I am having my WS32 painted top and bottom.  I am stripping all of the deck hardware off and one of the things I would like to address while I have it torn apart is the hull to deck joint.  I have suspected for years that mine leaks and I am curious what the best method would be to seal it up.

I personally like the idea of filling the gap with epoxy and chopped mat and then a few layers of glass over that all faired in.  I might even replace the teak cap rail with a fiberglass set up like that on Konami.  Anyway, any comments or input on hull to deck joint and cap rail improvements would be welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Mike

Norm,

I just reread your response and I think we share a similar approach to adding some sort of half round along the sides of bulwark to at least pay homage to the original look of the cap.  

You mention doing it with rope whereas I would like to use a piece of split glass rod but I have not priced it out.  I don't have the caps off yet but one area that looks like it might pose an issue with my half round approach is where the bulwark sweeps down to the deck at the ends.  There may not be enough room on the inboard side to run the rod along there so it might have to terminate and fair into the deck somehow for those areas.  Again, once I get the caps off I will have a better idea of what I can do.  Still pulling up the teak decks, hatches and deck hardware.

Mike

Thanks Jay.  Yeah, I want to glass on as much as I can to avoid screws and bolts.  Stanchion bases, light duty pad eyes, car tracks, etc, whenever possible.  This holds true for other deck hardware where I can figure out a way to do it at reasonable expense.  One of the things I even gave consideration was to eliminate the chain plates entirely and just put reinforced holes through the bulwark (like the hawser ports) and then go all Dyneema standing rigging but I don't know, seems like a lot of effort.  It would be fun though.

BTW, I found that link earlier that you give but I keep getting this response and that I need to be a full member;

Access denied (error 403)

Here is what we found under Tortuga's caprail. 

I think this is bondo used to fill in the void and provide a level surface for the caprail.  Note that it has cracked and the loose pieces removed.  

The area was repaired with thickened epoxy then caped with fiberglass and more thickened epoxy.  

All the "bondo" was NOT removed - the owners choice. 

Thanks for taking the time to post the detail Norm.  I agree that I don't want to drill screws through the bulwarks but I have a possible solution for that that does not require actually bonding whatever material I use to the boat.  Its complicated to explain and if I go this route I'll make sure to detail it for others.