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I was hoping someone could give me some advice about something I'm working on for my 1971 Nauset. I ordered the 3 piece moonstone & black rub rail set for by boat, removed the old one, and was exactly 1/2 installed, That's when it hit me, the original navigation light no longer lines up with its original mounting holes. I like the idea of a continious rub rail, plus I need to run the nav light wires inside of it due to the old wires breaking. So here's my question, do I drill 2 new mounting holes just forward of the original ones? BTW, my navigation light is original to the boat, and not a repro. The rub rail is finished and looks great...
If your talking about the bow light that lips over the front of the rail, your only choice may be to relocate the holes. I've followed the forum for a while now and perused through about every picture of a Boston Whaler that has been posted, I've never seen the rail split in the front to accept the bow light and I can't see it being a good idea. Seems I remember seeing one member making a spacer to allow proper height fit but it was installed on the 3 piece rail.
1963 13' Sport 50hp Evinrude
Maintaining a level of sanity that is socially acceptable
How far off is the new position from the old? If it's less than say 1/4 inch or so, I would shave down the back of the rubrail where it goes under the bow chock. You could also shave down the receiver track a bit, but you probably already have the on the boat.
So, the new rub rail puts the nav light about 1/2" forward from its original mounting holes. Even if I had trimmed the new rub rail, I believe that it would not have made enough of a difference, and that I would still be drilling new holes. I started be carefully adjusting the angle of the base plate. Originally, the angle of the downward lip was less that 90 degrees as to fit around the old one piece rub rail. I don't know if I would suggest this to anyone, but I work with metal and felt quite confident about the outcome. So by changing the angle of the "lip" to 90 degrees, I was able to buy a little room. And drilling the new holes was no problem. The nav light looks great, even though it still needs re-chroming, and the new wires are run inside of the new rub rail. I will add some new pictures to my page soon. Thanks for all of your advice! -Ron
