# Sealing top of rubrail



## JMZ400 (Aug 30, 2015)

I'm the king of overthinking. So much so that in this case, I might worry more about what I might be getting trapped in there since water could still come up from bottom. I'm a big believer in proper air flow to keep things dry.


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## trekker (Sep 19, 2015)

zthomas said:


> I just installed a Taco semi-rigid vinyl rubrail, and I'm wondering how I should seal it. I don't mean seal it to keep water out of the hull -- I previously sealed my hull-deck joint very carefully, so I'm not worried about water intrusion into the hull.
> 
> Rather, I'm concerned about water getting down behind the rubrail from the top and then getting trapped there between the rail and the cap. The top of the rail is fairly tight to the cap, but certainly not tight enough that water couldn't seep down through.
> 
> ...


How did the insatallation go? I am probably gonna install one soon.


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

trekker said:


> How did the insatallation go? I am probably gonna install one soon.


I second this. I'm debating doing the seal and rub rail myself, or paying skiff shop to do it.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

I doubt you could ever completely seal up your rubrail, you are better off just making sure your fasteners are sealed up. Leaving the rubrail sealed up will likely trap saltwater and cause more issues.


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## zthomas (Jan 14, 2014)

I guess that was misleading -- the shop that painted my boat put the rail on but sealed only the screws. I was wondering whether to pull the insert, loosen it a bit, and seal the whole thing.

Regarding difficulty, I had planned to install it myself initially and watched a bunch of videos about it. Based on those, my concern was using a heat gun to get it to bend nicely around the corners. In the end, the guy who put it on said the problem wasn't that it was too rigid but rather that it was too floppy and difficult to keep straight.

I'm guessing that means ambient temperature has a lot to do with installation. In most of the videos I watched, they guys were wearing sweatshirts. Last week in Bradenton, it was like 132 degrees in the shade.

Probably worth noting too that he said he prefers Barbour Plastics rails to Taco rails. Of course, that could be due to a relationship with a rep or something. But he said Barbour was more rigid and easier to get straight.

SomaliPirate, obviously since I chickened out at the last minute and had mine done professionally I can't offer much firsthand advice on level of difficulty. I can say, though, that sealing the hull-deck joint on that boat and replacing the rubrail are two completely different tasks.

I pulled my rail in my driveway thinking I'd just run a new bead of 4200 around the bottom of the joint, slap on a new rail, and then seal the bottom of the rail. What I found was a big, ugly mess. Many of the screws holding the shoebox joint had completely wallered out their holes and others had backed most of the way out. There were big gaps in the old sealant, and in some places as much a half inch or so of space between the cap and the hull.

I'm you've already seen it, but just in case, here's where I posted about cleaning it all out and re-doing it: https://www.microskiff.com/threads/...nted-sitting-8-years-alive-again.39618/page-6. After that, I ran it for months with no rubrail at all and had no more water intrusion issues.

I will say that it didn't demand any particular technical know-how, but it was time-consuming, tedious, sweaty work that I would have much rather paid somebody else to do if that had been an option. It's certainly possible your joint is in much better shape, but I know it's fairly common for them to be a mess.


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## SomaliPirate (Feb 5, 2016)

T


zthomas said:


> I guess that was misleading -- the shop that painted my boat put the rail on but sealed only the screws. I was wondering whether to pull the insert, loosen it a bit, and seal the whole thing.
> 
> Regarding difficulty, I had planned to install it myself initially and watched a bunch of videos about it. Based on those, my concern was using a heat gun to get it to bend nicely around the corners. In the end, the guy who put it on said the problem wasn't that it was too rigid but rather that it was too floppy and difficult to keep straight.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the info. It looks like I'll probably pay the skiff shop to do it, based on what you're saying.


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