Rebedding toerail...

[Adam Yuret]

So I have a leaky toerail that is eating my starboard bulkhead under the tabbing. 

Before I dig out the wood and put in a patch, I need to stop the leak. I suspect this is more pertinent to the NW boats that actually get rain on them but I'd love to hear if anybody's re-bedded a toerail before on an SC27. What did you use? What problems did you encounter? Is it possible to just pull up part and rebed or must the whole thing come up (by this I mean must not should ;-) ) 

Anybody have cool tricks for dealing with through-bolts alone? 

Cheers, 

Adam Yuret

Mr. Manager
The Banana Stand
Santa Cruz 27 #104

"There's always money in the banana stand." -George Bluth Sr.

[John S]

Adam,

I re-bedded a section of toerail (aft port side, about 5 or 6 feet) and if I remember right I used polysulfide under the rail. The bolts were not a problem as they are carriage type (the heads do not even have screw driver slots in them) so it's quite easy to tighten the nuts solo. I did have to clean up some corrosion where the SS bolts meet the aluminum rail. If I was faced with removing the whole rail I would almost certainly cut it and keep the standard raised lip stuff on the foredeck and use track for the rest of the boat (http://www.rigrite.com/Hardware/Toerail/T-Rail.htm).

Good Luck,

John

[Adam Yuret]

Good to know about the carriage bolts, did you have to remove all the bolts forward of the leak or were you able to pull it up by just removing a few? 

Cheers, 

Adam Yuret

Mr. Manager
The Banana Stand
Santa Cruz 27 #104

"There's always money in the banana stand." -George Bluth Sr.

[John S]

Adam,

The section I rebedded was at the very aft end so I was able to remove all the bolts to the end and lift it that way. I'm not sure that would work from the middle. And I did not have a leak (at least that I knew about) but rather was repairing a bend in the top part of the rail from a previous owner who had backed the thing into the eave of a house. I loosened the rail up and put a small bench vise on it with some angle steel to force things back to shape. That toe rail is pretty hard stuff for aluminum.

John