I finally did something about the rub-rails on my little boat. It has been bothering me for months because the old metal trim had gotten badly twisted and kept popping off of the boat. I looked for replacement parts, but that sort of thing does not exist for a low-production, 40 year old boat. So I improvised.

I have been contemplating this fix for over 3 months, considering and discarding lots of options. Sometimes the solution was price-prohibitive, but usually, I just did not like the mental image I was left with.Finally, I opted to try a low-cost solution and, if that did not meet my quality bar, I would only be out a little money and time.

I bought a 50' coil of garden-soaker hose, the kind that has a rough, porous surface. The kind OSH had was the flattened type, which my original mental image did not have, but it was only $11, so what the heck. I built a cutting jig out of two pieces of scrap wood and a razor blade and slit one skinny edge along the whole length (by the way, this process sucks and will cramp the heck out of your hand, if you are a squishy desk-pilot like me). 

Then I cut it to rough length for one side, pried off  the old metal rail and scraped the surface to get rid of dollops of caulk and whatnot. It fit on with some wriggling and soon, one side was covered. It looked SO much better than I had dared hope. I thought that it would take a matter of minutes to be done.

Why do I ever think that?

The previous owner had glued the top and bottom halves of the boat together, which I understand the desire to do, but he did it badly. The port side has less room for the strip to hold on to. So short version: I did more  custom work on the breasthook and the rub rails to get them to fit. And here is the result:

I have to paint the corner pieces still, but I love the new look!