Wheelhouse windows

We are in the process of building a small aluminum landing craft and are to the point of designing the wheelhouse area. I am looking for a source for windows. I believe the type I would like to have is laminated, unless someone here talks me out of it. I like the concept that they will not shatter into a million pieces like tempered. Any good sources in North America.
thanks

 

Suggest Diamond Seaglaze, Vancouver BC

 

Yes they are very good. Freeman or Baclavat are also very good.

 

Any glass supply, repair or replacement outfit will carry "lamy", which is what they call the laminated, DOT approved glass used in the windshield of cars. It's physically two sheets of tempered glass bonded to a piece of plastic, which keeps the shattered glass intact as a unit, instead of a million pieces if broken. It comes in several tints too, which helps on glare. The green tint is a popular color for boats.

 

Surprised Kevin hasn't joined in here. He builds boats like that in Alaska where they use a lot of landing craft.
I commercial fished up there. I like the Windows that tip inward at the bottom, made of Glass (LAMY thanks PAR) which will withstand Green water. Tipped inward at the bottom, they don't have those damn spots where the Drips land.

I liked Clear. If the Glare is bothering you, wear Sunglasses with the Replaceable lens so you can change from Dark during the Day to Yellow going into the darkness of evening.

 

Don´t use tinted glass for the windshield area!

If it has to be commercial, or megayacht standard, contact Fehrmann in Hamburg.

Regards
Richard

 

The tint is very light, nothing like automotive tints. This is automotive windshield stuff, not for a stretch limo.

 

I assumed you were not talking black tinted glass Paul.

But personally, I do not accept even light tinted in front of the helm. You know why.

 

Definitely use laminate glass for a front windshield. That's what we use in our fiberglass replacement boat window frames.

Do you have any pic's of your landing craft to share?

 

Thud, sorry but I can't stand it anymore! Forward raked, some call it "West Coast" style, windshields are better in almost every way - rain, drips, radio room overhead...they effectively make your wheelhouse larger. They can be engineered to be as strong as the surrounding superstructure but they have a problem in that they aren't. A wave doesn't land on a window like many believe, a wave washes up to a window, and if it is forward raked and built for the tranquilness of Florida, or wherever, they will break or pop out when it does. If people don't think that water is a sharp enough medium to break a well-installed window, let me remind them that I have had lumber wash up my foredeck and aft-raked forward windows. I have made a mistake and had equipment and personel wash up onto my windows. In short, I have seen it dozens of times and from my experience, up to and including green water up my aft raked windows, it is my opinion that forward raked windows are unseamanlike. They are a hazard unless mounted better than any sportboat windows, and twice as thick as the standard 1/4" or 5/16" (schoolbus) windows. I have seen windows twenty feet high mounted in steel removed from a vertical mounting. If they were forward raked, it wouldn't be one here, one there, when the seas got mean, it would be all of them. Don't let SeaGlaze or whoever sell you those damned 1/4" sliders - they are waiting to allow large quantities of seawater into your cabin. 1/4" breaks if you look at it wrong.

 

There is a company in Switserland that designs their boats around commercially available automotive windows. these are cheap and readily available.

But beware, usually only the front windshield is laminated.

 

Apex1 why not tinting in the windshield?

Apex1 could you explain why you do not even want light tint in the windshield? I am curious because I am thinking it should not be that bad.

Have a Great Day
Earl

 

Good post mark. I owned boats and did Cook Inlet and over in the gulf, but never had one of the Raked backwards windshields.
I always thought it'd be better for the drips n' stuff but your are right about the crushing force of water. If it slewed up over the bow and crashed into the rearward rake of that windshield it'd be a head-on collision.
My error...the grass is always greener on the other side eh?

 

My windows are lightly tinted and I hate them. One was replaced and you can definitely see better out the clear window and if I slide my side window fwd for some fresh air I can't see much of anything through the double tint. Like thudpucker says wear sunglasses. I fully agree w Mark but he omitted that they look stupid on a lot of boats but how stupid they look varies a lot from boat to boat.

 

The slight tint used on laminated glass is slight as to not be worth mentioning, though along side untinted glass there seems a difference. There's no difference in clarity or transparency, though it may appear so to some. The fact is, the eye can see farther if you look though one of these tinted pieces of "lamy" then through a untinted piece of glass. Naturally, this assumes the comparison is preformed with the naked, unprotected eye. This is simply because of the UV filtering preformed by the tint, which permits the eye to dilate more in the same ambient light.

As far as forward raking windscreens, well, this is a long held debate that is more a function of requirements ans use. Some applications can't possibly live with the windage of a forward raked windshield, while others will benefit from it's good points. As far as vulnerability, this is just more of the same debate. For example, if a wave big enough to crash through a pilothouse windshield gets to that point, it really doesn't matter which way the windscreen is raked. You either have you storm shutters on, or you're about o get a wet reward, for not putting them on when the sea state warranted it. Point is a wave big enough to smash through an aft raked windshield, will also likely bash right through a forward raked windshield.

On a side note, since changing out my pilothouse windows for lamy, I've not had to redo any of my varnish inside the pilothouse. The UV filter is doing it's job.