Seeing Clearly Now - Replacing Dodger Windows

[Nick J]

One of the first things we noticed when seeing Segue was the state of the dodger. The boat had sat for a few years without maintenance due to the previous owner's health issues. The dodger frame had slipped placing the port side windows against it. After sitting like this for a while, the windows had rust stains that were not removeable. We enjoyed the protection the dodger provided, but hated not being able to see. I've wanted to replace it with an Iverson, but we have a few other items we need to address before making that kind of purchase. Our last trip to the San Juans was the tipping point. I decided to squeeze a few more years out of the tired dodger by replacing the windows.

I tackled the project a little differently than Sailrite's technique of sewing the new window of the old and cutting the old because their was too much dirt and mildew imbedded in the seam. Using painters tape I marked where the canvas overlapped window. Then I transferred the line to the new window material again using painters tape, cut out the new window, and sewed the new window into the old canvas. This was one of those elusive projects that actually went according to plan, reasonably according to schedule, and didn't create any additional projects. The difference is huge.

Before:


After:

 

[bigd14]

Nice work! What material did you use for the new window and where did you source it from? This is a project I would like to get to some day. Did you have to take the dodger completely apart to get to all the windows? Or did it just unzip enough that the sewing machine could reach everywhere? Also are there remains of the old window still in place that you sewed the new windows to or did you have to rip the seams to get them out? Thanks.

 

[Nick J]

It's regalite 40 gauge from sailrite. I didn't have to take mine apart and it wasn't too bad feeding it into the machine. There were a few tricky spots though. I removed all of the old windows and used them for templates. Riping the seam was tedious because they were sewn really tight and I didn't want to cut the canvas.

 

[gargrag]

Great Job! I'm still on the recoring. I love the color of the boom and mast !

 

[southofvictor]

Looks great! This is on my list as I have two fogged and one cracked side windows on our dodger. What sort of sewing machine do you have? I have an old residential machine but not a commercial/marine one. My biggest concern doing it your way - which seems cleaner than stacking new vinyl and seams on top of old - would be keeping everything flat and not puckering without the old vinyl to hold things in place. Was that difficult?

 

[Christian Williams]

A "seam ripper" makes short work of old or new seams (and correcting mistakes).

 

[Nick J]

I used a sailrite with the worker B servo motor for the sewing and the seam ripper in the center of Christian's post above. The problem I had with the seam ripper was the fabric would pull into the cutting surface and cut it. I didn't want to replace the fabric, so I ended up cutting each stitch from the window side with the seam ripper to play it safe.

To keep the original shape, I marked where the seam was on the old windows before I pulled them out.


Then I transferred that mark to the new window and sewed the fabric to that mark. I used painters tape to mark the line. There actually wasn't that much curve in my pieces so it went fairly easy and it all fit when I put it back on the boat. I found out the hard way that the good 3M painters tape left residue that would only come off with Goo gone. Cheap off brand, Ace Hardware in my case, worked much better and didn't leave anything behind.

I started the project without looking at sailrite how-to video, so I originally didn't think of sewing the new windows over the old. Once I watched the video, I decided to continue doing the way I started so I could clean the fabric in the seam between the fabric and window.