Wooden toe rails

[geoffr]

Hi all:

I know earlier posts have explored replacing the original wooden toerail on the Investigator with an aluminium profile, but I guess I'm a bit old fashioned (and a sucker for extra work).

I need to replace my rotting wooden toerails and am keen to use wood again, largely to preserve the original appearance and bright work of the boat as designed.

So, what's the best wood to use, and has anyone found such wood already in a suitable profile, or is this a job for a machinist to run up.

Further, what's the best weather protection: 2-pak, varnish or some sort of oil?

Many thanks,

Geoff

[kevwr400]

hey geoff
this is my tinkering with bulwarks come toe rail. its hard wood decking from bunnings, it's cheap and cover gunwale and is a true toe rail (bulwarks) very cheap, i have no plans of oiling or varnishing, at the price it's no value. but i did move my rails out to the far edge of the beam.

[Dr. Peter]

For what it's worth I use decking oil on my gunwales. Not at all difficult to apply or keep up to spec.

[kevwr400]

I found my old wooden gunwale looked great from the outside well varnished and really pretty but it was underneath where it meets the grp that it had rotted. This type of toe rail hardly touches anything so water should run of. My friend has this arrangement on his keel boat and other than going grey has required no maintenance 'more sailing time' and for me much safer moving around the boat and at $3.40 a metre damn cheap to replace hopefully after a lot of seasons, time will tell!.

[kevwr400]

An update on my bulwarks (toe rails). Awesome!

Pro's -
Far less splash over bow or beam.
Took some pretty big hits at the jetty without fenders and didn't even mark the hardwood.
Lost stuff over the combing and the bulwarks saved them from having a swim.
Far more safer moving around up front with solid footing.

Con's -
none appeared in our first 6 day trip out

[Yara50]

Kev- Did you steam the curve in the hardwood, or did it have enough flexibility?

[kevwr400]

It bowed around the rails fine without steaming, so far it's been on and outside for 3 months. It took a fair punishment last trip and no signs of cracking.

[Andrew]

Gday Kev,

Nice job on the bulwarks/rubrails. Thanks for the comments on their performance too. Terias wooden rub rails are in need of replacement and on a budget so the hardwood deck timber sounds good. What fittings did you use to attach it to the stanchions?

Cheers

[Andrew]

Hi All,

I'm attempting to replace my wooden toe rails/ gunwales with hardwood. Bought left-over dressed spotted gum and ironbark decking wood 90x19mm section but the lengths were not quite long enough so going to have to scarf it together somehow. They're very nice looking strong hardwoods. Cost $88 (11.5m => $7.65/m) at Parkside Timber and Hardware - (they have about 6 sawmills around the country, this timber came from Theodore Mill in Qld)

Just did the bending test around the boat's staunchions, (like Kev set his up as bulwarks) and they bent around OK, held by ropes and looked good. even held their newly curved shapes a bit after removal.

My current plan is to make laminated gunwales. Rip each piece length ways with a circular saw into 50mm and 25mm strips. The 50mm strip goes outside as the rubrail and the 25mm strip inside as the toe rail. Then clamp/glue the two together, to make a laminated solid unit (38mm thick on top, 19mm thick outside the fibre-glass gunwale) Silicone and screw it on from underneath, maybe a thru bolt at each end where the strains highest. These should be multiple times stronger and more wear resistant than the originals (They're soft-wood, dry-rotting and falling apart, with a measly 6mm thickness outside the fibre-glass gunwale) but have the same height profile as the originals. Leaving the staunchions in place (slightly inset from edge)

My wood working skills are rudimentary, so the scarf could be an overlapping butt join (clamped and glued with outer temporary timbers to fair the curve?) Or do a proper scarf first then bend? . Have a power planner and belt sander to round off edges later. Also have decking oil (?or WEST system?) Thinking only epoxy glue would be strong enough for this caper. plenty of clamps from the steel boat-building days. (Vaguely remember laminated something in my teenage years, repairing herons, we had recorcinol glue then)

[Andrew]

Yes i've read it now,

got me thinking that an alternative composite method involving aluminium and wood might be possible. Had the design graph paper out,, an aluminium T 45 x 25mm x 2.5mm thickness (the 25 forms the deck flange, and the 45 bit is like the toe rail/rubrail. But that's just the very long bracket to attach the 60-65 mm x19mm thick spotted gum decking plank on the outside.. re-electrolysis of stainless fastenings and aluminium, could use that yellow stuff they use on mast fittings. haven't priced the aluminium but its in 6m lengths at Ulrich Aluminium.

It may not be quite as strong as my laminated 2 piece wood design though. But it seems easier to build it.