Catamaran Rub Rails

[markpierce]

Originally Posted by jaybird1111

That's the ugliest catamaran, with the lowest bridgedeck, I've ever seen. Sorry, it just had to be said.

Look what I have to put up with!

[2Hulls]

Originally Posted by jaybird1111

That's the ugliest catamaran, with the lowest bridgedeck, I've ever seen. Sorry, it just had to be said.

But a pretty color!

Dave

[Zach]

Lots of high end boats, never see anything but a floating dock.

A friend and I installed Barbour plastics R1033 hard plastic half oval rub rails on a Kurt Hughes day sailing charter cat.

The good news about rub rails, is if you work in and out of your slip initially without them you'll find out exactly where they need to go, and how much tumblehome you have in the topsides to figure your projection.

Anywhere there is tide, if you've got slab sides or tumblehome... Coming back to your home slip on a falling tide the furthest out barnacle will reach out and touch you.

Barnapole scrapers help, but it doesn't take much of a kiss against a piling to leave a mark.

How we did it:

We drilled countersunk holes in the face using the centerline as a guide and a stop jig that was a screw pointing upward in the bottom of a board clamped to a drill press. The screw keys into the last hole you drilled, and sets the distance and spacing for all the rest.

That boat had a wooden shear clamp, so we drilled slightly oversized holes for the 1/4 inch machine screws through the clamp, and filled the holes with thickened epoxy, to epoxy pot the fasteners, blind... With no fasteners penetrating the clamp, and no void to track water into the fir clamp.

The next day we came back and drilled and tapped the epoxy filled holes using the rub-rail as a guide. Once all the holes were threaded we buttered the screws with epoxy and installed them with a clutch set on a drill motor, and cleaned up the boat.

We scarfed the joint between the two pieces amidships at a 45 degree bevel, by installing one extrusion, and removing enough screws to bow it out of the way. The scarf landed between screws, and we tacked it down with a small screw just into the rail its self. The bow and stern ends of the rub rail were bullnosed with a mini-grinder, roughly to the curve of a sticky back 6 inch sanding disc.

The plastic extrusion is heat formable, so we made a jig and did most of the forming for the rear steps over the jig, and then sweatened the curve on the boat with a heat gun and a thin plywood guard to keep the paint from being scorched.

3 days turn key, off a floating dock to do both sides of a 38 footer.

Rub rails make life a lot easier, anywhere there is current or you have to work off slips that have fixed docks. We were docked up in morehead city, behind sugar loaf island with 3 1/2 knots of current perpendicular the dock, and twin 25 horse outboards to scoot her in and out. 6 feet per second drift sideways, with a 25 foot wide boat in a 30 foot slip a few times a day without rub-rails was a bit exciting, and much more relaxing to know we weren't going to rub the vinyl decals off the side every time after we had rub rails.

Cheers,

Zach

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by valhalla360

...

Then again, I struggle with the 6' of freeboard on a lot of the newer cats. ...

And therein lies the "rub" for many cats, with that much freeboard there is no horizontal line on which you can mount a rub rail and have it be effective except at a very specific dock height.

On many monos, the rub rail is at the widest part of the hull where it can more often be effective, but many cats are very slab sided.

Vertical segments of rub rail spaced along the hull would be more practical, but the marketting dept would never approve that look!

My boat's got rub rails, useless. They just collect gunk to clean. I've thought seriously about removing them.

[boatsmith]

If all you deal with are floating docks you don't need rubrails. If you deal with fixed height docks and pilings they are very useful. ymmv

[jojo5]

" That's the ugliest catamaran, with the lowest bridgedeck, I've ever seen. Sorry, it just had to be said."

YES.. BUT WHO CARES ABOUT LOOKS.. WHEN YOU'RE ENJOYING LIVING ON THE WATER..

[Capt Clark]

Geoleo,

I’ve noticed the same thing. It’s the Italian influence or the German Frers designs that have taken over. I was taught that FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION but that is now out the window. I’ve seen way too many of these boats with scratches that rub rails would have prevented. I replaced my wooden rub rails years ago with hard plastic ones with the same profile. Alan Ray at Rubrails.com was outstanding in procuring the new rubrails. They came in 40 foot lengths. Alan does only rubrails and mostly catamarans. He is extremely knowledgeable and very reasonable. Give him a call, he is a wealth of information and also interested in helping others.
Capt Clark

[thinwater]

Beefy rub rails are great. Hate boats without rub rails; I see it as a design error. My home slip and most of the places we have stayed are piling docks.

No idea why you wouldn't install them.


Yes, I can dock without them, and most times they never touch, but...
a. I singlehand a lot, and no one is that good, in an underside slip, in a brisk cross wind and tide.
b. I don't need to ask guests to help.

[Ozbullwinkle]

A very cheap & easy solution for situations where you might like a rubrail is to carry a length of reinforced PVC hose with a hard rope running through it

You have eyes at each end that you dropover your fore & aft cleats & you support it at your midships cleat as well.

You only need one of course & it is easy to store, fast to attach, no holes drilled into your hull which can potentialy lead to moisture ingress & as I said it is a very economical solution & it works well.

[carlosproa]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Makes them top heavier and more prone to flipping...

When you own a catamaran you don’t rub with other lesser people hahaha

[mikereed100]

When I know I will have to tie up next to pilings I lash a couple of fenders to an old spinnaker pole and hang it off the side. Works great, but I still pine for rub rails.

[Montanan]

Sailing rules:

Gentlemen [and Gentleladies] do not sail towards weather.

Gentlemen [and Gentleladies] do not rub their vessel's hulls against docks or other vessels.

Use fenders and fender boards, or best practice, position the boat with lines such that it can't come into contact with something.

If you are rubbing, you are doing something the wrong way.

[fxykty]

We have a first generation Outremer, which have the hull/deck joint about a third of the way down from the deck. It is a standard double flanged joint with an aluminium toe rail bolted on. We love it!

Not only is it a great trompe l’oeil that gives our cat a lovely sheer line; it also means we don’t need fender boards when mooring against pile jetties. And protection against hull damage from any wall or hull.



Our hull sides are relatively straight - the toerail is definitely at the max beam line.

It does need to be cleaned occasionally, but it gets washed whenever the sailing is sporty. After one passage we spent a week looking for the source of the rotting fish smell near one stern. We finally found a desiccated flying fish in the toe rail, hidden by the life sling bag above the toe rail.

For a temporary “rail” the suggestion of hanging a larger diameter hose from bow to stern would work well I think.