INVESTIGATOR 563

Hi Ozzie, will look back through my photos and see what I can find.
Cheers
Peter T

Hi Ozzie, here are some photos of the toe rails I was talking about. Note that where I made the bollard part, I extended the flat section that I welded to the 3/8 rod and bent them so they could be screwed to the deck (using sealer)
Regards Peter T

It does indeed look great. Given the dearth of commercial toe rail available I’m thinking it might catch on with those capable of the fabrication.

Thanks for pics Peter.

Hi David and Ozzie, the only part that you would need professional help with is the welding end on of the aluminium if that was required for our boats. I would think that 6 or 8 metre lengths would be available which should be long enough not to have to weld. As to the stainless welding, anyone with a stick welder can do this if they purchase stainless rods. The "U" bolts could be made by any handyman, all that is needed is a thread cutting die. They can be made by threading each end of the rod leaving the correct amount not threaded in the middle so that the thread does not touch the stanchions ( rust could start there), but enough thread so that they can be done up tight enough to fix the toe rail tightly against the stanchion, then bent using a reasonably heave metal vice by opening the jaws of the vice to just over the outside Dia of the U bolt and hammering a piece of solid round bar the size of the stanchions onto the rod which is set across the open jaws of the vice. Use soft jaws made of aluminium sheet in the jaws of the vice. Then use the vice to finish off the bending, being careful not to damage the threads . The U bolts may need some twisting to straighten them if they twist a bit in the bending process. The length of the Ubolts can be gotten by initially using an ordinary nut to bolt them on and then cutting off the excess thread. Then SS dome nuts can replace the nuts you initially used. Once the U bolts are made, they will need some buffing using a buffing wheel in a bench grinder and some SS buffing compound to bring them up to a good non rusting high gloss finish. As to the insulators, they are a bit of a fiddle, but can be made by anyone with a lathe. If you can't find a friend with one, I would be happy to turn them up for you if you supply me with the nylon rod required. I would need to know the hole size for their outer dia. As well as the SS rod Dia. Of the "U" bolt . You would probably need about 1/16 "wall thickness of the insulators, so a U bolt of 3/16" plus 2 x 1/16" = 5/16" hole size of the aluminium. The nylon diameter needs to be a bit larger than the washers you would use under the nuts you put on the U bolts. This allows for full insulation from the SS and aluminium because the aluminium is fully painted, there should be no electrical contact between the metals but if you were worried about that, you could cut squares of thin nylon flat sheet of the size of the width of the aluminium with two holes in for the U bolts and place this between the toe rail and the stanchions. The number of insulators you would need is 2 X the number of mounting points, ie pushpit rail, pulpit rail plus the number of stanchions plus a few spares because you might loose some or squash some up in fitting them. If I make the nylon bushes, I would need to know the thickness of the aluminium also

Regards Peter T

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the practical detail. That's the sort of explanation that people like me come here for. I don't need to upgrade my toe rail as I have a functional aluminum one, but I appreciate the explanation.

I have done plenty of welding over the years but didn't know you could weld stainless with a stick welder. Yet another gap in my self-taught education.

Thanks again.

Ozzie wrote: ↑Fri Jul 31, 2020 6:14 pm I’ve had two poly boats now and given the popularity of such materials and the ease of manufacturing I’m surprised some lightbulb hasn’t seen an opening for poly toe rail. You could extrude it out like poly pipe on order. Is that possible.

I phoned Gough Plastics in Townsville about the idea of an extruded Polyethylene toe rail. They don't make anything like that (do rotomoulding, tanks etc) but suggested that "Dotmar" in Brisbane could machine toerail from say 2"x1" stock, much like the original wooden toerail was routed to shape.

Hi All. Just looked at the latest Investigators for sale on this forum and noticed that the owner has fitted toe rails similar to that which I posted on this thread in relation to my other boat I built. For anyone interested, might be worth a look at the for sale investigator to see how those ideas would fit the investigator.

Cheers

Not sure if this has been posted before, but these products might be interesting:
https://www.grippyrubber.com.au/industries/marine/

They also do hatch rubbers.

https://www.grippyrubber.com.au/wp-cont ... alogue.pdf

Interesting find Ian. Above is their gunwales section. Only thing I’d say is it would be good if it comes in white. I found, after it gets old black rubber, depending on the compound, leaves marks against other boats. I have a black rubber bump strip on the front of my tender and I’m always cleaning scuff marks off the stern. My old cruiser had white D section perimeter rubber on the gunwales and no issues. Certainly easier to fit than bending aluminium around the shape of the boat which was a chore for sure.

GPR98 is only available in 3m lengths of black rubber
GG408 white ribbed PVC available in 25m lengths (maybe 2 boats worth?) $21.99/metre

I think the GG408 is probably a little too wide for the deck but I'll go and measure it up.
I definitely have a leak in my hull-deck joint so I think the timber toerail is coming off, and I suspect it won't survive removal.