Hand rails

[Set2sea]

I went thru the pain staking effort of removing hand rails last year and rebed with butylene. The port side - No leaks,    starboard, I have three screws leaking. The funny thing is, I thought the starboard came out better.
I followed all of Maine sails recommendations - counter sunk holes, put the cone around the screws.
Two observations I will make using butylene for the hand rails: 1. You seem to want to really crank the screws the get the rails so they don't rock. Is there enough butylene left? (Even though I counter sunk all the holes). 2. The screws that come up from the underside pull and ball up the butylene as they are screwing in, possibly leaving a void?
I am tempted to go to 4200 for these. With the gentle tighten, let set up and crank them down approach.
Has anybody else had leaks after using butylene on the rails? I can't explain why one side no leaks and three leaks on the other side? I think 50/50 aint good enough. Side bar - The vented stanchion I rebed with butylene I thought was leak tight until my drains got plugged and there was standing water over it and it leaked.
The only frustration I had with year one's repairs is the unsucessful rebedding : (

[Andrew Harvey]

Are you sure the leak is from the handrail?
We have a mystery leak into the dorade vent. I was sure it was coming from the traveller mount.
I have rebedded it twice and there is still a leak.

[Stu Jackson]

Could also be coming from a dorade if you have one.  The traveler idea is also good, happened to me, too.

It's "butyl tape" don't know where you got "butylene" from, although that may be the correct chemical term.

When I rebedded my saloon hatch (see Mainsheet) last year, I first used only one layer of butyl tape and had to redo it with two layers.  How much did you use?  If one side worked and one didn't...

[mregan]

Just re-finished and re-bedded mine using the same method as you.  No Leaks.  On the spots that screw up from below, I also countersunk a bit on the deck side to give the butyl a space to fill in.  I had my daughter push down on the hand rail as I screwed up from below to keep some pressure on it. 

As far as the rocking, you may get that no matter how hard you crank down.  I'm not really sure.  Mine rock a little but the bolts are tight so I'm not too worried.  After a couple of weeks, on a really warm day, i'll crank them down again a little bit.  Sometimes with heat, the buytl will squish a little more.

[Footloose]

FWIW-I rebeded my rails with Life Caulk about seven year ago (before I knew about butyl tape) and still no leaks.  I also used the primer on the wood.  I hope this adds to the confusion.