rear coaming protection

For issues common to different models of DaySailer.
Except Rigging and Sails.

Moderator: GreenLake

rear coaming protection

Postby K.C. Walker » Tue May 07, 2013 11:00 am

I've been thinking about a rub rail for the top of the rear mahogany coaming. I seem to beat it up every year and it needs a lot of touch up. The previous owner had put a vinyl rub rail across the top which he had nailed in place. It has the ugly black stains from the nails and now it has dark epoxy filler where I've filled chunks that I've knocked out of it. I've contemplated the idea of a high density polyethylene top strip screwed down. Does anyone else have any ideas for this?
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
K.C. Walker
 
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:50 pm
Location: North Stonington, Connecticut

Re: rear coaming protection

Postby seandwyer » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:12 am

K.C.

I don't know if you ever found an answer to this, but it occurred to me that epoxy should be hard enough (I'm guessing) and the problem is that the varnish or poly is getting banged up. This is probably not the best idea, but what if you epoxied a narrow sheet of glass over the top edge using this UV protected epoxy that Raka makes? This way you should still see the wood and not have to top coat with something as vulnerable to banging and abrasions as varnish. Everything else I can think of seems to mean gluing some sort of plastic or rubber strip over the top, which doesn't sound all that attractive--but who knows?
http://www.raka.com/epoxy_kits.html
Sean
DS1 - 3203
seandwyer
 
Posts: 362
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: rear coaming protection

Postby GreenLake » Tue Jul 02, 2013 11:49 am

If instead of varnish you use linear PU, that would be fairly scratch resistant. It's held up well for my thwarts, for example. However, I've managed to rub through both the expoxy coating and the LPU under my tiller. The fault was an incorrectly located tiller stop that allowed the tiller to come down far enough to rub, when I was steering with a "heavy hand".

I simply raised the stop and retouched, but one thing that works is to use a strip of fiberglass cloth. It will become transparent, and you won't see it's there, but if somethings chafing, it will protect the wood long enough for you to be able to take care of the problem.

Now, K.C. has the separate issue of hiding ugly repairs. If they were localized and centered under the tiller, I would have suggested a strip of stainless steel as a rub guard. But over the length? I'm as curious what K.C. ended up with as all of you.
~ green ~ lake ~ ~
GreenLake
 
Posts: 7137
Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2007 3:54 am

Re: rear coaming protection

Postby K.C. Walker » Tue Jul 02, 2013 5:20 pm

I decided to go with a strip of white high density polyethylene for a cap on top of the rear coaming. It's a quarter inch thick and slightly proud of the coaming on each side, with rounded corners. I counter sunk stainless steel flathead screws every 6 inches. I'm satisfied with the way it looks. It looks better than the filler and all the old black nail holes along the top of the coaming. And, it's going to serve the purpose of keeping the top of that coming from getting bashed up. It seems like all of the touchups on the coamings that I do are on the top edges, even the ones cut flush to the deck.

Before putting down the strip I drilled all the holes in the mahogany. I put epoxy on the mahogany and in the screw holes. I waxed the screws and put it all together. The epoxy is not going to glue to the polyethylene, it was more to seal up the mahogany that I had planed off square.

Image
Last edited by K.C. Walker on Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002
K.C. Walker
 
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jul 06, 2008 10:50 pm
Location: North Stonington, Connecticut

Re: rear coaming protection

Postby seandwyer » Tue Jul 02, 2013 8:07 pm

That's better looking than I had imagined, and will definitely keep things looking nice.
Sean
DS1 - 3203
seandwyer
 
Posts: 362
Joined: Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:24 pm
Location: Ohio


Return to Repair and Improvement

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 27 guests