quite probably, but if ABI were still in the portlight business then the decision would be a bit more difficult.
UPDATE 02 - 05 - 17
We were surprised last week to discover that the seal/gasket on the bug screen in one of the ports in the head had a big split along the top edge. We rarely remove the screens, maybe a couple of times each year for cleaning, and we are careful not to stretch or damage them.
It wasn't clear exactly what caused the failure. The only thing we could think of was that the gasket had somehow stuck to the lens seal while the port was continuously closed for several months due to our unusually wet winter. When the port was finally opened the gasket was possibly pulled away from the bug screen and split?
We easily obtained a replacement from NFM (good customer service again) but the failure showed how thin the gasket section is. It's quite a complex molding and seemed rather fragile to us. We Armor All'd the new seal and the ones on all the other ports. Time will tell if this was an isolated issue or if the gaskets are a weak point.
UPDATE 10 - 16 - 16
We have a couple of years experience now with the NFM ports and the results have been generally good. From the inside they clean easily and still look great, the high gloss stainless steel contrasted by the varnished trim rings really adds some 'boaty' character to the interior. The bug screens remove and re-install easily for periodic washing and the seals on both the screens and the hinged lenses appear to be in good shape. We had to adjust all the hinge posts after approx 3 months as we were getting slight leakage when pointing a hose at the ports while washing the boat. After the adjustment we had no further problem so it was probably just the seals settling in. After approx 12 months, and again quite recently, the two most frequently opened ports wouldn't stay open so we had to adjust the friction hinges, again probably just normal wear.
On the downside, beyond the spigot scuffing noted in the main post above, there is considerable discoloration developing on the outside of 3 ports where the spigots are bonded to the frames. We had previously speculated that the sealing/bonding of the spigots was done with some sort of epoxy resin but we don't know exactly what was used. Whatever it was, the discoloration suggests that there is some corrosion going on at the spigot joints with the frames. Encapsulated in the sealing resin, the corrosion cannot be cleaned off. Time will tell if this is just cosmetic or something more significant. Another issue is the design of the bug screen seals. Water is routinely trapped along the bottom edges of them and then runs into the boat when the port is opened. No big deal in the head but irritating in the berth. We have to remember to have a cloth handy when opening a wet port. Finally, the angle of the cabin walls is almost exactly the same as the angle of the port drains. This means that, even with very slight heeling, water doesn't fully drain away from the port, adding to the problems of drips when opening. Again, not a huge deal but the drain angles should be steeper.
Bottom line, would we buy them again? Quite probably, but if ABI were still in the portlight business then the decision would be a bit more difficult.
UPDATE 02 - 05 - 17
We were surprised last week to discover that the seal/gasket on the bug screen in one of the ports in the head had a big split along the top edge. We rarely remove the screens, maybe a couple of times each year for cleaning, and we are careful not to stretch or damage them.
It wasn't clear exactly what caused the failure. The only thing we could think of was that the gasket had somehow stuck to the lens seal while the port was continuously closed for several months due to our unusually wet winter. When the port was finally opened the gasket was possibly pulled away from the bug screen and split?
We easily obtained a replacement from NFM (good customer service again) but the failure showed how thin the gasket section is. It's quite a complex molding and seemed rather fragile to us. We Armor All'd the new seal and the ones on all the other ports. Time will tell if this was an isolated issue or if the gaskets are a weak point.
