a question about bow railing gaskets....

OK, here's another question.

Evidently on this Marquis 22foot'r, someone had either added a bow railing, or did some kind of repairs. I noticed inside the cuddy where you could see water stains, evidently from leaking though the edge of the roof cap. Not damaged but stains. On closer investigation, I see where someone had run screws into the cap and all is solid.

BUT! Underneath the railing supposts, it's just metal to fiberglass and nothing in between. *ugh!* Which I find quite odd. I an thinking there should be some type of gasket material in between, like plastic, rubber or the sort, to keep water from leaking in.

i know, these mounts come in all shapes and sizes and finding and giong to a dealer and saying "Gimme some railing gaskets!" wouldn't go over very well.

Is there any source on where to go for this kind of stuff, or do you make you're own?

I can make them, I suppose but I didn't really care to cut up an old truck mud flap, (well, maybe as a last resort) ?:-)

And I would like to make it look like a neat factory job, instead of cobbery.

What do you all suggest?

Thanks!

Terry K

So I looked it up and find nothing on my Pocket Oxford about metal galling, only insect caused galls or swelling, or emotional upset, or digestive juice, or rubbed bare spot on horse. I seem to recall mother used it as in effrontery, or guts. It seems as if insult is included with galling, so if excessive force is insulting to metal, then the gall might show as deformity, as with my old backstay adjuster, starved of oil. (Not my fault!)

Mounting deck stuff must first provide a mechanical base, then seal the gaps and threads with polysulfide, or white lead, or something that can be removed and reworked. Best replace deck core local to hole with epoxy, then bed with something. I used foam O rings which were touted to seal threads when compressed, but that was 30 years ago on a plywood boat I sold after a year at a profit. I don't know if it leaked later on, or not.

If some resilieance in the mount is preferred, rubber mounts would be in addition to all above. If the resilience is relied upon heavily, expect to rework the monkey often.

When driving screws into fiberglass, one is better to tap thread in first. Heavy loads and thin glass call for backers, nuts, washers, etc. Alternatively, use self tapping screws, or make your own by filing a tooth or two into the screw end with a triangular file.

Repetitive partial insertion and removal will allow air blast evacuation (close eyes and blow!) of glass powder in short blind holes formed by thread cutting which will wad up the process. Might better use a thread tap if the right size is available, but this works. Threads wick, so a little wax or other sealer should be used, if a possible slow drip is unacceptable.

There may be talk of deoxidised water and crevice corrosion, not my speciality.

While learning how to file the right angle on the teeth, I galled myself by breaking an ss screw off flush with the surface. If the screw was galled too, it was justified. I would pump up robertson screw heads for this operation.

Terry K

Terry K

I have moulded fillers for mast bases, etc. Use thick bog and saran wrap to avoid adhesion.

Terry K

I've seen some pretty snotty work done. and I want to get away from that.

Even if you jammed some rubber under the rails, you would still have to deal with a propensity for water to creep down the fasteners. Assuming that the fasteners have a "head" that protrudes above the stanchion brackets, a layer of rubber between the bracket and the deck may indeed keep water from sneaking in under the bracket, but won't prevent wicking.

But I never thought of using Sikaflex 4200. Thats a good idea.

3M again. I really hadent heard of it by the name Chuck used.

I've also been looking at sources for rub rail repair. water could be leaking behind it, between the hull and the cap. I've been looking through some archives and reading about the rub rail, This has some gouges in it, but I've seen like the screw heads are pushing out against the rubber insert. making a "bump" about every 4 inch's or so.

hmmmm.