[Anakalia]

Help would be appreciated. The starboard side curved Taylor Made windshield on my 2000 52 Sovran spontaneously disintegrated, and the search for the part has been difficult. Is there any stock/ spare glass sitting anywhere that anyone knows about?

Today, Taylor Made said they could make one this Fall for $48 K plus shipping!! Meanwhile , I am dock-bound. Looking for answers and help. Thanks for any input.

[Maxwell]

Cal,

After spending some time up at CP last week I reached out to some friends at Tiara and basically got the same answers that you have already received. I wonder if it is possible to reach out to some of the insurance companies and see if there are any boats that were damaged in Sandy etc that were a complete loss insurance wise yet are still intact somewhere.

Max

[Uhehner]

As a quick temporary fix, LEXAN is a tough plastic material that can be bent with heat by a pro. It will take sledge hammer blows, comes in various shades and thicknesses, does not scratch easily and is no way near your quoted cost. Check it out, it may turn into a permanent fix. Capt. George

[anthem]

$48K WOW!! Have you contacted your insurance company? I would think that would be covered.

[Uhehner]

Be careful with your wording when making an insurance claim. If the windshield was damaged by vandals or a BB gun you would be covered but a stress crack / fracture / sudden explosion / spontaneously disintegration could be called a manufacturing defect and not be covered. READ your policy. Remember insurance companies are like diodes. The money flows easily TO the company but not to the insured. With this much money involved I would consult an expert on the subject. Capt. George

[Chris Burkard]

$48,000.00!!!

That is insane! I understand it is expensive to make a one off piece of curved glass, but wow! I'm sure that Taylor long ago destroyed the molds for those windshields due to the boat being out of production for so long.

I would contact other glass manufactures (do some internet searching). There has to be a company that can make it for a whole lot less!

The other option was listed above. Have it made from Lexan. It won't be as optically clear and it won't be as scratch resistant, but I would think it would cost about 5 - 10% of what Taylor wants for glass.

Good Luck!

[ReelNauti]

A similar thing happened to me on my 29. I went to the boat one day and found the port side glass shattered into pieces. I suspect a rock was shot out of a lawnmower from a nearby house. Look very closely at yours, I could actually find the point of impact.

Mine was a straight piece however, the curved will be much more of a PITA. Tiara helped me get a new window. I possibly could have had a local glass shop help but I wanted to make sure the color was right.

The price was around $700 + shipping. Again this was a much smaller and straight piece of glass. My deductible is 1K so it wasn't worth going that route.

Changing it wasn't hard, but it took some time to bed it properly and seal it.

Good luck with yours.

[Chris Burkard]

A similar thing happened to me on my 29. I went to the boat one day and found the port side glass shattered into pieces. I suspect a rock was shot out of a lawnmower from a nearby house. Look very closely at yours, I could actually find the point of impact.

Mine was a straight piece however, the curved will be much more of a PITA. Tiara helped me get a new window. I possibly could have had a local glass shop help but I wanted to make sure the color was right.

The price was around $700 + shipping. Again this was a much smaller and straight piece of glass. My deductible is 1K so it wasn't worth going that route.

Changing it wasn't hard, but it took some time to bed it properly and seal it.

Good luck with yours.

A flat piece of safety glass is no problem. They can simply cut to fit. A curved piece of glass requires exact patterning of the vessel, then a special mold has to built. Then the glass has to be laminated in stages using the new mold. It must be done to exact specifications so that it fits properly and the laminating process must be done properly so that there is not significant distortion in the curved section.

The old 1990s Tiara 4300 Open had curved corner sections in the windshield. The flat sections of the windshield (sides & center opening section) were made from safety glass and the curved corners were made from Acrylic or Lexan. As the boat aged, you could see a slight color difference in the corners as the glass and Lexan discolored differently over time. I'm sure that Tiara used Lexan on the curved corners because of cost. Custom curved glass is expensive. Car windshields are different. When a glass company builds a mold for a car windshield, it is used to make 10s of thousands of parts (or hundreds of thousands of parts) and the cost of the mold can be spread across all of those parts. Then when the car goes out of production, the company still continues to manufacture those windshields for replacement parts. How many 52 Tiaras were ever produced? I think about 50 boats were built. When the boat went out of production, the glass company discarded the molds, because storing a large glass mold like that is expensive and how many future parts can they hope to make from those molds? Not very many is my guess. I'm sure there is a small glass company that could make one for less, but finding that company is going to be quite a search. Just my $.02!