Toe rail and genoa track The genoa track is bolted through the toe-rail and deck with 18 bolts. Each bolt goes through an aluminum spacer to hold it off the teak toe-rail so that the load is applied to the deck not the teak.

Over time the teak had shrunk slightly allowing salt water to seep onto some of the spacers. The aluminum oxidised and expanded greatly causing a lot of pressure on the wood which eventually split.

Looking down on the toe-rail with spacers The fix was to unbolt the track, replace the oxidised spacers with new ones, completely seal the whole thing and bolt the track back on. Sounds simple enough but it practice was quite difficult unless you are a contortionist!

First, to unbolt the track I had to reach in behind the cupboards in the galley and working blind remove the nuts. I used an allen key wedged against the car on the track to prevent the whole bolt turning. Several of the bolts were oxidised to the track and were difficult to remove even after the nut had been taken off but eventually the track was removed.

Swollen spacers have split toe rail Next, to remove the offending spacers, clean out the holes, then glue and clamp the teak rail and get some new spacers made. I was advised to use a very expensive foaming wood glue which is excellent. I then covered the toe-rail with polythene while waiting for the spacers.

Re-assembly was a two stage process. After cleaning off all the old sealant from the track and with the new spacers (specially made so very expensive) I coated each one with a very good sealant (Sikaflex 291) placed them in the holes and also fill led the entire gap around the spacers with sealant, holding the spacers in alignment by sliding a bolt through each. Then waited for the sealant to cure

Putting the track back on was the most challenging part. I installed it "dry" by putting it in position and putting a bolt through each hole to make sure everything was aligned properly, then removed the bolts and track and applied more sealant along the length of the track and into the centre of the spacers. Now the track was put back on and all the bolts inserted, yet again.

Finally all repaired Putting the nuts on and tightening them was a two person job. Tan got to kneel on deck with the allen key in the bolt head to stop it turning while I located the bolt from underneath (now covered in sticky sealant) and tried to put the nut on. When I eventually got the nut on I could tighten it with a ratchet driver. It took more than 2 hours of being in a very uncomfortable position before I got all the nuts back on. We were both very tired and sore from using muscles we don't normally stress!

Finally I checked the genoa track on the other side of the boat and fortunately it was in much better condition. Nevertheless I removed the old sealant which had come away in places and re-sealed around the perimeter with Sikaflex 291.