Re: Rub rails

Posted by Kurt Maurer on May 12, 2004

In my experience, rub rails hardly ever rub anything. I could call them "splash deflectors" and be a lot more accurate about it. They contribute to a drier ride, and do it noticably well in both my Mill Creek 13s and Cormorants.

I glue 'em on with a Cab-O-Sil thickened schmutz, and hold them in place with green laquer tape while I drive pins every 12" or so. The pins are really tiny steel finishing nails, which do not rust since they are encapsulated in epoxy. In fact, the pins I used on my MC13s were *already* rusty when I drove 'em, but they have yet to get any worse. Since I happen to remember from high school science class (which I flunked, thankyouverymuch), rust is an oxidation process requiring oxygen. So I simply (like the simp that I am) asphyxiated everyone in schmoo and got on with my life. Bwaaaa, ha, ha, ha...!

Ahem. Then I remove the tape while everything is still wet, and form tiny fillets above and below the rails with the squoze-out schmutz. Finally, I paint the rails and surrounding area with straight-up goo to waterproof the rails, kinda clean things up in general, and give me plenty to sand later in order to blend it all in nicely.

Rub rails are a PITA to install this way, but I would never build a boat without them. In my eyes, a yak is nekkid without 'em, and again, I like the splash deflection they provide. Bunches.

Cheers, Kurt

In Response to: Re: Rub rails by Peter Lyons on May 12, 2004

Replies:

• Re: Rub rails by Hugh on May 12, 2004