Attaching the Rubrail

Laminating the rubrail is a several day process.  The rubrail is made of three 1/4" thick by 1 1/2" wide plywood strips laminated to 3/4" thick.  They are glued on one layer at a time with a glue made of epoxy and wood flour.  You really need lots of clamps for even clamping pressure.

I don't have any 16 foot strips of plywood, of course, so my rubrail strips are 8 feet long.  I will stagger my joints for strength and for fairness of the curve.  On the last layer I will center the 8 foot strips on the sides and finish with 4 foot strips on either end.

I borrowed a few clamps to make 49 clamps total (thanks Rob and Carl).  On my 16 foot canoe, that is 25 per side, more or less, or one clamp every 8".  I glued on the first layer on both sides.  It bends vertically more easily than you would expect.  I used 10 ounces of epoxy for the putty to glue on 16 feet of rubrail.

After it set up, I noticed little waves in the rubrail.  There were depressions at every clamp point.  This picture shows it, although blurry.  The canoe is longer than the depth of field.

I was afraid to do only one side at a time, to avoid pulling the canoe assymetrical.  To try to correct the waves, I spread on the epoxy a little thicker and clamped over the high spot on the first strip.  This helped some: it reduced the waviness by about half.

Since the 2 layers has made the hull stiff, I decided to go ahead and put the last layer on one side at a time so I could use all of the clamps.  I used 44 clamps on each side - 1 every 4 1/2 inches.  This is a much better spacing.  I will make sure on future boats that I can clamp every 4 inches.

This is the finished rubrail, before shaping.