I'm planning to put 5" port holes in my Hobie 17 (curved deck) for storage and to help keep the boat dried out. Just wondering what the best tool is to cut the holes. I'm thinking hole saw in an electric hand drill, but I'd like to hear what other folks have used successfully.

sm

Sabre saw.

Carbide (grit edged) blade. Keeps the gel coat from cracking and splintering.

Put the ports behind the front crossbar and wing tube, just ahead of the centerboard trunk. That way, you can fix the wing tube if it leaks.

And lay down some blue painters tape with the line you want to cut.

I tend to stay away from free cutting with a jig saw, they seem to get away on holes never end up round. I’d use a hole saw if the hole is the correct size. If not I use the optional method.

Hole saw it will cut a perfect hole here are a couple of tips:
1. Make sure the hole saw and pilot bit are sharp and if not buy a new one.
2. Drill very slow best with an air drill you can control the speed better.
3. Keep the hole saw level 90 degrees to flat plane of the deck.
4. Let the hole saw cut don’t push the weight of the drill is enough.
5. Buy the deck lid first there is a flange and the hole may not be the exact size of your hole saw bit.
6. Wear a dust mask.

Optional Method
1. Trace out the cut from the deck lid flange.
2. Drill a series of holes with the large drill bit spaced close together inside the line.
3. Cut the material between the holes with a saw.
4. File (in a downward stroke only) to the line.

(I use a die grinder to cut away the material between the holes, but I’m use to working with one and can handle it well, not for beginners.)

Jig saw works just fine. Drill pilot hole to start blade. We did both of our Hobie 17's, plus three Waves at Sail Sand Point in Seattle. Used standard flat 5 inch ports. Make sure they have seals and no holes. Added sponges with string connected to ports. Can use them to bail, and also saves ports if dropped overboard.
Caleb Tarleton

I have used hole saws to perfection. A friend who worked building fish aquariums gave me the best advice. Start the hole saw in forward until the pilot bit goes through and stop before the saw starts and then use reverse, it will make a perfectly clean hole with no splinters what so ever. Vinyl siding installers use the same method (plywood blade put in the saw backwards) to achive a clean cut. It work great.

1) The hole doesn't need to be perfect. It'll have a port on top of it with a 1/2" flange all around.

2) A 5" (or whatever diameter is needed by the port) hole saw will set you back anywhere from $30 - $65. And you will never use it again. The sabre saw on the other hand . . .

3) You don't have access to the back side, so you can't do the trick mentioned above.

4) I forgot to mention the blue painter's tape. Use it. Also keeps the shoe of the saw from marring the gel coat.

Use a compass to draw the circle, cut the hole (you can do a plunge cut in the middle of the cut out or a pilot hole to start), slap the port in with lots of silicone sealant, let cure, go sailing.

I've installed probably 30 ports in the past 36 years - five of them in 17s. It ain't no big deal.

Thanks all for the helpful info.

I may just "splurge" and spend the bucks on the hole saw. I want the job to be as close to perfect as possible. The boat's still basically new and in near perfect condition, so the thought of taking a saw to it makes me cringe as is. But I really miss having portholes in my hulls. I don't understand why Hobie never made them standard on the 17...but I guess that's a moot point now.

sm

On my boat i have a port hole that is oval shaped and has a plastic cover that you silicon onto the boat. Does anyone have a solution for this because once its siliconed on its pretty hard to access the inside of the hulls.

30 ports in 30 years Man that hole saw would have really paid off they were cheap thirty years ago! :-)

Don't get me wrong jig saws are ok not my first choice. But a saw is a saw be it hand, air, jig, or hack. Make the hole and goop it up.

I'd stay away from using 5200 marine silicon it will bring up half of your deck if you need to replace the porthole. Designs of portholes change and the lid you have now may not be found in the future experience speaking here.

Get some fiberglass dust on your arms and go sailing. Got to love it!

I had a hard time getting my covers on H-17 on and off so i drill holes and put ropes threw and ran threw a wooden handle....worked great...sealed the rope holes with silicone.

Doug

There is no reason to have access from the back side. Us the hole saw from the top down, only use it in reverse. If you have done 35 of them a hole saw would have been a good investment.

I've gotten a lot more use out of the $25 Craftsman sabre saw I bought in 1977 than I ever would have a 5" hole saw. It's still working today.

I think it was the first power tool I bought on my own (others were "borrowed" from my dad).

I found that using a roto-zip drill bit worked great. I just put in my regular drill and went around the outline I drew on the deck. No pre-drilling and easy to control. A roto-zip drill would have made it even easier. A dremel barrel sanding disk smoothed any rough spots.

Handy tool to use on port holes, standard pliers. Put ends of plier handles in finger detents, and rotate. Pliers give added leverage. Good all purpose tool to have onboard.
Caleb

Pliers are great I always carry pair topside, mostly for the portholes. I've got my original Craftsman Jigsaw that is going on 35 years old.

Well cutting the hole is one thing. My question would be when you cut through that deck is it solid glass or foam cored? I think it's foam cored. If you see foam then you need to dig out the foam at least a half inch farther out than the mounting holes. Then back fill that with a blog with some mill fiber in it. Let it kick and then drill your mounting holes. This keeps the water out of the foam ensuring that you decks will remain solid.

The deck on a Hobie 17 is foam cored - but this is overkill. You're taking what should be a 1/2 hr job and turning it into an all day project.

Seal the edges of the foam with polyester resin. Doesn't have to be pretty, since it'll be hidden by the port mounting flange.

You don't need to use the mounting screws. Use a good silicone product (3M Marine Grade Silicone Sealant), run a bead around the inside corner of the mounting flange and set it in the hole.

Even if you use the "contoured" ports, the curvature of the deck is greater than the curvature cut into the flange. You'll have a gap that varies from 0 at the centerline of the hull to about 3/16 at the edge of the flange. Just level it and let cure overnight (if you want - you can proceed immediately to the next step if you're careful not to move the port).

Come back the next day and shoot more silicone around the edge of the mounting flange, filling up the space under the flange (it'll squirt out the mounting screw holes). Use a wet finger to smooth out the fillet around the mounting flange and the screw holes. Let cure overnight again and you're done.

BTW, always mount an inspection port with the lid in place. Keeps the flange from warping.

It's hardly an all day project and it's always better to do it the right way the first time. I've installed my share of ports and below the water line thru hulls in foam and balsa cored hulls and it's just too easy to do it right.

I would not install a port without any fasteners I use at least two, one at the front and back on center line. Strange things can happen during a capsize. The last thing you want is that port to leave the boat while on it's side.

It's time for Home Improvement, with the Anal-Retentive Carpenter!


Hello, and welcome to The Anal-Retentive Carpenter. I'm Gene. And, today, we're going to be building a window box, for our window. Now, what do we need for this project? Well, we need our blueprints here. We need a wide array of tools, and, as always, lots and lots of careful planning. But we know that, don't we? You know, there's an old saying that goes: "The best laid plans of mice and men oft gang aglay." But we don't intend to gang aglay here, now do we? No, we don't. Now, our blueprint calls for us to cut two boards. But it doesn't call for.. a silly, hazardous placement of pushpins. So, let's.. just straighten this out. Take these extras off. We'll just leave the blue ones, because they blend in nicely. Put these nasties over here.

And, of course, our tool belt is loaded and ready for use. Now.. we've got our hammer, our pliers, our tape measure, our awl, clamp, extension cord, screwdriver, and marker. That's H-P-T-A-C-E-S-M. I can remember it by repeating to myself: "Howard Plants Tulips And Chrysanthemums Every Sunday Morning." Actually, I never use my awl, but I need it there to keep the syntax correct.

Now! Let's take a look at our lumber! We have a sturdy plank here. And we have a matching 1x2. You know, choosing lumber is very important, so don't let them rush you at the lumber yard. I picked this piece out in about.. oh.. an hour and forty-five minutes. And.. it's a pretty good board, don't you think? It's not perfect by any means. It has this knot here.. and the grain isn't exactly as uniform as I'd like, and.. oh, there's a little blemish that I didn't see when I bought this. Hmm. Well, I guess we're just going to have to put this little fellow into the kindling box. But. I want to cut that knot off first. Because I don't want that staring back at me from the fireplace.

So, let's clamp our defective timber into our vise, and get it ready to cut. And! How do we cut our board? Well. We remove our saw from our saw sheath. No corrosion on this little darling. And let's uncover our ltitle mini-vac. And, lining up our saw with our thumbnail, we.. cut and clean.. cut and clean.. and cut.. and clean. There. now, this piece is all ready for the fireplace. And this ltitle devil is ready for the trash. Now, how do we discard our wooden refuse? Well, we get our little scrapbasket here, and we remove a scrapbag. Place our scrap inside the bag, fold it over - keeping the corners square - and we staple - once - and twice. Now, of course, there is the problem of the staples punching through our plastic trash bag, but watch this. We get another bag. And.. we slide the first scrapbag in - staples first - like this. [ struggles to get the first bag into the second ] Come on! Get in there, you little demon! [ finally gets the first bag into the second ] There! There he goes! Now! We staple again - but - we do not fold over this time. Staple once - and staple twice. Now, I know what you're thinking: "But, Gene, those staples could burst through that plastic trash bag as well." Well. They can't, and here's why. Because we make a little cuff. [ folds the top of the bag into a cuff, smiles proudly ] That covers the staples. There! Ready for the trash. And this is some wooden refuse we can live with! And this goes back under our workbench.

Al-right. Put my cover back on -- Oh. I'm replacing our mini-vac cozy - and I notice some of you are probably admiring this. I call this my Dust Buster Duster. I made it out of courdoroy, some cotton ribbon, and little macaroni shells. I think - well - it just cheers up the whole appliance!

Alright. Back to our project. Now - we've pre-marked our 1x12 there. And - oh! My, what a bold little mark we are. I think we should take that down with an art gum eraser - which I keep handy - [ starts to use the art gum eraser, then, hitting a revelation, stops and stares at the camera with a sly grin ] Art gum eraser. There's an "A" I use all the time! So we can get rid of this awful awl. I'll just put my art gum eraser in there, but now we have to put this away. So let's get our toolbox. Put that on our table here -- and open it up - now! We have everything arranged in alphabetical order, so - we're gonna have to bump things, because "awl" starts with an "A." And that means our chalk is gonna have to go where "chuck" is. so, I'll just - oh!