I got this boat for free on her side with 2 ft. of her bow missing. replaced that in my back yard and sailed her for the last two years, comfortable boat to sail. the rub rail is damaged and I can't find any similar rails to replace it. Dose anyone have any suggestions where I might find a replacement rub rail.
rehabing old cal 25 (1978)
- Thread starter viking2
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I own a CAL 25 MK11 and was looking myself at replacing the rubrail and came upon a reference in California of a company called Seal's Spars and Riggings that can supply replacements for CAL rubrails. Check the website below. I have contacted the owner Ste Seal who apparently worked in the original CAL shipyard and said my precise model of CAL 25 (MK11) was not an easy model to find the right replacement at a reasonable cost. If you have the original CAL 25, I believe it will be easier. Check it out.
Forgot on my last post to include the website reference. Here it is:
http://www.sealsspars.com/gunnelcatalog.html
http://www.sealsspars.com/gunnelcatalog.html
Yes it does. The drawing does not show clearly the insert which is probably sold separately (?) My hull-to-deck joint does leak (a bit) and for the time being I have been able to manage the issue by putting a very small bead of polysulfide caulking (boat life) which has worked so far. Also rebedded with caulking all the through-bolts of the insert. So far I have no more leaks.
I just got this boat but I have heard it too leaks at the joint. Where did you run the bead? I have heard of people completely opening the seem to sandwich wood and caulk in it but I am hoping there is a less intensive way of stopping the leaks.
The rub rail on this older CAL sailboat is very sturdy and quite stable so what I did is, after I put masking tape on both sides of the joint, ran a bead of caulking about a quarter inch wide from stern to bow, actually two beads of caulking, one above the rub rail and the other under the rub rail against the hull side. What happened is water ingressed making its way through the rub rail and through the hull-to-deck joint (which is no longer totally waterproof), this happening when the boat heals under sail in a stronger wind. Going to the extent of removing the rub rail altogether and addressing the hull-to-deck joint leaks would assuredly be the best solution but also a lot of work and would entail replacing the older rub rail as it is always difficult to re-install very old ones. Granted the caulking I put could also leak at some point in the future but I is always easy to just re-caulk. A lot of the problems with older sailboats (I found) is that the caulking used is good for about 30 years (including the 5200 used to bond the hull-to-deck joints). Also it is very important to remove the insert and re-bed every through hull bolts holding it.
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You did that with the boat in the water? Mine is afloat. I am just wondering how well I can caulk the under side of the rail... I haven't really looked at it yet but I think it too leaks when heeling to port. I am planning to sail it about 6 hours North of here and have it pulled in the spring to paint the bottom and probably replace the rub rail so I am looking for something that will work until spring.
Yes I did that with the boat in the water. Not very convenient but you need to work from the dock doing one side and turn the boat around to do the other side. You put your masking tape a quarter inch from the joint on each side so as to have a bead that is wide enough and very clean. I used LifeCaulk from BoatLife as recommended by a very knowledgeable boatyard in my area.
After looking at the rub rail on my boat none of the pictures on anyone's site look right.
RVI-124 on rubrails.com looks like the right shape though the dimensions are off and it only comes in 20ft segments?
http://www.rubrails.com/rigid_vinyl_flexible.html
Seals Spars and Rigging don't have the 2-25 listed on their website. Has someone talked to them about it?
RVI-124 on rubrails.com looks like the right shape though the dimensions are off and it only comes in 20ft segments?
http://www.rubrails.com/rigid_vinyl_flexible.html
Seals Spars and Rigging don't have the 2-25 listed on their website. Has someone talked to them about it?
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