Leaking toe rail

Hello all

First post so greetings.

I have a Cavalier 30 which is reasonably new to me. Its a pretty solid boat apart from it leaks under the toe rail and into the hull. The aluminium toe rail is in pretty good condition.

To fix it I would need to remove deck hardware, toe rail etc and then waterproof / re-bed all the through deck bolts.

Is there also gap between the hull and the deck under there? Could this also be the problem. Would it need re-glassing?

Who would do the work to fix this? I can do it but not sure I have the time.
ThanksEd
Sydney Eastern Subs.

I used to build the boats in Wentworthville nsw and the toe rail will need to be removed and the bedding removed and re-applied ensure you get the sickaflex in the new holed as well. Should not need re-glassing. that's the hull to deck joint please include a photo of what you have now if you can.

Sam - Moored in double bay near the Ferry Warf. You?

Whiteout - you built these things? How cool. I wonder if you built mine? What pictures? The boat or the toe rail. :-)

Phoenix - yes i have read up about butyl tape but yet to find a source. Can you recommend an AUS brand easily available?

ThanksEd.

+1 for the butyl tape. I've had no fails in about 5 years of using it for deck hardware. I used to use an enormous amount in trying to make a full-size "gasket", but these days I just make an "O-ring" of it to surround the hole, plus a collar to go under the countersunk screw head, and that works well. I make the hole "O-ring" a large enough diameter to keep it from squishing into the thread. I keep it off the threads as really the sealing should happen before the water can get to the thread. Using less means it is easier to squish it down and it reduces the number of retightens required (you will still need a few though).
But whatever way you use it, I reckon it's the bee's knees, duck's guts etc etc. Plus you only use what you need and the rest doesn't go off, so no throwing out of 95% full Sika tubes! So even though it's a bit exxy up front to buy, it is far cheaper in the long run.

Cheers, Graeme

Have a look at the following :

www.pbase.com/mainecruising/rebedding_hardware

I have done all the fittings on my deck using this approach. When I started the boat was full of water after rain and now it is dry and dusty. If you have a cored deck it needs to be sealed with epoxy.

I got my product from Building Products Online :

buildingproductsonline.com.au/butyl-tape.html#product_tabs_related_tabbed

The web page says it comes in black, but if you ask them they can provide the really nice grey stuff as used by the pbase site. At $20 per roll it is cheap and lasts for ever.

I found the tapes on line product contained some kind of re-enforcement that made it difficult to work with. The distributor says you can get the stuff from run of the mill plumbing stores like Reece etc.

If you are lifting the rails, however depending on the profile you still might want to use sealant like Fixtex to glue it down to provide structural support.

A

Here is the toe rail. Whiteout would the hull / deck joint be under this? It's going to be a big job.

Probably 30 odd nuts and bolts each side.

Any shipwrights out out there want to quote me on doing this?

Ed