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Rubrail

Summary
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This page is here just because I had a pretty good idea for a tool that may be useful to someone sometime.

The boat had a 1/4" thin teak strip around the rail that looked pretty bad. Since I was trying to get rid of as much teak as possible, I needed something else.

I had seen another boat some time ago with a rubber strip (a la Bayliner) with some rope inserted where the chrome or neon green strip usually goes ;)

I found some rubrail with a section that fit well to my hull-deck joint, and even had a little lip underneath to cover the slop in the joint.

The rubrail itself went on easy enough - some bedding and 1/2" #6 screws/washers every 6 inches.

The problem was getting the rope into the insert section. I had pre-selected some line that was small enough in diameter not to have to kill myself getting it in, but large enough to be held in place by the small rubber "flaps" of the extrusion.

So, I start putting in the rope. 1:00pm. Rope end in, screwdriver prying up rubber on top, insert a tiny portion of rope, screw driver prying up rubber on bottom, insert another tiny portion of rope, and so on. 1:27pm. A whole 3 inches installed! Add a tiny bit more line - screwdriver prying up rubber on top, insert small portion of rope, screw driver prying up rubber on bottom, insert small portion of rope. 2:13pm. With all of the tucking of strands, prying and poking, I had a whopping 11.5 inches of rope inserted after an hour and 15 minutes!!! I had 23 more feet to go!!!!!

There must be a better way............

I found some PVC pipe that had just slightly larger ID than the rope OD. I cut the end off at a little bit of an angle and, VOILA!, a new tool!

I just slid the PVC along, the rubber gripped one end of the rope, the PVC opened up the rubber flaps along the way, and the rope automatically fed in from the other end!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAA!

After LITERALLY 3.6 MINUTES the whole side was done! (would have taken 10 hours at the "old rate")

  
 

Here is what it looked like when it was finished..

It's a little more "salty" than a Bayliner.

Lessons Learned

If things aren't going your way, make a tool.
(Hey, I think I may coin that one!)

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