Hard Dodger Window Material

[Night_Sailor]

Originally Posted by scherzoja

I am leaning toward glass because of the scratch/crazing issues with the plastics, but I am concerned that the glass might break from bending/twisting. The dodger panels are straight, no curves, but it's not finished yet, just tacked together the core, so I don't know how rigid it will be (see picture).

For those of you who have aluminum-framed glass windows with a cored fiberglass hard dodger, is breaking from twisting/bending an issue?


Thanks

I am building one now using glass for visibility, on a heavy duty aluminum structure, designed to carry traveler loads on top.

[scherzoja]

I finished the dodger about a year ago. Thanks for the advice. It turned out to be little heavier than I hoped, but it has all the features I was after. Only problem is that I don't have as much covered area aft of the companionway, but extending the sides farther aft would have caused possible cockpit ingress/egress issues. Also, since the cockpit coamings are about 10' long, I'd loose coaming real estate (damn compromises!).

It's held in place by a flange glassed to the coach roof and a few through bolts, making it easily removable.

More info and pics here:
https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...ml#post3981993

[Wandering1]

Originally Posted by pcmm

before you get to the windows...1 layer of 1708? Really? 1 layer of 1708 is only 0.044" thick not much for structure or impact resistance. I cant really see any less than 3 layers being reasonable for skin thickness.

For the glass, I would just use plexiglass as its relatively easy to machine, mouldable with heat if needed and readily available. 0.25" thickness minimum

For a hardtop, that is plenty strong enough. The structure will be stiff as hell from the Airex core. 3 layers would be ridiculous. The hardtop is have built is from 2 layers of 300g biaxial cloth on 12mm PET core each side. It's super strong and stiff. It really doesn't need any more glass. Mine is all curved. I went for 4mm perspex but now wish I had purchased 3mm. The original curved windscreen was only 3mm thick and that was fine. Perspex is super tough