Blue Rub Rail!!!

Hmmm... that rope does look "nautical". Purchasing 3' at a Lowes or HD is a good idea. I could always just use the rope with the boat later.

Black does not look bad, Gary. That's what I will do if none of these other ideas work out.

Faded red original-



New black one-

GlassSeeker wrote: I always liked the rope. To me the rope was all CC.

I agree........I always had a soft spot for the rope.

The lighter blue is not the same as the blue in the boat but it was never a match. Kris' comment about not being dissatisfied if I did not know is spot-on. I'm leaning that way now! Note the color of the 1993 rub rail on this Excel from the brochure.



I considered rope, but that would be mixing years a bit. I think the rope rub rail ended in the late 80's. I don't know that it would look right in a NWZ hull. I was considering installing a blue rope at one point. That would be an interesting compromise.

Any other thoughts?

Light blue is my choice..... looks great (nice "pop"), easier to apply AND remove.....over time the rubber rub rail will dry and brittle and be prone to "chipping" when you want to remove the dark blue down the road (deal with the rotated printing).

It is very NOT black, easier to apply and adjust later....

I am just happy to have gray in mine..... Would love red in the BFN.

Graham, I thought about that, but why buy 50' of tubing that I don't need? This was, in the end, cheaper and in my heart of hearts I like to save money.

CORRECTION on 1/5/14: In my original post I misidentified the PVC and Polyethylene tubing. I've corrected the text below to correctly identify the two different types. Sorry for the confusion - Kevin.

ORIGINAL POST CORRECTED:

I've been not enthused about the idea of putting a black or white rub rail insert on my blue 1993 SN. So I did some looking around and discovered on McMaster-Carr that you can buy 5/8" OD tubing in a variety of colors. I found two blue ones and ordered the minimum 10' of each to see what they are like. Here are links to the two tubes I ordered:

Polyethylene Tubing for Drinking Water

Choose-a-Color PVC Tubing

And below is what they look like in my rub rail. The PVC Tubing is a lighter blue but less rigid and easy to bend. The Polyethylene Tubing is quite stiff, but is a darker blue and I think looks better in the rub rail. To bend the Polyethylene tubing around the nose of the boat I'd have to trim it underneath. Also - the Polyethylene tubing has stamped letters on it that I can't figure out how to remove. It seems to all be on one "side" of the round tube, so I think I could just make sure the words are turned to the inside and it would work great.

What do you think? Should I go for the darker blue but stiff Polyethylene tube or the lighter blue but more flexible PVC tube? Or should I swallow my pride and just get the black insert from Taco Marine? Also note that if the PVC tubing works it comes in black, blue, green, red and yellow. That might be helpful information for other CCF'ers.

Polyethylene is on the left and PVC on the right


5/8" OD is the correct size


PVC on left and Poly on the right in this photo


One more view


And finally - a link to my boat blog on the rub rail installation for anybody who is interested.