Railing mounts

[sunnydude2]

Finally getting around to fixing the broken cockpit rail from our towing incident. While i am at it, figured i would replace all the cracked mounts in the cockpit. Well that brings me up to 14! All of them have some cracking. Off to the parts store but the holes aren't matching up. Didn't someone post a while back they found the original manufacturer? If so please repost. If not, how do i go about replacing these? I haven't even looked under the gunnels to see if there is a backing plate or not for each mount?

[Randygh]

When I purchased my boat the cockpit rail mounts were corroded chrome. Looked like sh_t. I totally rebuilt with new teak rail. I replaced the chrome mounts with stainless steel. The footprint of the new mounts was the same size but the holes in the gunnels from the old mounts did not align. I sealed the old holes with silicone and drilled holes for the new mounts at the same locations. I used new SS screws and siliconed them when I installed the new mounts. The fiberglass on my gunnel is thick and the screws really cinched down very tightly. The new teack rail is very solid.

[SomeSailor]

I would just replace them over time with stainless. You can fill the old holes and just use new ones, or you could fill the holes in the bases themselves and polish them back out.

[heymagic]

I would fill the old holes with epoxy and re-drill. You may have to drill the old holes a tad oversize to get clean material to epoxy to . I would not advise to silicon the holes because you then have 6 holes drilled in a relatively small area. Weaker and more holes to leak. I also don't care to mount rails with screws. Fibreglass won't hold very well, as it loosens, rails always will, then you get a chance for water intrusion and someday the rail base will just pull out. Stainless machine screws and nuts and washers...only safe way for rail bases, cleats and anything that will have weight against it.

[sunnydude2]

I finally replaced the broken rail. The mounts are held with two screws and a bolt. We have decided to shorten the rail and use a straight mount at the rear so the rail isn't in the way when boarding the boat. Going to use 3 bolts in each mount at that time.