Great rub rail... Recessed!

Has the skipper not heard of fender boards? We have to use them quite often over here with our 30ft tides twice a day.

I feel like I've heard that before, but I feel like it might be more wishful thinking than an economic reality for builders. This is a cosmetic design issue. Like snow white cushions it's one that demands lots of care and maintenance. Builders get a style they like and that style being easy to maintain comes second. It has to be something that brokers (and captains) take on in order to educate customers, and that can only happen when people go to brokers first. If the production boat builders get them as direct customers then they aren't going to provide that information first.

Complacency is also a foe you must face. Boat owners have to settle for an endless list of maintenance tasks and bills when they buy a boat. If they don't really consider a rub rail then patching the gel coat might be filed along with cleaning the waterline in the list of things that have to be done every so often. Just because you choose to protect your time and money with an adequate rub rail, that doesn't mean that everyone is going to realize that that option is so totally worth it. But then again fender boards are probably worth it too.

The old stuff still works well if you ask me, We even had lee boards on the bunks of a Motor Yacht I went round the world on.

Very useful when anchored off some god forsaken rock in the middle of nowhere.

I think all boats should have a real rubrail. One that you can pivot off of a piling if it is really windy or for situations like in the picture. Without a rubrail, it makes safely docking the vessel much harder in adverse conditions and you have to really rely on your mate or possibly the owner to put a fender in the right spot and not get their arm caught in there. Not to mention it can be dangerous just relying on a fender, several years back a mate was putting out a polyball in the Welland canal and the boat pressed up against it really hard, and the force shot the plug (where you put air into it) out and into the mates head and killed him instantly.

I agree Pascal, sturdy rubrails, I wish mine was about 4 inch stainless steel all around, mine is slightly beat up in spots but that is because I use pylons to spin or spring off when needed. You have to use what you got.

Last time my neighbor tried to use the piling to spin off/stop his swing in a 65 Hatteras enclosed bridge the piling snapped and landed on my boat. When vessels that exceed 80 tons start using pilings instead of proper vessel handling bad **** happens. BTW the skipper then told me there was no way he could have pulled into the slip without using the piling. I replied I do it every time without using the piling- as my STBD side piling is concrete it'll eff up my rubrail.

I don't see any rub rail in the OP pic....

I once had that discussion with an owner after we pulled into Ocean Reef several years back and he couldn't believe when I told him not to rely on every piling being strong.....and he argued and argued with me. I'll never forget that we went to dinner two hours later and were behind the raw bar and he leaned against a piling to look at one of the boats docked there (they put against the seawall every 10' so the boats rubbed on them and not the seawall), and the piling moved about 2' away from the seawall with just his body weight leaning on it and he almost fell in the water and I had to grab him by the shirt......it was priceless......I guess someone had yanked on it too hard and it was loose in the ground but still upright......I about died laughing and that was the end of the discussion......

I did talk to the NY Chief guy on the Donzi.....I thought it was a 54', this was back a couple of years ago........I cannot for the life of me remember where and what the boats name was......I think he was in a slip next to me at A+B in Key West possibly.

Pretty sure that he is referring to the little metal flashing under the wooden cap rail. I think he was being facetious.

After 40 years we're completing a major refit which includes new rub rails. They are about 5" wide at the hull, cut with a bevel and about 2" thick. The rails are in two layers. Contacting the hull is the inner layer held on with bronze carriage bolts and (probably) 5200. The outer layer is to be bronze wood screwed on and bunged. I'm wanting to put some kind of mastic, sealer, adhesive, etc, between the two layers.

I'm seeking opinions, suggestions, references for this mid layer of goo.

The rails are about 47' long and the boat is about 26 tons on the lift.

Thank you, Doug