Rope rub rail on dinghy

[Vic T]

I am thinking about attaching a length of rope around the outside rail of my dinghy to serve as an attractive & traditional rub rail. Should I simply screw the rope into that mahogany rails or is there a better way to do this?

Thanks.

Vic T

[Nicholas Carey]

The traditional way is to make what is essentially a giant quoit -- a circular long splice. You wind up with what appears to be an circular piece of rope.

Groove the rubrail and transom and stretch the rope "ring" into place, where it is held solely by tension.

Using screws or nails, of course, means that you would have sharp metal projections buried in the rope that are likely to chafe other vessels you might come alongside or be tied up to.

[Tom Robb]

If you twist the rope in an unlay direction where you want to fasten it, you can run a screw through the bit closest to the gunn'l, twist it back and the screw is covered.
The continuous "quoit" idea sounds more elegant.
Finding a nice fat bit of rope in Freeport will undoubtedly be easier than here in Ohio.

[paladin]

Depends on your rubrail and whether you can groove it.....but.....you make an endless "Grummit" as above, every 4 inches around the boats rubrail dril two small holes about 1/16th of an inch about 1/4 inch apart, twist the rope apart after chasing it around the dink, and lace it through the holes and one of the rope strands, when you release it the twist will return hiding the small stuff. After finishing the job, go around the inside of the dink where you can see the holes and dab a bit of fingernail polish in the holes.
It it's a sailing dink, and you have a KAT aboard, and said KAT likes to play by jumping into the sails when underway, the fingernail polish also serves to fill the little claw holes left by the dead KAT...;)

[djn]

The first thing that came to my mind is routing a half-round groove around the whole boat then lay in a rope that would sit half in the groove and half outside the groove. Then on the transom, you could secure it with brass end caps. Cheers.

[landlocked sailor]

I have done this on 2 boats, using two techniques. The first time was on my AUK dinghy. After the first cruise it became obvious that I needed a soft fender for coming alonside. Unfortunately, I had made no provision for attachment when I first built her. The fist picture shows her with no rope.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid182/p0a18e6b0492e8ff717f7b5012ebc9081/f2c19513.jpg
I bought a big honkin' hunk of manila from Hamilton and "sewed" it under the outwale. I drilled little holes through the gunwale and used strong nylon braid in and out and around the rope. It turned out well and has remained secure for 7+ years. The next two pictures show it best.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid134/pd8b6138aafd91dadc639040567757d72/f77a6ff5.jpg
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid134/p41cc10eb9a248cbba60fc9d0633cc1b6/f77a6f6e.jpg
When I built my LILY electric launch, I used the method described by Rich Kolin in his book "Building Catherine". I milled a groove in the outwale the same diameter as the rope and attached it with SS pan-head self tapping screws. Simply unwind the lay, drive the screw through the 'back' strand and retwist; the screws are buried in the rope and are invisible. This is, by far, the more elegant solution and the one I will always use. This shot is a bit far away, but you can get the idea.
http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid134/p7322f762dca83a987ce8d4af462b7d46/f77abe3f.jpg
The concept of a stretch-fit only grommet sounds nice but is probably impractacle. I know of one master boat-builder on this forum who tried it without long-term success. Rick

[paladin]

I made the grummitt a little oversized, and at the bow it "pushed" forward a bit, and when tied to the transom I left a little loose "bumpers" at the corners.....

[Tim Whitten]

I agree that the grommet style would be best but getting just the right diameter of a laid up grommet is always tricky. When I need an exact diameter, I use a long splice if I can. For this situation, Turks heads over the tag ends would be a nice finish.

Another idea that comes to mind would be to cut the rope to an appropriate length and put in decorative eyes at the ends. Instead of regular thimbles, you could use small deadeyes and then draw the rope up tight, seizing the deadeye lanyard.

[jlapratt]

What timing, I just applied a rope "rubrail" to my gunnels yesterday!

I milled a shallow 3/8" groove then sealed with a couple coats of epoxy. I then used #6 panhead SS screws every 6 inches through the back strand of 1/2" line. Worked like charm and really adds a nice feature to the boat. It should eliminate the small but ugly bumps and bruises she gets when bumping into larger, immovable things (don't ask).

Jeff

[Vic T]

Wow ... great ideas and some photos of gorgeous rubrails! I do not have talents of Tim or the patience of Paladin and the hidden screw will be fine for me.

I am using a hemp rope from Hamilton's that will compliment the material used in the beautiful bow fender that Tim Whitten made for me.

Thanks!


Vic T

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

I respectfully disagree with all the above postings.

I have the advantage of living reasonably near to Des Pawson, so I took his advice. There are a few tricks of the trade in this operation!

1. Materials

The best choice of material is coir rope - natural coconut fibre rope. It is light in weight, does not absorb water, and is very much more rot resistant than (but not as strong as) the other natural fibres, and being unaffected by UV it is also more durable than polypropylene. Other synthetics would be absurdly heavy.

2. The professionals' clever bit. Make up a length of stainless wire rope to just the length that you need, with an eye at each end.

3. Fit this into the coir rope (twist it into the middle of the lay) so that it forms a heart.

4. Make tails on the ends of the coir and serve them, securing them through the eyes in the wire (which the serving should half cover)

5. Fit round and lash to eyes on the dinghy through the eyes in the now-buried wire heart.

6. Secure in place with wire ties through the planking (traditionally copper - use monel seizing wire)

You now have a fender that will stay in place, won't rot, and won't sag between the fastenings.

QED

[Yeadon]

I think at least one or more of the Rick Kolin books ("Building Heidi," etc.) has a pretty good description on how he installs a rope rubrail.

[Vic T]

It just keeps getting better!! What an awesome idea (but alas this peapod is bronze-fastened).

Vic T

[Nicholas Carey]

I respectfully disagree with all the above postings.

I have the advantage of living reasonably near to Des Pawson, so I took his advice. There are a few tricks of the trade in this operation!

1. Materials

The best choice of material is coir rope - natural coconut fibre rope. It is light in weight, does not absorb water, and is very much more rot resistant than (but not as strong as) the other natural fibres, and being unaffected by UV it is also more durable than polypropylene. Other synthetics would be absurdly heavy.

2. The professionals' clever bit. Make up a length of stainless wire rope to just the length that you need, with an eye at each end.

3. Fit this into the coir rope (twist it into the middle of the lay) so that it forms a heart.

4. Make tails on the ends of the coir and serve them, securing them through the eyes in the wire (which the serving should half cover)

5. Fit round and lash to eyes on the dinghy through the eyes in the now-buried wire heart.

6. Secure in place with wire ties through the planking (traditionally copper - use monel seizing wire)

You now have a fender that will stay in place, won't rot, and won't sag between the fastenings.

QEDACB wins! :D That's a great solution.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

All credit due to Des Pawson at Footrope Knots:

http://godzilla.bigwig.net/knots/footrope.htm

[Tim Whitten]

There are drawbacks to wire rope and the use of coir. For one thing, there is no need to introduce another metal component where it is not absolutely necessary. Also, why add the additional weight of the wire rope, especially since it will all be right at the gunwale? It should be feasible to attain sufficient tension on a plain rope without having to worry about sagging, or having it come out of place.

On the use of coir. It is lightweight and rot resistant, which is why it is so frequently used for door mats. However, I don't believe the rot resistance is tremendously superior to manila. I think the main consideration for the use of coir is that the fibers from which the yarns are spun are only a few inches long. This makes a very fuzzy finish on the rope and also means that the rope strength is limited. (This may be the reason why the wire rope heart is called for) A premium grade manila is much stronger, smooth and cleaner looking than coir ever can be. Of course there is a certain aesthetic to the look of coir. It is a very traditional material - but the same can be said of manila.

Finally, there is the availablity issue. Coir rope can be attained here - but it doesn't come cheaply.

[alkorn]

I use an inelegant but simple bumper on my Stevenson Triad. The gunwale is a rounded-off square of yellow pine about 1 inch on a side. I bought a piece of 1" ID vinyl tubing and split it lengthwise. It "clips" easily over the gunwale when I'm tied up to the dock and is almost invisble. When it's not needed I simply pull it off and stow it.

[Dave Hadfield]

A much less elegant and cheaper solution for a much plainer dinghy, is to use 1" pipe foam insulation. I tried this last year on my plain plywood pram.

I used brass flathead screws inside to hold one side of the insulation in place. The natural curl of the stuff holds it properly outside.

It isn't terribly durable, but gives perfect protection to the ship's topsides, is cheap, readily available, light, and can be cut and fitted around corners and thwarts and knees. Replacement of any torn sections takes only a few minutes.