Leak at rubrail.

[hal2814]

I thought I might have a leak in my outdrive but after removing the drive and finding the bellows dry, I started searching around and had an "Aha!" moment when I noticed a glob of silicon on the rubrail that the previous owner must've put there. I took the boat out to the water and when I stood on the swim deck and submerged the rubrail, water poured in there. What's the best way to go about fixing a leak at the rubrail? I take it the silicon worked good enough as a temporary fix because I'm just now noticing a leak and I've owned the boat for over a year but I'd like to fix it properly instead of putting a band-aid on top of the band-aid.

 

[BoatAddiction]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

Is the leak actually coming from the rubrail or the hull-to-deck joint? If it is coming from the hull-to-deck joint, and it is a shoe box type design, then simply scraping out the old sealant and replacing with a good marine sealant may do the trick. If it appears to be coming from the rubrail, then you may have some fasteners that need to be re-bedded with sealant. That could even be the case with a hull-to-deck joint leak. A picture of the spot may help.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

Rubrails are typically at the hull to deck joint. To really repair this the right way would be to pull off the rubrail, seal the joint and reinstall the rubrail. You might get by by sealing the top and bottom of the rubrail and taking out the insert and sealing the screws.

 

[BoatAddiction]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

bruceb58 is right, but I am not exactly sure of hal2814's design. When the rubrail is at the hull-to-deck joint, then you will normally find two sets of fasteners...one for the rubrail and another set for the joint. In this configuration, normally the rubrail has to be removed to get to the hull-to-deck fasteners. If hal2814 has this setup and really wants to do it right, then he should remove the entire rubrail, re-seal the hull-to-deck joint, re-bed the joint fasteners, and do the same with the rubrail fasteners.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

the most common spot for a leak. caulk it up with 3m 4200.

 

[hal2814]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

Is there an equivalent to the 3M 4200 that you can pick up somewhere like Lowe's or Home Depot? I didn't see any at either today. If not, that's fine. I don't want to sacrifice any quality here. I just know that sometimes there's an equivalent labelled for home improvement or a different brand that's the same thing. I'd like to start working on this sooner than I can make it to a proper marine store but it's not that big a deal if it has to wait until the weekend.

Oh, and the hull-to-deck joint is under the rubrail. By "re-bedding fasteners" do you mean applying sealant around the fasteners or something else?

 

[eriediver]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

I buy the 4200 at my local wal-mart

 

[BoatAddiction]

Re: Leak at rubrail.

By "re-bedding fasteners" do you mean applying sealant around the fasteners or something else?

Yes