front air vents on 1987 scarab excel
 

need to replace bilge hoses from front air vent to engine compartment.need a little help on how to get to the hoses on the front air vents it,s a 26 scarab excel 1987. THANK,S 468ric

That particular project takes an enormous amount of work and it's just not worth the effort. The dryer hose will dry rot and fail again under the weight of any water entering the vents via wave spray or rain.

I sealed them up by removing the vents, then cut thin aluminum pieces to fit the back, and used 3M 5200 to glue the new back plates I cut into place. No more water problems entering the cabin or the cockpit. I left the existing dryer hose in the gunwhales because it was too much trouble to remove.

If you have the boat taken apart and can get to everything, I suppose you could replace the entire run with PVC pipe, but again, a lot of work and effort will be involved to strap it properly so that it's not banging around inside the gunwhales.

I did this back in the early 90's and I have never added any additional venting to the bilge because there is plenty of air going in via the gunwhales anyway. I've owned my 34' Scarab Excel since 1995.

Oops, never answered your question. The only way to get to those vents up front are through the headliner padding, which has to be removed. If you have a cabinet/console and enclosed head, removing that area of the headliner will give you enough access to reinstall dryer vent hose.