Posted by David G. Evans (dgevans@…>)
There’s been the usual Freedom discussion of mildew this spring and I’ve gone through the ritual of wiping down Jabberwocky’s interior teak with Amazon mildew stuff. Over the years I’ve added a Nicro fan on the main hatch and Vetus mushrooms on the head and fore hatches, but still the August “bloom.” Looking through the Defender catalog one slow day last month, I came across something called a Beckson RainShield. I always figured that the plastic port in the cockpit is a Beckson and not a Bomar like all the rest.
The RainShield is a smoked acrylic vent with two louvers that replaces the screen in the port. You can still dog down the plastic port, but short of taking on massive seas, the louvers should keep out rain and splashes. (Feet may remain a problem, but at least they won’t break the screen!)
Here’s the URL for the Beckson site page: http://www.beckson.com/irs.html. The model that fits our Freedom 28 (and probably 30, too) is the 512, which costs $40.99 from Defender.
I forget whether you can attach photos here but I’ll give it a try. I’ll put it on my web page in a day or so.
So far in New England it’s certainly not been a sweltering spring to give this a good test. But yesterday morning Jabberwocky seemed well aired out after sitting for a day after her Thursday launch.
dge
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