Rub rail leaving dark streaks after rain

[ppkaprince98]

So I have been rubbing and polishing my boat hull to prepare for the season and I am noticing that in the areas I have already done (where its nice and white) there are black streaks coming down from the rub rail. It seems like there is some dirt/crap under my rub rail that runs down the side of the boat after a rain. My question is, can I remove the rub rail and clean out behind it, then put it back on, or is it is not that easy?

Thanks

 

[Lazy Daze]

It's pretty straight forward. The SS insert will come off first and quite easily. Be careful not to let it bend too much as it will just make it a little more difficult to get it back in the same position. I'd advise to keep the vinyl (white) part on the boat - just clean/brush it out. Inspect (remove/replace if needed) the caulking on the top of the vinyl piece. That will prevent further dirt from getting behind it. Some say to reseal the bottom side, some say not to so any trapped water can drain out. I prefer to seal the bottom. Be sure to reseal all the holes before re-attaching the SS piece.

 

[390x]

It'll still leave black streaks after a hard rain. On mine, the treatment on my sunbrella leaves terrible black streaks. Just about anything will do it. Keep it waxed, and they wipe off easy.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Yeah, dirt will certainly come back. But if it's like mine was, it was quite a lot of streaks - and heavy. Once I did the above, it's rare that I get any streaks. The ones I do get only appear where two vinyl pieces come together. Which makes sense as that easily collects dirt (sometime I'll seal that area better, too). The streaks that do appear are very light and wipe off easily with a damp rag (like 390 said, good wax helps tremendously). But, cleaning and resealing things did make a nice improvement. There's a lot of crap that collects under there over the years. At least by doing the resealing, he'd only be dealing with what collects under the SS insert and not the vinyl piece.

 

[390x]

When I bought my boat, the previous owner had something that I'd never seen before, and most of it fell of in transit. It was a very thin piece of vinyl, like a sticker. It was maybe 1/2" wide, and it stuck to the bottom side of the rubrail. The whole piece wasn't sticky, just the edge. It stuck to the bottom of the rubrail and hung from it just a little. Water would run down the rubrail, and then onto this "sticker" and it would drip off the sticker instead of running down the side of the boat. It appeared to work very well, and was hardly noticeable as far as seeing the sticker on the boat, but when the boat made the 900 mile trip to Illinois, most of it fell off in the wind.

 

[xravenx]

It may not be dirt under your rubrail, it may be dirt coming from the top side and running along the rubrail and then down the sides of the hull, especially if you haven't cleaned and waxed the top side yet...........here is what I did.......I put some old eisenglass about a 1 1/2" wide under the rubrail at the two problem areas I had on each side, cured the problem. Also a clean and waxed topside will go along way in preventing black streaks. I wash my boat weekly and wax the top numerous times thru out the season and never have black streaks anymore.

390x types faster then I do..........LOL, never had luck with the stickers, that is why I did the eisenglass trick instead, been on there for about 5 years.

John

 

[Lazy Daze]

When I bought my boat, the previous owner had something that I'd never seen before, and most of it fell of in transit. It was a very thin piece of vinyl, like a sticker. It was maybe 1/2" wide, and it stuck to the bottom side of the rubrail. The whole piece wasn't sticky, just the edge. It stuck to the bottom of the rubrail and hung from it just a little. Water would run down the rubrail, and then onto this "sticker" and it would drip off the sticker instead of running down the side of the boat. It appeared to work very well, and was hardly noticeable as far as seeing the sticker on the boat, but when the boat made the 900 mile trip to Illinois, most of it fell off in the wind.

Interesting idea. A "drip edge".

 

[Alex F]

My boat has the "drip edge" by the bow and mid ship cleats. It works like magic.

I totally agree that good wax is the helper #1 against the black streaks.

...Some say to reseal the bottom side, some say not to so any trapped water can drain out. I prefer to seal the bottom....

Dennis, that's an interesting point about the bottom seal. However, if you seal only the bottom and not the top wouldn't this allow rain water accumulate? I guess it might be a good idea to seal both top and bottom. I'm in the process of determining the rain water leaks and was looking in to sealing my rub rail top and bottom as well. It was interesting that some parts of it had been sealed and some were not.

Do you see an issue by sealing both sides?

Removing the rubrail and resealing the whole assembly would be ideal. But, I really don't have the luxury of the time to do this project now. Perhaps early next spring.

 

[mistercomputerman]

When I bought my boat, the previous owner had something that I'd never seen before, and most of it fell of in transit. It was a very thin piece of vinyl, like a sticker. It was maybe 1/2" wide, and it stuck to the bottom side of the rubrail. The whole piece wasn't sticky, just the edge. It stuck to the bottom of the rubrail and hung from it just a little. Water would run down the rubrail, and then onto this "sticker" and it would drip off the sticker instead of running down the side of the boat. It appeared to work very well, and was hardly noticeable as far as seeing the sticker on the boat, but when the boat made the 900 mile trip to Illinois, most of it fell off in the wind.

It does work well. I used some window vinyl to make some for my boat. Just loosened the screws in the insert, slipped a piece of 3/4" x 15" windows material in and tightened the screws. I got the idea from a bald guy in Jersey.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Alex, I wasn't clear enough. When I said "I prefer to seal the bottom", I meant "I prefer to ALSO seal the bottom". Meaning, I sealed both top and bottom.

Keep in mind, though, that this "seal" is very small (not a lot of surface area for the caulk to adhere to) and any little dirt (or unclean surfaces) will cause the seal in that area to fail. No big deal - it's easy enough to redo. Just mentioning that since it's like anything else in this world... preparation is the key.

 

[Alex F]

Got you, Dennis. Looks like we're on the same page.

 

[CliffA]

fortunately i have not had the streaking problem (yet), but you may be able to keep the accumulated dirt behind the rub rail flushed out by simply holding a hose pipe nozzle (on 'jet stream' setting) very close to the rub rail and slowly moving down the entire length of the rail until the water runs clear...a pressure washer may work even better for this...if the dirt was flushed out regularly the streaking my stop....i use this 'flushing' method around the deck hatch frame....sometimes i am surprised at the amount of 'stuff' that gets flushed out....

cliff

 

[mistercomputerman]

The streaking isn't so much from crap behind the rub rail as it is the crap that falls out of the sky with the rain and the crap that is adhering to the canvas that washes off, dripping around the rub rail to run down the side of the boat leaving black streaks.

 

[ppkaprince98]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. I am going to investigate the source of black a bit further tonight, but I dont remember seeing it above the rubrail. I do know the black streak is definately coming from the underside of the white plastic the stainless attaches to so that to me means the "crap" is entering either at the top side of the rub rail or around the screws. Either way I figure I am in for some caulking. :smt009

 

[Gunn]

Could is also be the stainless itself? Only reason I've thought this is that when you clean the stainless, the towel used turns black. Could it be that dirty stainless will leave black streaks when the water passes over it? Just a thought...

 

[ppkaprince98]

***UPDATE***

I removed about a 10ft piece of the stainless and behind it was a bunch of what I would call dirt. It easily wiped off with a rag, but also easy to flush out with rain. I dont know where the dirt comes from and I know for sure I can prevent dirt from getting on my boat, so keeping it waxed like many have said is also a good idea. I also ran a bead of silicone along the top side along the fiberglass and the white plastic piece and I did see spots where the white plastic piece was not tight to the fiberglass, an easy spot for water and crap to enter. So we will see if this helps.

 

[importmonkey]

I know this thread is old, but wanted to refresh for newer members.

Got some scraps of isinglass from a local canvas guy. Cut them about 1.5" x 24" and stuffed them under the stainless insert of the rub rail. Hope it will prevent the ugly black streaks. You can see the streaks in the shot of the bow. Cleaning the hull next week and we'll see if they come back.

Overall pretty easy to install and cut. Didn't waste too much time on them to be honest. About an hour total to cut and install all 6. Total cost = $0!