New owner: rubbing strake and other maintenance, repair ....

[alwchester]

I've just bought my first Kingfisher: K26 Buccaneer, hull number 33. She's on the Orwell and was in commission in 2009; she had a good survey before I bought her, with some safety and mechanical items needing attention before re-launch and a cosmetic and preventative programme recommended for the next 12 months. She's fitted with a Seawolf engine which I assume to be original and hope to keep.

I'd now like to find out as much as I can about K26s and how to deal with various maintenance, repair and "improvement" tasks. I've been a KYOA member for some years and regret failing to keep all the copies of the magazines I've received: I recall that there have been a number of articles which would now be useful. I also posted in the Forum General section, in October 2009, support for Romaphin's suggestion that some means be found for making the archive materials available: a number of things there look to be relevant to my new interest in Kingfishers/the K26. Any offers of advice and information gratefully received!

One pressing, primarily cosmetic item on Buccaneer is the shrunken rubbing strake. I've had helpful email exchanges with Peter O'Brien, who carried out the major renovation of Seabird and organised the production and group purchase by KYOA members of 200m (the minimum order) of new rubbing strake. This batch was completely taken up and Peter has kindly offered to let me have the drawings and specifications to enable a new batch to be produced: so, if you might be interested in joining a syndicate to purchase new rubbing strake, please let me know - there'll be no committment until we have a price and have to place an order. I should just add that Peter made the point to me that new rubbing strake is made of EPDM, a synthetic rubber which doesn't shrink with age.

Best wishes for the New Year

[Austin7]

Hi, do you know if the rubbing strake is the same on the Kingfisher 30? If it is I would be interested in buying a length. I am in the process of tidying -up Kamiah a Kingfisher 30 and will be repainting the decks and resealing the fittings this winter (weather permitting as it has been -11C here) so it would be good to remove the rubbing strake at the same time.
Fair winds and calm seas to you all.
Steve

[alwchester]

Hi, do you know if the rubbing strake is the same on the Kingfisher 30? If it is I would be interested in buying a length. I am in the process of tidying -up Kamiah a Kingfisher 30 and will be repainting the decks and resealing the fittings this winter (weather permitting as it has been -11C here) so it would be good to remove the rubbing strake at the same time.
Fair winds and calm seas to you all.
Steve

I don't know the answer but I'm sure someone in KYOA will: I'll check with Seabird's owner if he knows whether any of the batch he organised was for a K30.

[beep]

Like Steve, I too would be interested in buying rubbing strake for my K30. Someone organised a batch in black a while back, but I decided it didn't look right for my boat. A local plastics supplier went bust and i bought a length of grey rubbing strake very similar to the Kingfisher profile- I took all he had but it turned out to be about 5 feet too short ! If anyone's interested, I'll post the exact length and profile.

Happy New Year, Kingfishers!

peter

[altura20]

Alan,
Having owned both K26 and K30, and replaced the rubbing strake on the K30, I'm pretty sure they are the same section. However, the replacement on the K30 was not a success because I'd encapsulated the hull/deck join with glass tape, in an effort to stop the ingress of water, and the plastic moulding didn't fit well over it. In the end I replaced the plastic moulding with an iroko rubbing strake which I commissioned especially and was originally pioneered by a K20+ owner. It was a heavy and expensive solution but robust and cosmetically much better then the plastic. It was also wide enough to stand on.
Happy New Year and Fair Winds.
George

[alwchester]

George

Thanks for this. I recently came across some sketches of GRP hull/deck joint sections and ways of fitting wooden rubbing strakes. It struck me that, albeit at a cost, as you say, it could work well on a Kingfisher. Do you have a section drawing and/or photos of how it was done on your K30?

Happy New Year

Alan

[alwchester]

At the moment, just three of us interested in new rubbing strake - Austin 7 + beep + me. Maybe this reflects low usage of the Forum?

Would it be a good idea to ask George L to put a paragraph in the next Magazine, see if anyone else wants to join in buying? In the meantime, I'll start looking for quotes.

I'm assuming for the moment that the same section is used on the K20, K26 and K30: need to be sure of this before an order is placed.

[Osp]

I replaced the rubbing strake on Osprey about 8 years ago.

I bought the correct length and closest profile I could find off the shelf. I used one length from bow to bow. It needed a heat gun to soften and it took two people to put it on on because of the weight.

So far it has been perfect, maintenance free.

Not sure of the colours available but i used black.

[alwchester]

I'd be grateful for the name of the supplier so that I can explore the possibility of doing the same as you've done with Osprey.

[alwchester]

I now have a quote for a standard Wilks PVC moulding which is near-identical to the original (http://www.wilks.co.uk/Product.aspx?Product=7&Section=8) and can be supplied in grey. The price is £10.26/metre including VAT + carriage.

You'll see below 2 pictures of the moulding (a black sample) - alongside the original and on the K26 deck flange.

This moulding is only available to order, minimum length 80 metres. Please let me know if you would like to join in the purchase.





I've added below the profile taken from a K26 and used for the extrusion in EDPM of the purchase by a previous KYOA syndicate. I'm waiting for a quote from the same supplier to compare the cost/minimum order/delivery time with the Wilks profile.

[Austin7]

Good day all. Would you please put me down on the list for a length of the rubbing strip. I will measure up for the length when I am down next to the boat.
Steve

[Andrew Mills]

This thread is well spread out but I'd like to add that I'd be very interested in about 20 metres of Rubbing Strake
if it at all available.
Cheers
Andrew
andrew@photomills.co.uk

[Andrew Mills]

Hi,
I have measured my old strake accurately - on my 1967 Kingfisher 20.

It looks identical to the pictures posted by alwchester above.
I'm assuming that the Wilkes version... with a slightly longer flange will fit.
I'll check that out today. 13.04.10
However the flange is 8 mm longer.
Is there a test piece kicking around which I could borrow by post?
Or perhaps Wilkes will send a small piece.

Cheers
Andrew

[alwchester]

Andrew (and others interested) - please see the note and picture I've added to my post (on Thu Apr 01, 2010 12:33 pm) above.

The biggest difference between the "actual," as measured, profiles and the PVC 7 moulding is clearly at the "feet" (is this the right word?). PVC 7 is squared off and the originals are tapered, However, as can be seen from my photograph of the sample offered up to the hull/deck flange of my K26, PVC 7 fits snugly. If anyone wishes to try PVC 7 on their boat, samples can be ordered at no cost on Wilks website (I have a sample on the boat but I'm 190 miles away!):

http://www.wilks.co.uk/Product.aspx?Product=7&Section=8

In the new KYOA Magazine George Lipscomb has a piece about fendering and a drawing of the Iroko section he has used instead of a moulding (George, if you read this, might you have a photo you could post showing how the wooden strake looks?).

As soon as I get a quote for the "true" profile in EDPM I'll post a a comparison of pros and cons - PVC 7 v EDPM - here and also send pms to all who've expressed an interest in buying.

This exercise is taking an unexpectedly (by me at least!) long time but, at least, it looks now as though purchase decisions will be made on the basis of clear information.

Alan

[alwchester]

To all interested in buying new rubbing strake:

I'm expecting early next week some black EDPM rubbing strake extruded to the profile above labelled "Kingfisher 26 Fender Exrusion Section" (ie, to the original Kingfisher profile). Ayone who would like a sample to examine and try, please contact me.