On Thursday, I managed to squeeze a day out of the holiday visits to install one of the new ABI ports. It was clear as I worked through the problems of its installation that ABI had intended to simply screw the port into the cabin side from the inside; convenient and easy, but definitely not engineered for the strength to sustain the impact of a large wave or knockdown. In order to do a proper through-bolt installation, I had to drill the bolt holes at the bottom at an angle to allow room for the nuts to clear the angled flange.
I had only enough time to put the butyl tape around the flange as I did for the Ta Chiao ports (see November 1 post) and tighten down the bolts. Fortunately, with the larger bolts (1/4 inch), I could compress the butyl enough that the clamps were only necessary to hold the port in place while I drilled the bolt holes and inserted the bolts. If you look carefully at the interior photo, you can see where the butyl has self-welded and squeezed out around the inside mounting flange. You can also see that the port looks like it is mounted high inside; however, that is where it must be for proper exterior placement.
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wow that really is a pretty port,
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