Replacing exterior wood

[DannyS]

So I'm thinking of replacing the exterior wood with composite decking material. My boat has a molded fiberglass toerail with a trim cap strip of teak. It looks nice when finished properly but it's time to either refinish it, strip it and let it go natural, or replace it with something different. I've been doing some testing and I'm leaning toward ripping strips of composite decking from TimberTech (timbertech.com). They make one called Tropical Teak that has a warm, varnished look. I made stair treads for our swim ladder four years ago and they still look great. My thought is to rip the strips at home, rout the edges to match the existing profile, then bring my benchtop drill press to the boat and use the existing caprails as patterns for drilling the new ones to match up the hole patterns on the boat. I was thinking of using butyl tape for bedding. You can see the toerail in the photo, it looks better in the photo than it does in reality. Any thoughts?

 

[kloudie1]

Sounds interesting!.. it just has to sit there and look nice..there is no stress on it.. after that, ya can do that pesky little eyebrow strip over the portlight.. I am interested because I've thought seriously about doing that for the eyebrow strip on my boat too.. Good luck with it !

 

[DannyS]

You got it Kloudie, that eyebrow would be next!

 

[Allan12210]

Here is a link to the project I did last year. The material still looks good after about a year.

http://sbo.sailboatowners.com/index.php?option=com_mtree&task=viewlink&link_id=7754&Itemid=257

I haven't tackled the eyebrow yet, but soon....

 

[Steve Dion]

Danny/Allan:

I think this is a great idea. Who in their right mind wants to sand & refinish these little scraps of wood.

The one thing I would be sure to do is be sure that those holes where you attach the trim are properly sealed. The main thing is you do not want water getting down the screw holes. I would suggest that you use life caulk or some similar product to prevent any water intrusion in the screw threads.

I replace my hand rails on my H'31 with stainless steel and never looked back.

 

[DannyS]

Steve, I bought a 3/8 inch plug cutter to make my own "bungs" from the same composite material. It works great. The fit is very tight. I'll probably smear a little bit of some type of marine sealant around the edges to "glue" them in place. The goal being to just seal the bung in place and not to fill in the head of the screw. I ordered my material yesterday. I'll post photos after I complete the project.