Fitting gunwale

[wafll]

Hello all,

Currently restoring an old 9ft fibreglass rowing boat. I have some lovely oak stripwood ready for the inner gunwale but just wondering what the best fixings are for the job. Once decided on the fixings, does the chosen bolt go from the in-out, or the out-in?
There are 16 existing holes on each side which I will be making use of - I'll just tidy them up with maybe a 7mm drill bit.

Cheers

 

[neil_s]

I used mahogany on my dinghy. The strips were about 3/8 in wide, one on the inside and one on the outside. Self tappers hold it all together with the countersunk heads on the outside. I used screws a little too long and carefully ground off the pointy ends with an angle grinder after it was all fitted together.

 

[wafll]

Thanks for getting back to me. I'm thinking of using some roofing bolts with some dome nuts. I think it will look nice and neat. Traditionally would the head of the bolt/screw/fixing be on the inside or the outside?

 

[alahol2]

I think traditionally the gunwales would be fixed with copper rivets. Dome nuts on the outside would look very 'Punk'-ish so I think I'd stick with the nuts inside.

 

[Hacker]

If you are putting both an inwhale and an outwhale on the boat (i.e. a full gun whale that sandwiches the GRP hull) then the traditional solution would be copper nails with roves on the inside.

 

[Caraway]

On a grp tender a decent adhesive would do the trick I fitted an iroko gunwale capping strip to a grp tender using Sabatack 750 but other makers have permanent adhesives.

I did a softwood gunwale for a small tender, clamping the inner and outer with cross head wood screws. I used a Sikaflex type adhesive as well. I filled the holes before varnishing. It wasn't going to last forever

Domed bolt heads on the outside would be a bit anti-social. If you are bumping up against a yacht a wooden rubbing strake would be acceptable, but not with hard protrusions.

 

[Boater Sam]

Roofing bolts are nasty, they rust. Buy some proper stainless countersunk bolts and dome nuts on the inside.

 

[wafll]

On a grp tender a decent adhesive would do the trick I fitted an iroko gunwale capping strip to a grp tender using Sabatack 750 but other makers have permanent adhesives.

I did a softwood gunwale for a small tender, clamping the inner and outer with cross head wood screws. I used a Sikaflex type adhesive as well. I filled the holes before varnishing. It wasn't going to last forever

Domed bolt heads on the outside would be a bit anti-social. If you are bumping up against a yacht a wooden rubbing strake would be acceptable, but not with hard protrusions.

That's a nice job on that. I'll be having the oak on the I side with a rubber strip around the outside.

 

[wafll]

Roofing bolts are nasty, they rust. Buy some proper stainless countersunk bolts and dome nuts on the inside.

I'm swaying towards the copper idea now with roves on the inside.

 

[wafll]

If you are putting both an inwhale and an outwhale on the boat (i.e. a full gun whale that sandwiches the GRP hull) then the traditional solution would be copper nails with roves on the inside.

I'm swaying to this idea now ?

 

[Hacker]

Good plan. Quite easy to do especially with something that low.