I need to make new toe rails for my 37 Egg as the OEM mahogany has rotted badly

Discussion in 'Wooden Boat Building and Restoration' started by sdowney717, Oct 9, 2021.

  1. sdowney717
    Joined: Nov 2010
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    Location: Newport News VA

    sdowney717 Senior Member

    My plan is to use knot free ground contact cheaper PT pine wood. I am not going to try to recreate the sloped angle cut section that is 8 feet or so at the bow. I am planning on splitting a PT pine board in half to bend into shape at the bow and glue back to back with overlapping ends where it meets the straighter section as it runs all the way aft. That way the next section of toe rail can be attached to the forward one and so on down the length of the boat. So a lap joint between long sections screwed together.
    The top of the toe rail has a SS curved topper runs all along the rail, will keep it.

    A new idea is this
    Instead of flat to the deck the entire length, how about raising it so a gap exists between toe rail and deck enough for tying off fender lines and such. Like sailboats have metal toe rails with oval holes all along their length. I think the gap needs to be about 5/8 to 3/4 inch. I can also shorten the height of the rail so its total height wont be too much taller, maybe 1/2 inch. So then it would be lifted up and have small blocks every X number of inches. The blocks will be screwed to the deck, and then the rail screwed to the blocks.

    The existing toe rail is maybe 1.125" width and 1.75" height with the top edge rolled over and smoothed and has the SS curved band screwed on to that. (width is a little less than a typical 2x4 lumber)

    To match the bow curve, I can actually use the old toe rail as a pattern. I though about laying it on the concrete, and gluing small blocks to the concrete. Then bend the wood and clamp to the blocks and glue on the other matching piece. It is too hard to make it fit the boat on the boat, and I dont want a lot of screw holes in my deck to hold the board temporarily in place and glue it out there on the boat deck.

    I could also simply glue the lift blocks to the completed new toe rail and could also cut the ends of the blocks to have a curve rather than a square profile which might look better. This wood boat has a lot of curvy shapes, bowed transom, smooth flowing sections.

    I was just thinking, you dont want the gap between rail and deck to be such as you could trap a bare foot, kid or adult. What would be an proper gap size if I did this, and ever seen this idea on a boat?

    I looked into sail boat metal rails and found some designs that can work, but the prices are sky high. At our marina is an old sailboat with what looks like a bronze toe rail.
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2021
  2. sdowney717
    Joined: Nov 2010
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    Location: Newport News VA

    sdowney717 Senior Member

    Did find a picture of the general idea. Which I think looks nice. Mine wont be bright varnish like that. And will still have the SS cap which may be made by Taco, I saw some very similar curved SS online.

    [​IMG]

    Then I imagine this is pretty pricey.
    Custom Teak Boat Toe Rail Replacements - PlasTEAK Inc.
     
  3. Blueknarr
    Joined: Aug 2017
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    Location: Colorado

    Blueknarr Senior Member

    I would avoid PT pine as it will have nasty infectious splinters.

    Will your harbor Master allow you to glue to the dock?
    Shaping directly to the boat will be the easiest most accurate way to replicate the rail.

    The under rail gap needs to be large enough to easily pass lines through.
     
  4. fallguy
    Joined: Dec 2016
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    Location: usa

    fallguy Senior Member

    Unlikely anyone can tell you anything, but the wide grained nature of pine is a bad idea. It will all pop open on you as the sun hits it and the wood experienced heating variation.

    You also cannot varnish wet wood; so good luck.

    I advise using something like ipe or cumaru from advantage decking.

    Also, pt pine is softwood and will dent and crush easily.
     
  5. sdowney717
    Joined: Nov 2010
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    Location: Newport News VA

    sdowney717 Senior Member

    I would do it at my own driveway, not at the dock. It is just temporary, I can whack them off the driveway, then burn off the leftover glue from concrete driveway later.
     

  6. sdowney717
    Joined: Nov 2010
    Posts: 1,175
    Likes: 85, Points: 58, Legacy Rep: 274
    Location: Newport News VA

    sdowney717 Senior Member

    I like both those woods of course. I used Cumaru for my wormshoe. As stiff as it is, you can bend it. I had to bend it where it follows the keel bottom upwards at the bow, but It does get narrower as keel tapers in that place.
    I just dont know what the price is today or ease of getting it. I found Cumaru in Portsmouth VA lumber yard about 8 years ago. I think one long 5/4 by 6 deck board was about $60. I wanted a durable strong wood for the bottom of the keel. Cumaru is a very attractive looking wood.

    I like how uniform and easy to work the wood was. It was extremely strong wood. I have read you can use it as drifts instead of using metal. My boat has the floors attached to the keel using steel rods which of course rust. So at one time my idea was pull out those spikes and drive in Cumaru dowels made by me using my table saw. They would be octagonal. When I thought a lot about that, I realized those metal spikes are not doing a lot after the boat is constructed. They may contribute a small amount of strenght keeping things together, but everything is bronze bolted and screwed, so they may have been more of an aid for assembly when boat was built. Many of the floors are 2 by xx oak, 2 inch thick by in some places 8 inch deep like in the center of boat as they have to support the engines. So what they did was drill 1/2 inch holes thru the floors to pin them to the keel. And the large floors (joists) are spaced about 6 to 8 inches apart depending on location.
     
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