Good morning all,

With Galini now recently anti-fouled I can turn my attention to the next thing on the priority list...because it wouldn't be a yacht without a long list of things waiting to be done.

The wooden rub rail that extends the length of the yacht on both sides is in need of some TLC, now that isn't too much of a problem, some sandpaper, varnish/oil/insert other wood care product here and maybe some wood putty, and I can probably get that at least looking presentable.

The problem is the fibreglass the rub rail is connected to.

On the STBD side up FWD, two of the screws attaching the rub rail have ripped out and have taken some of the fibreglass with it, leaving the area exposed. (Sorry no photo at this time)

This I'm fairly sure I need to deal with sooner rather than later to prevent major structural damage to the fibreglass. My problem is I'm not sure how to do it.

My assumption (and this is where I am looking for advice) is that:
1. Remove rub rail
2. Sand/grind out section of fibreglass
3. Fill section with fairing compound
4. Cover section with fibreglass tape and epoxy
5. Reattach rub rail (although willing to listen to arguments to just get rid of the rub rail all together)

I'd love to hear from anyone who has done something similar, or really any fibreglass repairs, to at least know I'm on the right track.

Thanks all
Knight

What HG said
I would use high strength filler like cabosil rather than fairing compound for the first filler then wet out the fibreglass before the filler goes off so you don't have sand it smooth. Then finally fair it off with a fairing compound like Qcells that will be easy to sand

Thanks for the advice so far everyone, and Bluemoon, its the toe rail right on the edge at the top of the gunwhale, I don't have one of the rails 150mm down.

I'll take some photos of the damage next time I'm out at the boat (which unfortunatly will be about 2 weeks after I get back from some time away with work), but by the sounds of it so far I may just go for boatcoat with filler.

I would like to know though, how do you build it up? ie: most epoxies I've worked with before are essentially a liquid (a thick liquid but a liquid none the less). How do you stop it just flowing down the side of the boat?

Thanks for the help, I'll keep everyone updated as I progress this.

Due to poor (no, appalling!) work by my boat's previous owner, I had to fix all 50 or so rubrail mounting holes. After a few fails, my method was to drill out each hole to 12mm. I then used 100ml syringes (the ones with nozzle about 3 or 4 mm id) to inject thickened epoxy into each hole. I used West system, with their filler. I made sure to spread it out each side of the inside of the hole, and to form a plug at least 1cm deep. That gave me a nice secure body, keyed to the inside of the gunwale, into which I could drill and screw self-tapping rubrail mounting screws. I chose self-tappers over machine screws on the advice of the West System distributor. Didn't worry about appearance to much as it's all concealed by the rail.

Hope this helps, but obviously it's not applicable if you have large areas to repair, where you'll need to use cloth.

Cheers, Graeme