Planning a couple Nicro Solar Day/Night vents for Encore
Posted By RichC on March 2, 2012
This week I unboxed a couple of the Marinco Nicro Solar Day/Night vents and added a couple of new tools to my box in preparation for my next boat related project. 
The plan is to keep the a little bit of air circulating inside of our sailboat in order to retard the musty smell and mildew all too common in closed up boats. I’ve opted to purchase two of them with the idea of putting one of vent fan exhausting air to the outside and the other solar powered vent pushing in fresh air… we’ll see how that goes. (I also need to re-bed a couple of dripping ports, but that’s another project).
I’m a little bit apprehensive about the installation as I’ll need to put a 4-3/4” hole in the forward cabin top. It is a slightly cambered fiberglass deck area, but hopefully it will seal to keep both the rain and green water from finding its way through and around the solar powered vent. After taking one of them apart, I’m also concerned with their integral strength. There is a somewhat dubious sliding gate feature that is designed to close the opening if water does start to find its way in, but I’m not sure how well this feature will work? That said, I do plan on keeping the vent high on the the cabin top and somewhat mid-ship … not on the forward hatch or lower deck area.
The other solar vent is to be fitted direct to the hatch on the aft cabin … which requires a hole a bit smaller – 4-1/2” through the Lewmar acrylic hatch (no internal trim ring). For a direct to hatch installation, the manual recommends a polyurethane adhesive only and not to use fasteners. 
Having a little bit of experience with airplane canopies, I think I’ll heed the advice and just use a little pressure with some 3M 5200 adhesive/sealant.
The larger holes could be cut with a saber saw, but I’m using the project as an excuse to purchase a couple new larger Ruko hole saws … I’ve always wanted a quality hole saw … now I have both a 4-1/2 and 4-3/4 size. The bad news is that they cost $20 each from AutomationDirect. and unless I can use them for something else, they are an expensive one-time use tool – I’ll keep my eye out for a friend wanting to install a Nicro vent.
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