While I was collecting my dock lines from EYC yesterday I wondered if the nail shaft in the piling next to Aine was an isolated incident, or symptoms of a systemic problem. I soon got my answer…
I went down one piling, bent over it and this is what I saw. Its a large diameter nail, rusted, and pounded over to lay flat on the piling, which it clearly isn’t. The nail head is aimed down, so as the boat rises up with the tide, it will inflect a maximum amount of damage to whatever boat is unfortunate enough to be tied to it. The side of the piling you are looking at is the one that the boats slide up and down, fore and aft on. No one with any knowledge of how a boat interacts with the dock, basically any boater with a brain, would ever allow this here. You just don’t put anything like that in the way of the boat. I was aghast, still am.
So the nail broke off or was broken off, the shaft stayed in the wood of the piling and as the surface of the piling wore away, the shaft became more and more exposed. The shaft was also worn, or better said sharpened, so it would cut more efficiently. That is what ate my rub rail.
I also got to do a more extensive examination of Aine’s rub rail damage and there are 3 places where new teak will need to be added, sealed and sanded. When I’m finished you’ll never know that this was a damaged. I also confirmed that the area with the most damage, was a replacement from previous damage before I owned the boat. Clearly I’m not the first. Everything else looks like the gorgeous girl she is.