C-Forum

so while doing my first fencerail conversion (burn L) i realized that the rail is flat and the bottom of the boat of course is not. so the rail rested on its front and rear ends, and i figured this would surely create stress risers and crack the hull before long. i carved a minicell "shim" to fit under the rail, soften the blows a bit and prevent oilcanning. just curious what other folks are doing?

minicell foam just like you

Wouldn't you want to put, at least a little foam under the whole length...

Just remembering the Roger Scott outfitting from the Dancer era (showing my age). Part of the job was putting foam under anything touching the hull, he maintained that sand could not be kept from settling in a boat, and would cause wear out from the inside out. He was adamant about this happening under a seat, and maintained it shortened a hulls life expectancy.

So is this a concern, up under a support in a C1?

The hull is a lot harder than the Minicell so I doubt that there's going to be much inherent wear. You can always squeeze a little silicone into the corners to seal the sand out - but I don't think it's necessary.

P.S.

I had a Dancer outfitted as a C1 back in the dark ages too. I ran two 3/4" diameter aluminum tubes between the front and rear of the cockpit combing (with cross-bracing), arcing down to within a couple of inches of the hull. I attached my straps to those. Then I built my seat to wedge in between the tubes and glue to the hull.

????

ok


but was curious, what if there was no minicell... just hard plastic, to hard plastic, w/sand in between? Just questioning - what if it was a plastic rail alone, per the original post.

I use a ventilation duct rather than a fence rail but same idea. I also glue karrimat down the length of it.
Never had any problems with wear on the bottom of the hull, but in a previous conversion where the duct was not padded there was oilcanning issues as the boat was unstiffened in the centre where there is normally a hull stiffener if its outfitted as a buttboat. Best to have it in contact over the whole length for this reason.

I usually place a 1/16" piece of mini cell between the hull and what ever… just to be a bit of shock absorber. Not saying it will keep plastic from wearing or cracking but so far that has not been much of an issue for me. Keeps that funky flex feeling down to a minimum when bad things are happening under me too!

ventilation duct? i looked at those at lowes, but they all looked pretty flimsy. what's yours made of? aluminum? was thinking of doing the next one with aluminum square stock, 3" would match the pillars pretty well...

it IS flimsy, not so flimsy when you pack it out with minicell foam tho

Its plastic, polypropylene as far as I know. Once the foam is in it, its pretty stiff and still light.