West Wight Potter Owners Home Port _______________________________________________________________________________________________ |
| Modifications Installing Beckson Opening Ports In a P-19 Cockpit by David Lee |
This is what the Beckson port looks like – new still in the bag! This is the Beckson Self-Drain
Opening Port (PO512-WC-10). They are available through sailboatowners.com. I see some of
the other sizes are available in shorter spigot lengths. This particular port came in a 2” but it
does say other sizes are available if you call (I didn’t). If they have a 5/8” spigot, most of this
document probably won’t be needed (please don’t tell if that is the case! J). I purchased mine
through sailorman.com for significantly less, otherwise I would definitely choose to support
sailboatowners.com.
The port will accommodate any wall thickness – in theory – but the wall on the inside of the
WWP19 cockpit is pretty darn thin (1/8”), or at least mine is! The downside is when you slide
the trim ring on (the flange on the left), the sill sticks out a long ways (maybe 1.5”). This is
probably less of a concern on the side of the cabin but I didn’t want to worry about it being an
obstacle in the cockpit, so… I decided to cut some of the flange off.
Here is a better picture showing the port without the trim ring. The sill probably also keeps
rain from blowing in but I decided that would be pretty unlikely in the somewhat protected
cockpit. Plus this port has a slanted part to the sill with rain grooves that will still keep rain
from collecting.
I made a simple box with some cutouts to accommodate the hinges to hold the port while I
trim off the edge with the table saw.
Here is the port mounted on the jig. Note that I removed the lens from the hinges (simple to
do)
Here it is on the table saw ready to go. Notice that the wooden box jib simply slides along the
fence.
Here it is ¾ of the way through. You have to have the blade high enough to cut through the sill
but then rotate the box 90 degrees to get the adjacent edges.
Here it is ready for the final cut!
Here you can see the part of the sill that I removed and I’ve slid the trim ring on to give you
an idea of how much sill remains. The gap shown here is about 1/8”, similar to what it will
look like when mounted.
Here you can see the outline of the new port (in red) compared to the old fixed port. I cut that
out with a rotary saw but you could use almost anything. Notice the two little dips at the
bottom. The Beckson port has two little channels on the bottom to direct water away from the
window. Even though the new port is a little shorter than the original, there is still plenty of
support to fasten it.
The rest is fairly easy. I used silicone to seal it. Be sure to order the special recessed nuts
Beckson makes for these. Then find the shortest machine screws you can find to fit the nuts. If
they are too long, you won’t be able to tighten them sufficiently. You will also be more
successful if you let the silicone set up before tightening things too much (you are supposed
to do that anyways). The “gasket” that it creates makes the wall a bit thicker and the fasteners
have a bit more room. By using the recessed nuts, you can just silicone the trim ring on, which
gives a cleaner look. You could through-bolt it though (which would be a lot easier, in
hindsight). If you don’t have ports already, you have a lot more flexibility in the type of ports
you can use and where to put them. If I had a choice, I’d probably put them a bit further
forward so I could look out them while in the berth but they are still easy enough to open and
close. I wouldn’t sail with them open if there is any risk of pooping the cockpit! Enjoy!
David Lee
“Ohana” WWP19 #478
Stillwater, MN
