Teats on a bull, spray rails on a tricab....

P-Dogg · Post by **P-Dogg** » Sun Sep 02, 2012 7:20 pm

What's the difference?

I, gulp, let another person drive my '85 tricab for the first time the other day. On my stroll around parts of the boat I don't normally see underway, I glanced down at the spray rail. Besides reminding me of the taillight fin on my late grandmother's Buick, it was doing almost nothing. Only about the last 8" was deflecting any water, and the forwardmost 4" or so was buried in a secondary or tertiary bow wave. We were doing about 15 knots, and the (aft-mounted) fuel tank was full. Hydrodynamically speaking, I have to ask, what is the point? With four feet of freeboard aft, the deck cannot be any drier. Why should I not just remove them and be done with spray rail maintenance for all time? They are attached in the boot stripe, so a paint match is all that is required, not a gelcoat match. Wadda ya think?

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Sun Sep 02, 2012 8:35 pm

I have know a few people that have removed them on the F36 Convertible/sedan with no issues . I have thought about removing mine .

The one negative thing I can think of is that the spray rail can like a bumper against a pipeline or floating dock etc.

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:43 pm

if i had the $$, those spray rails would have been removed during this haul out. my swim platform extends about an inch beyond the transom, so, when/if, the rails are removed, the swim platform leading edge will be cut down about 2'' so that the platform is not taking any direct hits from the hull wake. i think that they kept them on from the original tri cabin that had an aft cockpit. not sure why it was incorporated in later models. just a hold over i guess.