I've noticed most 5.2's have had ports installed just forward of the daggerbaord slots.
I do recall them being rather important while doing a repair job on a leaking slot. How else would you get to it

Any tips on the installation process?
Is it as simple as lining it up, tracing the port, drill a hole, jigsaw the traced circle?
Marine silcone for sure but is it better to rivet or use plastic screws?


Thanks.

Use 3M 5200 but set the port in place with the 5200, clean up the residual with mineral spirits and let it sit WITHOUT bolting it in place. The 5200 will makup any difference in the shape of the hull and the port. After the 5200 cures (48 hours), drill and put in plastic screws - sealing them up as you go. With the port base properly mounted, you have a much better chance for the port lid to seal properly.

On a personal not, I just don't buy that those plastic srews are as good as rivets. Mine are riveted, at least they are now(a girl i new put her heel straight through the middle of one of mine, breaking both the screw in cap and the housing) so I replaced the two that were screws when I fixed that one. At any rate, when I had things apart it apeard that the procedure you decribed is about what was done. Be carefule using a jigsaw though to use a VERY fine tooth blade. You don't want vibrations creating cracks in the top of your hull all around the area you are cutting. It might be better to find a way to do it with a dremmel tool. Also make your hole slightly smalle than it needs to be and use a rotary sander to make the port frame fit just right. Since this part must make up for the structural intergrety you removed by cutting your hull, it is best that it is as close to perfect a fit as possible. I've never created a new port hole, just replaced old ones, so someone may think I'm a fool for suggeesting this. But my boat does have those extra ports you are talking about, soooooo, I see no reason why it would hurt your boat to put them there. My only concern would be creating cracks with the vibration of a jigsaw. I've completely shatted 3ft pieces of certain types of plastic doing that, and I wonder (am afraid that) the hull kmight react in a similar way. So that very fine tooth blade is important if you decid eto go this route.

See, jake says use plastic screws, so i gues I'm maybe bass ackwards, cause I think he's better at this stuff than I am, I do it out of poorness and nescesity, I think he actually knows what is going on beforehand, lol

Actually - I've never had ports with the plastic screws...Mine always had rivets but I do know that they were a pain to remove and always seemed to apply too much pressure to the plastic (causing it to eventually crack)...I dunno either.

Jake and Josh,

Josh - A fine toothed blade for sure. I actually have a Dremel tool so I'll check that option as well.

It seems plastic screws are what are being supplied when purchasing these so maybe it's an improvement to the rivets?
My neighbor has a shiney new rivet gun though

Jake - your point about rivets cracking the plastic seems inevitable and it's pretty hard to control the pressure applied with a rivet gun.

I think I'll try the plastic screws first.

Thanks for the input.

I have used a roto-zip with a fiberglass cutting blade
Use a circle cutter for a perfiect fit

I installed these a few weeks ago. It worked out just fine.
Here's some photo's for next person who's curious:

http://home.earthlink.net/~urflar/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/portinstall_1.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~urflar/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/105-0503_img.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~urflar/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/portinstall_3.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~urflar/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/104-0497_img.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~urflar/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/105-0505_img.jpg
http://home.earthlink.net/~urflar/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/105-0506_img.jpg