Toe and Rub Rail Installation

[Gary H]

Recommendations for scarf joint adhesive? Epoxy? Waterproof Wood Glue? 3M 500?

Also, I received 2 of the new teak rub rails pre cut at a 45 degree angle instead of a scarf joint. I do not have enough wood to re-cut this to a scarf joint - would this affect the choice of adhesive?

[Steve Laume]

Remove the teak oil first with a good solvent. Mix epoxy to glue consistency, tape edges where you don't want adhesive and tape or clamp in place. Be sure to place one screw in the scarf joint. I would add the screw after the epoxy had cured.

I wouldn't worry at all about a 45* scarf for the rub rail. If you were trying to create a long length of structural wood, a long scarf would be appropriate to carry the load. In the case of a rub rail on a boat with a deck to hull joint it would not be necessary. You just need to make sure you carry a fair line through the joint area. Temporarily clamping a scrap piece of wood along the joint might help with this if it proves to be a problem.

Start at the bow and trim at the stern, Steve.

[Gary H]

Thank you, Steve - good advice. Are you suggesting joining the pieces together before installing on the hull? - as opposed to epoxying them together on the hull?

[Dick Villamil]

Great ideas Steve - I did two scarf joints on the new rubrails for my Typhoon 5 years ago using pieces a friend cut from a 7 foot long teak plank ($$$). I used 4:1 scarf joints and made sure thet the top part of the scarf faced aft. I also made the scarf joints off the boat and did not put a screw in them. Then after sanding and applying 4 coats of Cetol Light I and a couple of friends attached it to the boat one screw section at a time after using a good caulk (get the teak color). It is still in pace and looks as though it came that way from the factory. I used West System epoxy after wiping both pieces with acetone to remove the teak oils. I am about to make a scarf joint on my CD 10 and have a 45 degree bevel (hopefully it will turn out OK) - I plan on taking Steve's suggestion of placing a fine screw in the scarf just in case since it occurs on the area just aft of the main bend along the rail. After it is in place I will sand the new pices to mate them with the old piece and install bungs for all the new screws. I made bungs out of a scrap piece oe teak (and mahogany for he CD 10) using the same wood scrap from which the rub rails were made. This keeps the grain and color similar.

[Steve Laume]

Thank you, Steve - good advice. Are you suggesting joining the pieces together before installing on the hull? - as opposed to epoxying them together on the hull?

I would do them in place because you wouldn't have to be so careful about not breaking a 45* joint and it will be much easier to handle the shorter pieces. Gluing them up ahead of time might give you a fairer line but you would have to do a temporary splint to make sure you didn't break the joint. You could even put a spline in back if you wanted to get real fancy.

Dick, I did a CD-14 a few years back. It has a three piece gunnel and all the wood was cracked or rotted. I was too cheap to spring for good mahogany so went to my local lumber yard and got long lengths of mahogany decking material. This stuff works very well for small boat gunnels. Harder and much oilier than Honduras Mahogany. It also comes in very long lengths with arrow straight grain if you look through the stack a bit. Not a bad color match for the rest of the woodwork either.

I have no time for boat projects right now as it is the Christmas tree sales season, Steve.

[Gary H]

Yes, I was a bit concerned about handling a 22' rail with just a 45 degree joint. I like the spline idea! I guess I would have never thought of that. Thank you.

[sfreihofer]

Gary;

I would follow the advice to dewax the wood and use epoxy. The problem with a 45 degree cut is that you don't have much wood surface for the epoxy to adhere to, so you need to strengthen the joint because it is highly stressed to conform to the curvature of the hull.

When I did mine, the toe rail wasn't a problem, but the rub rails both snapped at the scarf joint when I was installing them, so I had to re-do the joints. Luckily, I had enough length to make the sacrifice.

I found that I was able to prevent them from splitting by cutting a teak wood dowel with the grain instead of across the grain, and using that with epoxy to reinforce the joint, rather than using a screw.

The rub rail was very frustrating, but that worked for me. Good luck with it.

Stan Freihofer
1981 CD 25 #794, S/V Pearl
Ft. Lauderdale
www.ReefRoof.com