Posted: December 1, 2011 | Tag: Jury Rigging/Quick Fixes
During a recent docking, I smacked a piling, and a 6-inch segment of the rubber insert in my boat’s rubrail popped out. I’ve tried shoehorning it back into the groove, but it won’t fit. A friend thought I’d have to remove the rubrail from the boat completely and re-thread it into the groove all the way around the boat. I think that would work, but this is going to be a big job. Is there any easier way to repair it?
There sure is! Once those inserts pop out of the groove, it seems impossible to force them back in, but the job can be made easy with the proper tool: a hot-air hair dryer. Just use it to warm up the rubber for a few minutes, and the rubber will become much more pliable. Then use a flat-head screwdriver to shove the inner section of the insert back into the groove. Note that when you’re finished the rubrail probably won’t look perfect, because of slight ripples and bends. Completely eliminating them would require replacement of the insert, because once it gets stretched out of shape, it will never look exactly the same again.
