[Rhodes22-list] Gasket For Opening Port Screen

[Lloyd Crowther]

Today I discovered the corner of the screen on one of the forward opening ports on Uhuru II had somehow popped out of the front of the port.  I took the gasket the holds the screen off and removed the screen itself from the port hole.  The screen and gasket remove from inside the boat after the port glass itself is opened , i.e., the screen is outside the glass but inside the port frame as you all know.  The screen and the material that forms the screen's shape look to be in good condition, not bent in any way.  My problem, if you care to address it, is that the screen has been in place for twenty years ('84 Rhodes22) and the retaining gasket is not as limber as it was when originally installed.  It has some flexibility, but not enough to stretch over the curved corners of the molded lip on the port's frame which holds the screen in place when the port is open.  As a matter of fact, it is like trying to stretch a piece of wood although it is flexible enough to flop around when I tried to put it back.  Does anybody know of anything I can paint or spray on the gasket material or soak the gasket in that will convince it that it is again young without destroying the gasket material, the material that forms the screen's shape, the screen mesh, or the port frame? 

Lloyd Crowther
s/v Uhuru II