Pretty. And Smart, Too - Portlight Upgrade

My portlights arrived the other day.  As to portlights in general, after spending a few weeks as a liveaboard, often away from dock, I realized the necessity of proper ventilation.  Now, I've never spent more than a few minutes below deck on a finished PocketShip, so I'm not sure how well the dorade vents work.  Still, the ability to open and close the portlights will be appreciated, so I ordered a full set of four Vetus PQ51 portlights.  They look awesome!

Of course, nothing is entirely without downsides.  The screws that hold the portlights together are exactly in line with the scoring of the original portlights (really deadlights, to be pedantic). As usual, epoxy to the rescue.  I'll fill in these scoring holes with epoxy, fair it down, and recut the circle. Extra care needs to be taken to ensure a complete seal is made between the boat and the elements.

The pre-scored holes for the deadlights.

Soon after the above post, I received a question on the Vetus portlights as to whether or not the PQ52's were better than the PQ51's I ordered, especially given I need to fill in the kit-scoring for the deadlights. The PQ52 is one inch larger all around so I wouldn't need to fill in the trench since the trench would simply be cut away.

It's a good question, so I figured I'd post the question, my response, and the original post here so that it's altogether:

Question: I am intrigued by your Vetus portlights. Though expensive, I might decide to spring for them. You did say, though that the mounting holes line up with the precut groove, which you filled in. This leads me to believe that you purchased the PQ51 portlights which have an inner diameter of 5" and an outer diameter of 6". The PQ52 (about $5 more) has in inner diameter of 6" and an outer diameter of 7 1/8". That might be a better fit although the actual opening inside the flange might be greater than 6", requiring a bit of work. Which model do you have? If you bought the PQ51, do you think the 52 might work better?

Response: Yes, [I have] the 51's. I'm as cheap as they come, but this is one thing that I knew I'd splurge for some day. Besides looking fantastic, they're functional, too. The ability to open them up and look outside was the main selling point for me.

As for 'better,' 'better' is a relative term. PocketShip has relatively low freeboard.  Meaning, it's pretty close to the water and exposed to the elements.  That extra inch adds 9" of area per hole, and 36" overall. That's 36 more inches of water possibly getting in. The 51's are cut basically the same size as the original kit, so proportionally, it should look balanced. The 52's present a bug-eyed risk to the boat. If the praying mantis look is what you're after, great. The larger diameter, too, would get dangerously close to the topside/hull seam where the extra fiberglass is. I didn't want to risk that. Finally, I've seen the 51's on s/v Solitude III and they're fine. More than fine, actually.

But I am curious as to what the 52's would look like, so don't let this diatribe stop you from building what you want on your boat!

I debated the larger size, too, much too much over the last year, but finally settled on the smaller.  They came from Jamestown Distributors and the price was the lowest I could find online.  As I write this, the filler is curing (as well as some other stuff).  I'll get that sanded down and do a test run of the sizing sometime tonight.