Finally, out of the bilge

Winter is over and spring has started, albeit rather abruptly. The last of our cylinder head replacement project is now behind us and it was time to tackle our next project: remove and reseal the rub rail that runs all the way around the boat. We started to see some small leaks in the v-berth and since Silvertons are known to have issues with the joint where the hull and deck meet, it was time rehabilitate that area.

The hull-to-deck seam is actually like a shoebox, where the deck section, like the top of a shoe box, goes down over the hull section to make a nice tight joint. The two are held together with screws, every eight inches that are countersunk into the deck. Over that, Silverton mounted a very heavy stainless molding, about two inches wide that covered the seam completely. That molding was fastened with #12, 1-3/4-inch sheet metal screws.

We elected to begin with the most difficult section of molding: the one that covered the bow and went back about 20 feet on either side. Did we mention that there were a lot of old screws to remove?  There were about 50 and only one refused to come out until we drilled the head off. Many of those screws were bent slightly and in most cases. the heads had deteriorated somewhat.

We had to bring our extension ladder to the boat to get up that high, and climbing up the ladder, removing one or two screws and then going down to reposition the ladder, was really wonderful exercise.

We attached lines to the rub rail and when the last screw was out, were able to lower this thing to the ground.

This was not a one-person project and Frances was there to help lower this awkward hunk of molding and then take charge of making it look like new. There was a rusty-looking deposit around some of the the screw holes, especially the ones around the bow. The former owner had attempted to seal that area by adding some type of caulking - lots of it - between the bottom of the molding and the hull. Most of that just fell off as the last screws came out and the molding was pulled away.

Frances cleverly marked the rub rail before we took it completely off. No sense in hauling it back up for re-installation only to find that it was upside down.

Our approach to cleaning the rub rail was low-tech; Brillo pads worked perfectly. Frances spent a lot of extra time on the stains around the screw holes.

Once the rub rail was nice and clean, We applied some Flitz Polish-Paste. We bought a tube of this stuff at the New York Boat Show about 10 years ago and have used it around the house from time to time since then.

It really worked well on the rub rail and while we were at it, we tried using it on some bad smudge marks we had on the hull. It took some rubbing, but Flitz removed the marks completely.

There's a lot more to do before the rub rail can be reinstalled. We'll have to remove any remaining failed caulking in the hull-to-deck seam. It appears to be 3M 5200 and most of it, except around the bow, seems to be in fairly good shape. Then we'll re-caulk that entire seam with 3M 4000, the sealant recommended by Defender Marine.

The person we talked to at Defender (who really seemed to know what he was talking about) said that most boat builders at the time used 3M 5200 to seal that joint and that over time, the 3M 5200 would harden, crack and lose its sealing quality. In contrast, 3M 4000 is a more recently developed  product that is equally tenacious but never really hardens. We hope we'll never have to test that particular product claim.

It will take us another 4-6 hours to clean up the exposed hull-deck joint, remove any loose caulking and then apply the 3M 4000 to the entire joint including the screw holes. Once the 3M 4000 cures for 24 hours or so, we'll haul up the refurbished rub rail and fasten it in place with all new stainless screws.