Your thoughts on this solution please . . .
I'm installing a Newport Dickinson bulkhead propane heater. The chimney requires a 3" hole in the deck. The vendor offers a SS weather guard to cover the chimney deck cap when it's not being used to help protect against moderately bad weather. Nevertheless, in case of really rough going at sea, I'd like to be able to temporarily remove the deck cap altogether and seal the 3" hole in the deck. I'd like to prevent water intrusion, even in the extreme circumstance that the boat were capsized.
Therefore, my solution is . . .
1. Instead of mounting the deck cap directly to the boat as suggested by the vendor, I'll permanently mount a teak ring on the deck around the hole. Four bolts will stick up through this, evenly space around the ring.
2. I'll mount the deck cap to a second teak ring of the same diameter, and both the deck cap and the teak ring it is mounted to will have holes that accept the bolts coming up from the teak ring mounted permanently to the boat. After placing the deck cap and its mounting ring onto the boat's teak ring, I'll secure the deck cap with cap nuts over these bolts.
3. I'll have a 3rd teak cover plate made of the same diameter as the previous teak rings, but in this case with no 3" hole in the middle. This teak cover plate will also have holes that accept the bolts coming up from the teak ring mounted to the boat.
Now, in really rough conditions, I'll have the option to remove the deck cap, and replace it with the teak cover plate. Of course inside the boat, I will also have to temporarily remove the flue pipe between the stove and the deck cap.
The other option I could think of was to fabricate a heftier water-tight cover to place over the deck cap and allow it to be secured to the deck in some way. The down-side of this approach is that it may be a little large / tall, so it'd be more vulnerable to green-water over the deck.
Any thoughts on these solutions or other better ideas? I realize I'm being a little paranoid here, but the boat is a Bluewater design (PSC 34) and I'd like to keep it as water-tight as possible.
I'm installing a Newport Dickinson bulkhead propane heater. The chimney requires a 3" hole in the deck. The vendor offers a SS weather guard to cover the chimney deck cap when it's not being used to help protect against moderately bad weather. Nevertheless, in case of really rough going at sea, I'd like to be able to temporarily remove the deck cap altogether and seal the 3" hole in the deck. I'd like to prevent water intrusion, even in the extreme circumstance that the boat were capsized.
Therefore, my solution is . . .
1. Instead of mounting the deck cap directly to the boat as suggested by the vendor, I'll permanently mount a teak ring on the deck around the hole. Four bolts will stick up through this, evenly space around the ring.
2. I'll mount the deck cap to a second teak ring of the same diameter, and both the deck cap and the teak ring it is mounted to will have holes that accept the bolts coming up from the teak ring mounted permanently to the boat. After placing the deck cap and its mounting ring onto the boat's teak ring, I'll secure the deck cap with cap nuts over these bolts.
3. I'll have a 3rd teak cover plate made of the same diameter as the previous teak rings, but in this case with no 3" hole in the middle. This teak cover plate will also have holes that accept the bolts coming up from the teak ring mounted to the boat.
Now, in really rough conditions, I'll have the option to remove the deck cap, and replace it with the teak cover plate. Of course inside the boat, I will also have to temporarily remove the flue pipe between the stove and the deck cap.
The other option I could think of was to fabricate a heftier water-tight cover to place over the deck cap and allow it to be secured to the deck in some way. The down-side of this approach is that it may be a little large / tall, so it'd be more vulnerable to green-water over the deck.
Any thoughts on these solutions or other better ideas? I realize I'm being a little paranoid here, but the boat is a Bluewater design (PSC 34) and I'd like to keep it as water-tight as possible.