Those plastic air scoops on the side

[Steam Flyer]

The Albin 28and 31TE all seem to have the same air intake scoop on the side of the cabin. It's very much like this THIS

http://www.sea-dog.com/groups/1785-louvered-vent

in fact, it's EXACTLY like that in every respect except the most important one, if you are looking to replace an old sun-scorched cracked one: the size.

Ours are considerably bigger at 14" X 5 3/4" although they still have 8 screws.

Has anybody replaced theirs, where do I get the Albin-sized version of this vent??

Thanks!
Doug K

[Tree]

Hi Doug, when you say in the side do you mean on the hull and on the cabin? If so I imagine yours have been changed at some point as they are normally stainless steel? The plastic ones are mounted under the gunwhales.

If so, the vents are collector box vents and for the life of me I can't remember the manufactures name at the moment. If you do a search of the forum, there is a thread about them as I needed to replace one of mine as the weld had broken on it.

[Carl]

http://www.go2marine.com/product/27108F ... nless.html

[enJOYCEment]

I replace the stainless steel scoops with white plastic ones. The stainless ones were constantly corroding from the salt water. No matter how well I washed them off they still corroded. Had to cut larger holes to accept the plastic ones. Now if the plastic ones fade or craze I can easily replace them for a minimal cost.

[Steam Flyer]

Thanks for the replies.

Since there's really nothing off the shelf (I have since spoken with Defender and Sea-Dog by phone) I could re-fiberglass the cabin sides or make a filler piece out of Star-Board and use the smaller-framed scoops. I would stay with plastic on the theory that they've lasted 15 years pretty well and I won't care what they look like 15 years from now.

Most of our boats have had mixed results with stainless steel. Every bit of metal on this boat (yr2000 31TE kept on Barnegat Bay most of it's life) was heavily corroded. Any SS allow will corrode under the right (wrong) conditions from salt exposure and/or lack of oxygen available at the surface; but most times I've seen even the cheap SS fittings will benefit a LOT from rubbing them down with compound & wax. Yeah like we all want to do more maintenance. But the corrosion looks terrible.

FB- Doug K