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Glassing over rub rail

Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
My 32-3 has storm damage which has peeled the rubrails and opened the hull/deck seam on both sides to the point that it does leak inside, despite the interior layers of glass cloth. Haven't found the interior plies damaged so far, but the seam is split open in spots and I've found some long screws which go through the interior plies.
20190112_121047-L.jpg


I've found earlier threads which show others (Mark F, nepenthe, ralph roddam, +) have ground off the seam and glassed over the area and my damage is long enough that I'd like to go in this direction. Ref:
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?10485-35-II-rubrail
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?1260-Hull-to-deck-joint-leak
http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoex...e-Rail-Repair/page2&highlight=glassed+rubrail

For example, here is a photo nepenthe posted of his 1975 E35-2:
attachment.php

[While this looks great, I do plan to add something over the glass for a new rubrail.]

He wrote: "I cut the whole thing off, ground the hull smooth, laminated two layers of FG cloth over the outside and two over the inside with West epoxy, faired it and painted it."

In my experience, repairs should be generally close to the thickness of what is being repaired and the hull/deck are probably roughly 1/2" thick in the area. The following is a cross section of a E34, also from the E.Y.o forum:
attachment.php


So my questions are:

1. While I will grind out and epoxy the crack, plus will glass what I can inside, the real repair will be external. So does anybody have any experience or thoughts on number of external plies to use?

2. Other experience in what it took for others to do this?

Thanks in advance!

Bob / Tin Kicker
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Most stuff said here is some form of opinion, but in this case it's pure opinion:

I would really try to save the existing deck-hull connection and profile.

I say this because

a. As you said, you'll need a rub rail anyhow.
b Grinding everything down, prepping ,painting, etc., is a lot of work.
c. Voids were common in manufacture. Unless there is actual traumatic separation of deck/hull due to damage, no big deal.

So, the easiest course would seem to be to epoxy the voids, then rebuild the ruined gunnel areas, then install new rub rail all around.

Aluminum rub rail will cover the existing hull/deck flange and hide flaws there.

But of course I haven't seen all the issues, and may well have missed the reason this course is not gonna work.
 
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Glenn McCarthy

Glenn McCarthy
Hey Tin -

I'm in the middle of a similar project on a E35 MkII. I didn't have damage, what I had were old holes that went all the way into the hull that hadn't been filled. In a heavy air sail we had tons of water coming in with the rub rail underwater. We chose to remove the rub rail, grind off the flanges, then fill with epoxy filler, just relying on the interior laminate that glued the deck to the hull. Along the way I have learned that this boat had the optional 1" spacer put in between the hull and deck when assembled that made it an inch taller below decks to walk around. I write a blog on my restoration of this well worn out boat, and here are a few pictures of the ridges - http://www.chicagonow.com/sail-lake-michigan/2018/12/restore-a-sailboat-november-2018/

- Glenn
 

Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Thanks to both of you.

Christian, you were right in that the photo just shows one local area and I used it because it was the photo with the closest detail. The other side is longer and it looks like this was the second time the flange under the rub rails has been damaged. Plus, some of it is already ground almost flush. Between digging out the hardware store silicone from an earlier repair, all the long non-OEM screws, and 20% of the length damaged, to me it is enough to just going to address the whole thing so it won't leak again.

Glenn - Appreciated your blog and photos.
 
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