Sealing the rubrail

[JacquesR]

I have a Piper with teak rubrails. The're seems to be some sort of white stuff between the rubrails and the gelcoat. I wonder if it's some sort of sealant to prevent water from being trapped and rotting the wood. In some places, this ''sealant'' is in rough shape. Should I apply new sealant? What type? Thanks.

[wdscobie]

Yes there should be bedding compound between wood and hull.

For an oily wood the better 'sticky' is SikaFlex 291 black. It sticks better than the white. The bad is this stuff can become a black mess during cleanup.

After removing and scraping off old bedding compound clean the wood surface that will be bonded twice, just before setting in place, with acetone to remove as much oil as possible.

Using lots of blue tape can help with cleanup. Dry fit the wood and tape the hull and then tape the exterior facing wood surfaces. Again. The black (and white though visually not as bad) leaves a mess. You don't want to wipe squeeze out into the outward facing wood grain as you will never get it to go away.

Hope the above makes sense.