I did the same thing to my 26S, repaired the deck joint in several places, took the while thing apart and resealed it, replaced the rub rail with a 50' roll from BWY.
I'm not saying i dunit right.
And i may go back to it again several more times as i use the boat more.
But i started by just wrapping the thing around the boat and stretching it as far as i could by hand. I screwed it in on one side, walked it up to the front, pulling it behind me as i went (as if leading a resistant donkey). Popped it in place a little at a time as i went along. Got to the front, and went around the corner. That pretty much held the one side in place as i walked it back down the other side. I was able to stretch it far enough this way to screw in the other side. Then i waited a few days while it sat in the hot FL sun.
Went back to it and started pulling the slack out of it, so-to-speak. On each side, i would start near the front, pulling on it toward the back, until i had pulled it about 18 inches or so longer in the back, then cut that extra off and screwed the new end back on. Did that on both sides. Have done that twice so far, and have not yet sealed it with 5200. Not completely convinced that we need to seal our "snap-on" style rubber rub rails to the boat since they don't fit perfectly down over the deck joint. I have a good deck joint seal now, and I'm not sure i want something sealed over it and holding moisture against it.
Will probably pull a little more slack out again soon. This was a good reminder to check on it. Note that this may not be 100% right. But the basic job is not that intimidating if you're just trying to get a rub rail back on the boat.
