Aluminum toe rail

[shantijwk]

I need to remove and rebed the teak toe rail on my 1977 O’Day 27. I use Shanti for cruising on Sodus Bay & Lake Ontario. Do I do a straight forward remove, refinish, epoxy hole plug routine, rebed & replace the teak toe rail. OR do I replace the teak with an aluminum toe rail. The PO installed T-track on portions of the existing teak toe rail. I’m guessing for better pointing performance? Thoughts on that…Shanti carries a 150 Genny. There are also 6’ & 3’ [forward of that] sections of deck mounted T-track.
The aluminum toe rail from WM uses1/4” mounting screws. This seems light to me. The mounting screws are sold separately. It also comes in 34’ lengths @ $800. Any better vendors out there? Beyond the question of my sanity there is the question of symmetric or asymmetric shape to the toe rail itself. So in this case I know that I don’t know what I don’t know….Thoughts & advice appreciated.
Thanks Wayne

[sailingdog]

Aluminum toe rails can be far more useful than a teak one... with holes in it for snatch blocks, integrated cleats or chocks...etc. However, it really depends on a few things... is the teak toe rail in good shape? If so, why replace it? If you replace it, you lose the outboard sheeting track for the 150% genoa, since you can't really put a track on an aluminum toerail.

BTW, 1/4" screws, every four inches may be plenty for the toe rail. Aluminum toe rails come in a variety of shapes, and what shape will work best for you is kind of a toss up.

I don't know of any other vendors unfortunately... none of the big marine suppliers I normally use, Defender, Hamilton Marine or such seem to carry toerails.

[Sailormann]

Check out Holland Marine Products in Toronto - they ship...

[Faster]

The convenience of the aluminuum toerails is an advantage. You can attach snatch blocks, bungee cords, tie fenders, etc anywhere along the length of the boat you like.

Fitting them to a boat aftermarket style could be difficult. It's often very hard to get at all of the underdeck areas once a boat has been assembled. The presence of absence of liners and other finishing methods may make it virtually impossible to access all the necessary bolts to properly complete the fastening.

Nice that you can find 34' lengths - doing it in one piece makes for much more satisfying results. Not sure, though, how easy they would be to bend to the proper curvature - could require some simple jigs to get it right.

You also have the choice of whether to install them with the vertical flange outboard or inboard - I think putting the base flat outboard slightly discourages "streaking" from deck water running through the holes in the rail and overboard. If you can drain the water another way that's better too.

It would probably be a good mod - but not cheap - and, as SD points out, is it really necessary?

[shantijwk]

Thanks for all the info & advice. I have been all over cyberspace on this. Based on cost I will be pulling the t-track off the teak toe rail rebedding and reinstalling. I thought I had the perfect product - RigRite has a merriman t-rail but @ $1300/20' section - not going to happen. Holland Marine Products in Toronto had a C & C product left in stock at a reasonable price but I'll just keep plugging away one hole thru the deck at a time...