fitting a dry top-HELP!

For what?
How does that relate to trimming seals?

When rroberts’ nemesis, John Kuthe,
was on boatertalk.com, Kuthe and I used to have some hilarious arguments about whether to trim or stretch neck gaskets. I recall commenting that Kuthe would probably be more likely to trim condoms than to stretch them. He of course said the opposite.



Trimming is an entirely acceptable, and sanctioned, approach to making current >thick< Stohlquist gaskets comfortable. Thick gaskets do not stretch as easily as the thinner gaskets sold 10 years ago. However, I was able to stretch the neck gasket of a recent-vintage Stohlquist by pushing in a three (3) liter soda bottle. I pre-filled the bottle with water to keep the gasket from compressing it. I also put 20 oz soda bottles through the wrist gaskets, which are >not< designed to be trimmed. I must have left those bottles in there over 30 days, but after that, all 3 gaskets were acceptably comfortable. And after I wore the drytop a while, the neck gasket warmed and stretched a little more, and felt pretty good.