stainless tabs to raise toerail?

[Conachair]

I have a teak toerail attached directly to the deck which is rusting happily where the teak joins the steel. As there is a fair amount of hardware already atached to the toerail I´m looking into the possibility of keeping the toerail but raising it off the deck using stainless steel tabs welded to the deck which would then bolt to the toerail, maybe using nylon spacers between the teak and stainless. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has tried similar and was it a success? Thanks in advance.

[TeddyDiver]

Better to use painted steel instead.. cheaper and easier welding and lasts longer

[Conachair]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

Better to use painted steel instead.. cheaper and easier welding and lasts longer

Thanks. What about using nylon or similar spacers where the teak touches the steel? Anyone tried that? Where ever I have wood touching metal I have rust, most of the wood is going but would be nice to keep some here and there. Thankx

[TeddyDiver]

It's not the teak rusting the steel, if you raise the rail the steel will stay drier (time to time anyways) and less rusting will occur. Believe the real prob is somekind of a fail in protective painting on the steel under the toe rail.

[Conachair]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

It's not the teak rusting the steel, if you raise the rail the steel will stay drier (time to time anyways) and less rusting will occur. Believe the real prob is somekind of a fail in protective painting on the steel under the toe rail.

Definitely failure in paint system but I´ve yet to see a steel boat without failure where wood touches steel, especially here in the tropics. Probably compounded by fasteners into the steel. And then impossible to get to to touch up.

[TollyWally]

Might it possibly be a bedding failure leading to capillary infiltration? Can the right paint system actually overcome this problem?

[Landlubber]

My last steel boat has exactly what you are wanting to do, it has stainless steel welded on top and the teak is onto it, the boat is over 20 years old now, she was repainted for cosmetic purposes only a few years back, the teak setup was perfect, I can only recommend it. I do the same thing on every piece of boat that has anything moving over it, such as fairleads, anchor sections etc etc , it works well so go for it.

[Conachair]

Thanks, exactly what I wanted to hear, someone who has done it and seen it work in the real world. In Brazil so hopefully stainless won´t be too expensive. Big unknown is how many times I´ll set fire to the boat

[Landlubber]

Just another one conachair, all my attached fittings that were not welded to the steel structure were attached to s/s plates that were tapped prior to fitting, there were NO thru structure penetrationas at all, thus a dry boat, honestly the only one that I have ever sailed on. We went thru some serious conditions on that old girl, she remained DRY throughout, I can but only recommend doing the same again.

[Conachair]

Thanks Landlubber, that is my dream, a dry boat! Not far off and the goal is the same, no more holes for fasteners! May take a while but time is one thing I do have.