Maybe we are over thinking this whole thing...I have owned a boat basically since 1975 most of them had a 4 or 5 panel windshield and I never had to replace a pane.
My problems lay in not the construction as much as how do I handle the curving of the dash (were I plan on placing the frame). Plus the center panel is rectangular and the port and stbd. panes are trapezoid.
Right now I wish I was in Maine hunting down some of those Master Craftsmen, that have been doing this for the last hundred or so years...
