E43 Caprail Joint
Date: March 8, 2005 I have some damage to my port side cap rail and therefore will have to replace some of it. It is made out of 4 strips of teak that have been tongue and grooved. I don't need to replace all 4 strips since only 2 or 3 of them were damaged in the hurricane. How should I go about repairing the rail? Has anyone succesfully tacked this project on their E43? Thanks in advance. Date: March 8, 2005
The cap rail can generally be repair by cutting out small sections and then sizing a piece of teak to fit into the area. Teak will blend in better than any other wood. You won't be able to see the cut if it is done correctly. Any good woodworker should be able to do it for you. Replacing the entire railing is a nightmare that is to be avoided. If your woodworker wants to replace the entire rail I would suggest you talk to a different woodworker. If three woodworkers tell you the rail has to be totally replaced then maybe it does. But I would have three of them tell me that before I would go that route. I suggest you find someone who can just cut out the bad parts and fill them back with teak. Date: March 8, 2005 David, Date: March 8, 2005 David, The complexity of the job depends pretty much on the location of the damage. If you got lucky and it was between stanchions and not at the step down (the "s" curve portion of the cap rail) or around the jib sheet block tracks you should be able to replace the teak fairly easy. We opted for a total replacement of the cap rail since this solved the problem of having to weave new teak into the original tongue and groove. There just isn't enough room on the rail to safely work or accurately cut new boards so that they will match evenly without a lot of sanding. The first problem we ran into was that the cap rail width varies depending on the location of the segment being worked on (it follows the curve of the hull) when viewed in the context of a new rectangular piece of lumber and secondly 1/2 inch teak boards come in smaller than required widths - so you'll be forced to glue a few together to get the width you need which in our case was nearly 5 inches. The other "shocker" is that teak is quite expensive so be prepared for big numbers at the lumber shop. Part of our damage involved the area around a stanchion (we also lost the "s" curve, side trim, and cap rail forward and aft of the deck step-down). We found it easier to remove the stanchion, replace the teak, and then re-install the stanchion. To do this requires the disassembly of the overheads along the hull to gain access to the hardware beneath the deck. We have been rebuilding/restoring the boat and have dismantled/rebuilt pretty much the entire cabin so this wasn't too daunting of a task for us. If you haven't ventured into these parts of the boat before don't panic - it's tricky but not horrible but be prepared for some tight fits and body contortions. To remove the damaged portion of the cap rail we used a small router (heavy duty laminate trimmer) and cut a lap joint diagonally across the entire rail for a clean and even line so it would be easier to blend in the new teak (see attached photo). We screwed a scrap piece of plywood to the damaged teak to serve as a fence/pattern for the router and to level out the surface for cutting. Once the damaged teak was separated from the good we took a screwdriver and pried off the old damaged teak. It came off in pieces since it was attached with a 3M 5200 "like" adhesive as well as being screwed down with #12 screws so watch out for the plugs. Once removed, we cleaned the fiberglass with acetone and then laid down a bed of 5200 before putting down the replacement teak cap rail segment. Because we had a stanchion mount available we used those bolts to hold down the teak until the 5200 set, had it been otherwise we would have just screwed it down as in the original installation. When installing the new teak we lined it up with the inboard line of the cap rail and let the outboard edge hang over the hull and teak side trim. Once the 5200 set we used the laminate trimmer (router) with a pattern following "straight" bit to trim the cap rail flush with the side trim and then sanded it to smooth it out. As near as I was able to determine the rounded edges of the cap rail are pretty close to those done with a 3/16 inch "round over" router bit. To get the new and old segments to match we just sanded them both smooth. I have digital photos of the entire replacement process and would be happy to send them to you if they would be of any help to you. All in all the replacement wasn't too bad. What WAS bad was making/duplicating the "s" curve trim and the side trim patterns as well as making templates for them. I also discovered that the trim on the starboard side is NOT identical to the port side so everything was a custom fabrication. Good luck. I hope the above information was of some help.
From: David Snyder davidlsnyder@charter.net
From: Robert Helms robert@helms.ws
From: Michael Gendel mgendel@worldnet.att.net
On the E42 the cap rail is mounted with a bed of caulk and through bolted. You will need access to the underside of the hull deck joint. (Some dis-assembly required). Is the nature of your damage so severe that you must remove the cap rail? If not, a good wood worker might be able to splice or scarf in some repair pieces. Stock up on teak plugs.
From: Michael Schmid imetrics@tampabay.rr.com
We just finished repairing the starboard cap rail on our E-43 this week.
