CSY, Rub Rails- removal and replacement

During a very long 'haul out' in 2000, I thought one of the projects I could get to, was the refinishing of a crack that had appeared at the aft end of both of my rub rails. It was about a 2" crack. Also, the upper surface of my rub rails were blistered. Since the sides of my boat had been painted by a previous owner, I expected to find minor damage underneath the paint and a poor filler used, that absorbed water. Well, not so.
I quickly found out that the fiberglass covering on the rub rail was very thin and only covered cheap pine strips of lumber, not the teak mentioned in the CSY book. Aoleus, a 1977 44 W.O. now in Honduras, has the Teak External rail. The owner, Mark Theim worked at the factory back in those days and knew of the discussions/decisions made then and he has the boat to prove the minor point. The bronze half round secured to the outside of the rail for protection, was allowing water to enter the rub rail past the screws. The lumber was soaked and the fiberglass had deteriorated to being nearly beyond repair. Repairing fiberglass over watersoaked wood made no sence to me so I got out a high speed grinder and removed the rails. I felt sick to have to do this. It was a ton of work, as I had to 'fair' out, 40' x 2(both sides)=80 linear feet of body work! I must add, that the cracks and blistering on the top of my rub rails were worse than any CSY I had previously seen. I'm glad I had lot's of experience doing this as a young man, but it was a very tough job for a guy in his mid 50's, working off a scaffold, during the Florida summer.

Time and patience paid dividends and I am very pleased with the outcome, but I would not wish this job on anyone. After fairing out the hull, external Chain Plates were added and a tripple layer of teak was installed along the full length of the hulls upper edge, then the original bronze half round was installed to it.