Lift / Spray Rails

[DCMY #92]

I was just looking at the thread on haul out issues with lift/spray rails. My 1965 41 DCMY can be pretty wet in some wind and sea conditions - she has no spray rails. I've considered adding spray rails forward, but those I've seen don't look particularly attractive. The photo in the other tread showed rails at the chine running the full length of the hull. Would rails like this improve the performance (speed, economy) of the early '60s MY hull? She is flatter in the aft sections the convertible in the photo.

 

[Cricket]

Full length rails will provide additional lift, especially at the stern, for better performance. Trade off is the head sea ride might not be as good. We put ours on when when we still had the original engines and probably picked up 3 knots and didn't notice much of a ride difference. After the re-power we trimmed them a good bit from midships to the bow which improved the up sea ride quite a bit. .

 

[rsmith]

Full length lifting rails make a huge difference in out of the hole and and top end speed. They also make the boat more stable. I had a friend that re powered his 53c with 12/ti's back in the day. The speed increase was negligible until he put on the lifting rails. I remember a company called Smart Rail that was selling a glue on PVC spray rail their ad showed a 41C with the rails. Might be a cheaper alternative to custom ones.

 

[DCMY #92]

I'd appreciate any and all suggestions for sources for full length rails. It sounds like my 41 with 6V53s might benefit.

 

[Sea Horse]

Full length lifting rails make a huge difference in out of the hole and and top end speed. They also make the boat more stable. I had a friend that re powered his 53c with 12/ti's back in the day. The speed increase was negligible until he put on the lifting rails. I remember a company called Smart Rail that was selling a glue on PVC spray rail their ad showed a 41C with the rails. Might be a cheaper alternative to custom ones.

Pretty sure Smart Rails is no longer in business. Tried to get a replacement rail from them and was unable to contact by phone or E mail and their web site is gone.

 

[Cricket]

Barbour plastics may have some pvc extrusions that might work. It's pretty much all custom for spray rails, don't think Slane has anything but you might want to give them a call. I've heard some being made out of foam covered with glass, most are laminated wood 1 layer at a time onto the hull, either glassed over or just epoxy coated. I did see a rail replacement on a 46 Merritt where they premade the entire rail and put it on as 1 piece, think it took 7-8 guys to do the install pushing and pulling for 2 hours.

 

[Bob Bradley]

Full length lifting rails make a huge difference in out of the hole and and top end speed. They also make the boat more stable. I had a friend that re powered his 53c with 12/ti's back in the day. The speed increase was negligible until he put on the lifting rails. I remember a company called Smart Rail that was selling a glue on PVC spray rail their ad showed a 41C with the rails. Might be a cheaper alternative to custom ones.

What sort of glue could stand up to the stresses involved?

 

[MikeP]

It must be very hull-dependent. There are two 1510 Hatts at our marina with spray rails and in both cases the owners say the rails did nothing to improve hull efficiency (speed/fuel use) though one said that they did do what they are advertised to do - knock down some of the spray on the 1510s which are very wet boats. The other said they did nothing at all that he could tell.

But I'm sure proper placement has a lot to do with it and maybe a very slight difference can make a large impact on spray reduction.

OTOH, one of the boats (53MY) was sea-trialed a week or two ago and it hit 22MPH which is pretty good for a 53MY. Maybe the spray rails helped the top speed.

 

[Cricket]

Up until the mid/late 80's most where using 5200 between the wood and the hull and then laminating the wood layers using epoxy, epoxy replaced 5200 a long time ago for hull to wood attachment. We always use West because it's easy to get, other brands are just as good. The rails are a big help to all of these old boats, besides speed and spray reduction it helps stability at rest and at slow speeds also.

 

[34Hatt]

Old thread
http://www.samsmarine.com/forums/sh...-on-spray-lifting-rails&highlight=smart+rails


And as I said in 2010 the Glue is still holding them on!

01-08-2010 03:39 PM #12


Re: thoughts on spray/lifting rails

Well if you guys did some searching here you would find posts saying that smart rail do hold on I even had a lift block shift and the strap was against the rail and it did not tear lose.
Also they hold bottom paint fine and I cruise 23-24 kts top out 28-29 kts. Even at that speed they don't deflect, they did do some R&D while inventing them it seems. I have had them on the boat for about 5-6 years now. No drilling, No screws just glue!

They did help with spray when I did them but I did not see a speed change. I had talked to Steve McPherson about lift rails on hatt's his reply was you can have two of the same boats and one will make a difference and the other one it won't! Guess it depends on loads and weight distribution.