Courtesy Grady-White
Developments in glass molding and adhesive expertise, coupled with the ingenious and devoted work from marine designers, has sparked a metamorphosis in boat windshields and home windows, significantly on center-console saltwater fishing boats.
Often known as glazings within the marine-design area, the newest glass windshields and home windows should not solely sturdy and sturdy, however they’re additionally extra trendy and safer compared with different windshields made out of supplies resembling clear acrylic, polycarbonate or vinyl.
“These glass glazings first appeared within the marine market on superyachts,” says Rob Kaidy, vice chairman of engineering for SeaVee Boats. Yachts require sweeping high-strength glazings, and at present’s styling cues typically demand advanced curves.
Bonding Expertise
Excessive-strength-yet-flexible bonding brokers can be found from firms resembling Michigan-based Sika. Adhesives resembling SikaFlex had been born in industrial building, the place builders wanted to safe massive, frameless panes of glass to high-rise buildings. The adhesives additionally work nicely in rough-and-tumble marine purposes.
Extra Safety
One of many main advantages of the newest glazings lies within the potential to incorporate a full-height glass windshield between the console and hardtop. A major instance of that is Grady-White’s Canyon 456, says Christian Carraway, an engineer for the North Carolina-based boatbuilder. The windshield enhances the mixing of the console and hardtop.
“The glass additionally provides structural energy,” Carraway says. “On the similar time, the adhesive permits for a certain quantity of flex and enlargement resulting from sea situations and temperature variations between the glass and the materials to which it’s bonded.”
Bringing the windshield all the best way as much as the hardtop protects the helm from wind blast, rain and spray, and likewise enhances the consequences of onboard air con and heating.
Higher Optics
Whereas a full-height windshield is feasible with different supplies resembling clear vinyl or polycarbonate, optical readability is best with glass. With laminated security glass, there’s additionally higher safety from massive waves or marine objects which may strike the windshield in heavy seas.
“Laminated security glass could be very sturdy and won’t shatter into tiny items, and that makes it a better option for forward-going through glazings than different supplies resembling clear acrylic or clear vinyl,” Kaidy explains. Additionally, clear vinyl can’t be fitted with windshield wipers, as can glass.
Then there’s the comfort issue. With glass, there’s no have to put up the windshield and enclosure, after which take it down and discover a place to stow it while you’re carried out for the day. Lastly, glass presents much more sturdiness and longevity than every other clear materials, and it’s extremely proof against scratching.
Recent-Air Choices
The permanence of glass glazings has a draw back: You possibly can’t take away the windshield and home windows to get some recent air. However boatbuilders have created methods to flow into air across the helm while you want it on sultry days. Guide and motorized vents on the higher portion of glass windshield enable a refreshing breeze to comb across the facet and flow into within the helm seating space. In an modern contact from Everglades Boats, hydraulic sliding glass windshields on center-console fashions retract downward to open the bridge space to a refreshing breeze.
The Grady-White 456 presents two methods to get extra air. Along with a motorized vent atop the windshield, there are motorized sliding vents on the facet home windows.
Easy Styling
Curved-glass glazings give boatbuilders higher latitude in designing windshields and home windows that movement with the sleek strains of the boat.
Carraway used the windshield of the Grady-White 456 for instance. “This broad, one-piece windshield bends in two instructions,” he says.
The vertical- and horizontal-curving glass windshield enhances the equally curving design of the entrance of the 456 console. Curving tinted-glass home windows on the perimeters of the console serve not solely to assist illuminate the cabin contained in the console, however additionally they function accents. The flexibility to have sweeping one-piece windshields additionally eliminates the vertical body members that disrupt an in any other case easy design, to not point out presumably blocking the visual view.
In the end, bonded-glass glazings have made boats protected and extra snug, in addition to better-looking.
