While de-rigging the boat in preparation for pulling the mast, one of the crew stepped on the head vent and it crumbled. It was old and cracked and needed to be replaced anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal.
Removing the old one wasn’t too bad. It had a few screws, and some sealant that I had to clean up. A bit of acetone took care of that.
I couldn’t find the exact model that was on there before, so I bought one from West Marine that was close. The new one had different screw locations, so I filled the old screw holes with silicone, then put a bead of silicone around the opening. Once the new one was screwed down, there was a nice bead of sealant around the edge, so leakage should not be an issue.
The inside was a bit trickier. The new fan had a smaller flange that did not completely cover up the hole, so I made a plastic ring to fill the gap.
Now we have a working vent that helps keep the head from getting stuffy. Whenever the sun is out, the fan runs. It is a little bit noisier than I would like, but it’s really not too bad. Usually we are not down below during the day much, and it does not run at night.
