Toerails

On Black Tie, the toerails had been replaced before I bought her. On Tigris they are not so good and have been painted white on the inside by a previous owner. The white paint now looks tatty as its lifting so I need to sort a solution. Obviously, the best thing would be new rails but the scale of this job means that I will not be doing it for a few years.

We have tried stripping, priming and painting the inside of the rails and I didn't like the look. We are now stripping and polishing the inside of the rails and plan to apply a clear protective substance, rather like a wax on the bare polished alloy. Does anyone have expeirience of doing anything like this? Gavin

Hi Gavin,

truly a difficult job. We are using after polishing to bare aluminium a clear coating out of the "nano" product family. It will least in our northern german region athmosphere the whole summer season and longer. We are also very happy with all anodized aluminium poles, mast etc. After a intensive cleaning of the aluminium part (strong diluted oxal acid)you can apply the nanocoat very easy. In Germany we use a product from nanocoat.de. They are specialist not only in the marine market.

Best Regards

Jan

Kalliope 038/85

Jan,thanks a lot for your reply. I assume the Nanocoat is a clear finish on the alloy. Gavin

Jan,thanks a lot for your reply. I assume the Nanocoat is a clear finish on the alloy. Gavin

HI Gavin, believe me I tried everything possible on my Toerails with no success. I also know people who used ( cold) zinc after having sanded the Toerails with very poor results. On my 48 I have now decided to replace the original Toerail with a new teak one ( thank you Lars for the very useful advices) also to avoid future problem of oxidations stains all along the hull. I also took this option because I am repainting the hull and I don't want to see this problem back again.

I understand you are not going to plan any replacement now and in my opinion the only option you have is to paint the Toerails in aluminium ( no cold zinc please) but this means that you will have to do it again and again . This is valid for the Toerails itself , if the problem is also on the hull ( stains) there is no answer but replacing.

Kind regards
Sergio Clarion of Skye 042/48

Sergio, thanks for your reply - very interesting. Did you put anything under your teak rails as I thought the alloy rails might be part of the structure? I saw a US example of someone putting teak on top of cut down alloy and it started weeping very quickly and had to be redone.

Regards, Gavin

Gavin:

I replaced the toerails on my 411 last winter with new ones supplied by Nautor, after researching all the options you are looking into now. I'm very glad I did, and with the use of plastic washers to isolate the screws and the rail galvanically, and good sealant otherwise, the new rails should last longer than the originals, which means thirty years or more - enough for my lifetime, if not the boat's.

If you send me your email address, I can pass along some interesting pieces I collected showing teak done right and wrong, and other details, if that would be of interest to you. My email is valveman at sbcglobal dot net.

Fair Winds and Cheers,

Geoff
Corazon, 411 #41

Sergio, thanks for your reply - very interesting. Did you put anything under your teak rails as I thought the alloy rails might be part of the structure? I saw a US example of someone putting teak on top of cut down alloy and it started weeping very quickly and had to be redone. Regards, Gavin

Hai Gavin, there is a 65 who just cut the upper part of the Toerails leaving the lower plate in place and covered it with teak .after one year only they had to do the job again. The problem is due to the high corrosion underneath the lower part of the Toerails. Next time I will be in the yard I will take and post some pics of Toerails to show you what I am taliking about. I also thought that the toerail was structural but if you check in the forum my previous post you will see the answer from the professor who says it is not. Therefore I exactly did what suggested by Lars . I replaced all bolts and nuts ( in total, both sides they are a little bit less than 400) with stainless steel ones A4 grade. This was the boring and difficult job because it means that you have to take off everything on the inside to be able to reach the nuts. Once the bolts and the trail are off you have to clean all holes with an 8 mm drill. I then put the new bolts in place with small washers and black sicaflex. I used semicircular head bolts with Allen key head to reduce the hight of the bolt on deck. Then all head bolts on deck were painted with a special primer for stainless steel . On the teak toerail I cut a slot to fit the heads . The lower part of the toerail which stays on deck as been painted with primer as well. To secure the new teak toerail to the deck ( next job to do ) I will use longer bolts to make it strong. The idea is to use longer ones every 40 cm.
Kind regards. Sergio

Sergio, thanks for this detail. I would be interested to see the pictures as its a little hard to understand exactly what you are doing. I think my decision for next season may be to replace the alloy rails, to replace with teak or of course, keep polishing my now bare alloy inner surfaces...

This has been a very informative discussion.

Regards, Gavin

Gavin, pease find attached a picture of the new bolts.
the new teak toerail will sit on top of it. it will be machined to fit the bolts.

hope this helps

sergio