toe rail repair

[mrgnstrn]

So I started really looking at the damage to the toe rail from Izzy (yeah, i know, "why haven't you fixed it already").
It looks like the bashing I took from the Catalina 27 not only chipped off the gel coat but also cracked the glass right there at the edge.
so now for a few feet (~3') the outside edge, which used to be more-or-less vertical, now bows out.
which i think means that the layers of glass and mat have come apart, delaminated or something so that the edge can buckle out like it is.

when fixing it, I plan on taking the toe rail down to the bottom most layer that seems solid, and building it up from there, supporting the underside of the deck as necessary to relieve the buckling.
But the hull part seems to still be solid. the joint between the hull and deck seems to have isolated the problem to the deck/toe-rail and not the topsides/hull

so here is the question:
The existing joint between the hull and deck was a butt joint.
since my repair will replace most of the glass on the deck side of that joint, do I:
a) just take back the deck/toe-rail portion of the joint and build up the butt joint as was existing, or
b) grind off the the deck/toe-rail portion and grind a taper into the hull/topsides as well so that my repair of the toe-rail will involve not just the deck, but also laminate the hull as well.

pictures/diagrams to follow, if I can technologically swing it.

[marymandara]

Take a llok at Tim Lackey's Triton Daysailor site ( www.tritondaysailor.com ) for some good cross-sectional pics of how an old Pearson deck joint goes together. It's actually more-or-less an interlocking "C", with the tabbing inside of the hull holding the joint together.

I had to do a fair amount of rebuilding of the outer portion on my Triton, as the toe rail had several areas of bad spiderwebbing and the outside edge of the joined area where the rubrail screws in was dry, flaky rotten glass that would not hold screws.

I don't know that I would do the entire length of the boat at once, but you can pretty much grind to your heart's content on the outside of the joint and/or the toerail without disturbing anything.

FWIW, that fairly-common spiderwebbing in the toerail...is owing to the fact that there is an air gap of as much as 1/4" under the "toerail" that we can see from outside the boat, so if anything smacks it it deflects pretty mightily.

Best,
Dave

[Bill]

Here are a couple of photos from Lackey's Triton:

[Bill]

And . . .

[Tony G]

#3
If your hull is not crunched in the area I would continue as you have planned. Grind down the toe rail to solid material, and build back up to match the toe-rail fore and aft. Even if ;you have to remove so much toe-rail that you can see into your boat we're talking about a relatively small stretch of a fifty-some foot seam. I bet the worst part about this job will be 1) writing the check for the supplies, and 2) that initial bite of the grinder going into the fiberglass. Don't go hog wild (whatever that means) but be sure you grind out any glass that is compromised. If you're going through the effort you might as well fix it right. I would probably put a layer or two of biaxial tape over the whole repair area on the underside of the seam just to tie it all together. Of course this is just my opinion and most of all...take lots of pictures!
Tony G