Rub rails and deck hull joints

[jssailem]

Recently I read a message from a new owner looking to replace the rub rail on his craft.

This caused me to wonder. I sprayed my rub rail and dirt came popping our drizzling down the boat side.

Do deck to hull joints need inspection and perhaps repair? When?

Obviously when you collide with something and there is a gaping hole, or when the soft deck will no longer support your weight and you can see sunlight above the quarter berth where no sun light should be shining.

What I'm questioning should there be a preventative action or does good design and manufacturing preclude that need?

John
S/V Hadley
Sailing the Pacific Northwest.

 

[Calif. Ted]

Rub rails with a rubber insert collect an incredible amount of dirt and gunk behind the insert, even though the darn things are usually so tight it's hard to figure out how it gets in.

 

[jssailem]

We have a marina remodel happening - Port of Everett Marina. They have been producing this fine grey stone dust that settles on everything. It's like Mount St Helens volcano dust. Grey and gritty. So I sprayed the boat down and happened to spray the rub rails. Man what an added task. I guess a simple task will always grow based on the size of the boat. Went from "I'll just spray off the surface dust." to "Oh my what is all that gunk hiding in the rub rail?" Not unexpected as the 'new to me' boat is 40 plus years and the 2 PO's lived aboard with out the concept of boat maintenance in their vocabulary.

This is fun....

 

[Crazy Dave Condon]

It would be helpful if there was a better description of your rubrail. I have seen folks apply a small bead of silicon to the top of the guard rail abutted to the hull to help prevent that.

 

[marke14]

I regularly hose our boat down in our slip, both the deck and hull and of course including the rub rail. I don't get any "run-down" or streaking from there ... and ours is hardly tightly fitted!

Don't you guys always hit the rub rail with the hose when you're washing your boat?

Original poster, post some pics. Threads, forums and users all love pics! Even old pics to illustrate the design ...

 

[bffatcat]

dirt under rub rail

2 years ago I had my 40 year old pearson 26w completely reconditioned in a professional yard
prior to the overhaul after any rain there was always a substantial amount of water to pump out of the bilge. Now there is none When I do run a hose along thr rubrail there is always some black grime that runs down the hull. Its not important because it dosent get inside

 

[jssailem]

Thanks for the picture idea. Still getting the hang of this sharing stuff.

This happened when the boat was new to me (May 2015). Not at the boat every day, yet. Berthed 270 miles away. So first clean happened after I had got to the marina, left for a couple of weeks and drove back to see all this grey dust. That's when I broke out the hose and sprayer. Learned that my ports were dry, the water did not all flow off the deck where the lines sat blocking the drainage slits in the rub rail. There was all sorts of gunk in the drain lines. And the rub rail grunge appeared to have a life of it's own, dribbling and complaining as it was being flushed.

I'll break out the camera for a blow by blow as I attempt this again...

From the responses it appears to me that unless you see water in the interior, the deck seam is not a maintenance issue.

Thanks all for your ideas and comments.

 

[Windtherapy]

I just changed my entire rub rail on my 1985 O'Day 26' and a ton of crap came out of it when I removed it. I'll be hosing that down on every deck spray.

 

[SOCAL C50]

The rubber insert was too degraded to remove, clean the channel and replace so I removed it cleaned the channel really good and then I used 3M 4200 and siliconed 1/2 black double braded rope in the slot, then sealed the top and bottom of the channel and that cured the water coming in that way. Now I have to seal the outboard well better as water is coming in there when healed over hard.