A little technical advise, please...

[Bill Sims]

Last Christmas my wife gave me a set of plans for a Weekender and I have been progressing steadily. I have monitored this board from time to time, but often I get into a "bunker" mentality as I work on the project.

As I was looking around the site, I noticed a comment about scarfing the rubrails because of the line and the continuous rail provides structural support for the hull.

Well, I should have come out of my bunker earlier, because I used 2 pieces butted together on the port side.

I am happy with the line of the port side and am planning on scarfing the starboard side, but I am really concerned about the structural integrity now. I am using West System epoxy and have seen a couple Weekenders without rubrails altogether, so I need some opinions an whether I should remove the rails from the port side (?!@#) and redo them or not worry about it.

Thanks in advance for the input.

[Arnie Eaton]

I really wouldn't worry about the port rails. They should be just fine. They don't add much strenght and should they fail, won't effect much. They are there to keep the paint on the hull from being rubbed off. Just as the name intails.

[Frank Hagan]

I'll agree with Arnie on this one. They do add to stiffness of the side panels, but that stiffness would not be affected by there being one butt joint along the side (the side panels stiffen up nicely when the "box" is completed, but the lower rub rail does add some stiffness to the hull side). It won't hurt to use the same technique on the starboard side if you found it easy to make the lines fair. In this case, fair lines are the only reason to go to the trouble of scarfing (although I found scarfing pretty easy to do!)

[Barry Pyeatt]

Glad to see you participating Bill, Welcome to the group. Don't be shy, I've found everyone to be really helpful.

I would also agree up to a point. The deck stringers and hull sides make a stiff structure and the addition of the rub rails do protect the sides of the hull and paint.

It is unlikely that the hull is going to be racked out of a fair line by having one side butted together and the other side scarfed together. If the sides extend above the deck level as designed, then they do add considerably to the stiffness of the side panel. Having the sides extend above deck level adds considerably to the safety when you are moving around the deck and can help prevent an unintentional person overboard drill. They also give you a solid edge to hold onto and add a little freeboard to the hull so if it is swamped it will be easier to bail out.

Scarfing the two lengths together really isn't all that difficult to accomplish. You just need to allow for the overlap when getting two pieces to form the rail. You can go to the "Weekender" portion of the Forum and get more information on scarfing from the FAQ's. A simple jig is easy to put together. Just remember, the longer the scarf joint, the stronger it will be.

If you were going to take the port side rail off anyway, then why not just replace it with a scarfed rail as you are doing with the starboard side?

Another thing about using both rails, they add considerably to the appearance of the boat by establishing a visual line that the eye f0llows and gives the hull a lot more character than a plain hull side panel. I would also not eliminate the lower rail as it does add considerably to the strength of the side.

But then it is your boat, your decision and you will find a lot of different opinions, most entirely valid.

Keep on posting and let us know how the project is coming along and we always like to have photos. They are really helpful to new builders.