Silicone is not your friend

Okay, so after we put in 6 man hours trying to pull old silicone from the hull-to-deck joint and only getting probably 15% of it out, I decided to research this whole hull-to-deck repair procedure. Am I ever glad I did that. For one, silicone is for the windows, not the hull-to-deck joint. Second, the stuff we are supposed to use (3M 5200) won't bond to the old silicone, which means it will all have to be removed. So this just went from "pull as much out as possible and insert more of the same" to "removing the entire aluminum rail, removing old silicone and cleaning thoroughly, replacing any corroded screws, sealing the joint with 5200 and epoxy if necessary (inside and out), reattaching the rub rail, and then completely sealing with more 5200." Whew! It's a bigger job than I was thinking, but it will be nice to know it's done right this time, as simply applying more silicone will not solve the issue.

Can you say restoration! :)

Here's what the hull-to-deck joint with rubrail intact looks like.